The final days

Having an injury in Goa turned out to be not so bad. Since we had so long there we slipped nicely into a wonderful routine. Roll out of bed around 8 or 9, have eggs on toast with the cute mangy puppy. - seriously this puppy was one of the cutest in the entire world. - Then find a nice spot in the shade to read and sleep for the morning. Around 1:30 or two when the sun woke you from your nap you go back up to the restaurant (about 10 feet) and have a nice cheap beer or fanta and delicious food. Then you go back to the beach and read and sleep for a few more hours. If you feel ansy you stroll into town for the internet or some ice-cream and get back in time to watch the sunset. Then clean up a bit and find somewhere to eat a delicious dinner. Then go back to the room to read and listen to music for awhile and maybe take a night time stroll along the beach. If you are not injured you might take a swim because most likely the water is warmer then the air and go back to the room to shower and read and sleep. Wake up and repeat. Glorious.

After ten days we were all ready to get back on a train and head to the city. Mumbai is fantastic. It is probably my most favorite big city in India. I didn't get a good feel before because we were in the suburbs and stayed mostly with the family. They were wonderful and fed us fantastic food - but we didn't get a sense of the city. This time we stayed sort of by the University. On the train we picked up a copy of Time out Mumbai which is a sort of art and culture magazine you can get for most major cities. I had no idea what an arts and cultural hub Mumbai is. There are so many art gallaries and openings and dance and music and theatre performances going on. Its so cool. OUr first day we dropped our bags in our hotel and right accross the street is this great modern art gallery center with maybe 5 or 6 different rooms showing different artists. It truly was invigorating. There was an article in Time Out about this show "sweatopia" by this artist who right now I can't remember his name, but it was fantastic. His pieces really affected me. This one was four different frames with two sets of writing - two stories going on but you could read one from one angle then move a few feet and you could read the other. One story was about how the country is revolutionizing communication by making calls accross the country only cost 1 ruppee and how so many people will be able to call who never could before (it used to cost 24 rs then 9 rs and now 1). The other story underneath was about a 12 year old girl who killed herself because her mom couldn't afford to give her 1 ruppee for school lunch. Crazy.

Also in Mumbai accross from our hotel they were shooting a movie which was pretty exciting. I didn't recognize any of the actors, but still cool.

After a long and freezing train ride we are back in Delhi for the final two days. The boys catch a midnight flight tomorrow and I'm on a 3 am flight the following day. Its very strange. We all feel kind of wierd about it. It feels right to go home now, we're all exhausted and out of money. But at the same time I feel like I haven't really seen anything and NEED MORE TIME!

Ah well. Can't wait to get back to the ol' friends and family and holiday spirit. I keep forgetting its the holidays!

Always trust your intstincts

So, I made a vital error of judgement two days ago. I woke up feeling crappy. I contracted a mini flu from one of the kids in the wedding and was just starting to recover. I had gone mortorcycling with Matt a few days before, but Scott wanted to go today. I didn't want to go again, but felt bad leaving him to go explore the North all by his lonesome. You know, I knew where to get the fuel, how to get on the main roads, all that stuff. I got it in my head that he needed me to go and I couldn't let him down. I felt. Really. Crappy. Instead of telling Scott this I just sucked it up, popped a few pepto bismols and hopped on back. I thought, at least I'm not driving. I can just close my eyes and enjoy the cool breeze and take a day ride in the jungle. It was pretty hot that day and I didn't want to lie in the sun anyway. From the start I felt uncomfortable. Scott drives a lot faster then Matt and is much less careful of the potholes and speed bumps. Things didn't go right from the beginning. I told him to make a wrong turn and we ended up at this random village with no fuel and pretty far from Margao where the petrol stations were. We just got the expensive fuel from the roadside rental guys and hit the road. After about 25 minutes or so on the main road my nerves started to calm a bit, but I was still completely petrified. I had managed to get Scott to slow down a bit but not enough for my liking. Then, after we had pulled over for him to take some pictures he asked if I wouldn't mind driving for a bit so he can take pictures on the back. I was flabergasted. I had never driven one of these things more then 10 feet on an empty road and we were on a main highway. Instead of insisting no, I felt bad once again and agreed, I would just drive very slowly. So I get on the road and go 35 km/hr (scott was going 55 +) and everything is OK. Terrifying, but OK. Then he asks me to go around this round about and go back so he can take a picture. I was absolutely scared out of my mind. I didn't feel comfortable navigating this thing and there were trucks and cars everywhere- I made it around though and pulled over so he could take some shots. Then the bike woulnd't start. I was feeling anxious overall, the bike was so heavy I could barely move it and hold it up right. Scott walked it to the other side to start it and have easier access to the road again. My eyes were all watery so I put on his sunglasses under my glasses. The glasses kept falling off, the helmet was huge, everything just didn't feel right. So, he gets the bike going and we hop on to start on our journey. I wait for a big gap in the road but just as I'm starting to pull off the shoulder another bike pulls over to the side in front of us. Instead of stopping and waiting to see what they were doing i kept going. Since I'm no good at navigating these things i accelerated too much with out turning and almost ran into the other bike and swerved to the right and before I knew it the bike had tipped and we were grazing the ground. It was on top of me and I was squished. They picked up the bike and a crowd formed and I didn't realize how badly hurt I was. I could see a huge bump on my leg (thought it was a fracture) and I was all scraped up. I was crying hysterically. I felt faint, dizzy. Then scott came over and looked at my arm and said "don't look at your arm" that's when I started going nuts. Hyperventilating, crying, dizzyness, the whole thing. Before I knew it I was in a van going to the hospital.

The nurses were very nice. Tina, Tania, and Dr. Pooja - al women. They wiped me clean. I was completely covered in dirt and dust. I have a huge gaping gash in my right arm - really deep. Luckily its on the underside and I never got to see it. 9 stiches. I got x-rays for my leg but its fine - just a bruised muscle.

I feel like a compelte royal idiot statistic dumb american stupid head. I shouldn't have gone in the first place. Scott would have been fine without me and I didn't want to go. I shouldn't have driven - especially on a main road. So dumb. so dumb. Pretty much the only good thing I did was have a helmet on because otherwise things would be a lot worse.

The medical bills were not so much. For my stiches and medication and x-rays and everything it was 1,200 ruppees. about 30 bucks. The expensive part was the bike. It got pretty messed up in the sort of have to replace the whole bumper kind of way. That pretty much was my fancy hotel in Delhi money - but I'm a big stupid dummy face so I guess I deserve it.

Now I'm a gimp on the beach and a walking advertisement to be careful and not stupid. I can't go in the water anymore which kind of sucks, but I can still lie in the shade under the coconut umbrellas and read Henry Miller. The boys have lots of wonderful books that I have had the opportunity to read which is great. I have been exposed to many new authors - namely Milan Kundera and Henry Miller. I think I would have gone crazy without their extensive library.


but anyway, that's that. Never a dull moment. Not one. Even when you think you're bored on the beach.

Sunsunsunsunsun

Ok so F-book is having major techincal difficulties. Well, its more the computers i've been using. so I have switched to flickr, which makes more sense anyway because thats the whole reason for Flickr's existence, for people to upload massive ammounts of photos and share them with their families.

Frustrated with trying to upload I selected only a few pictures that range from Agra to this morning.

Enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14110294@N04/

Lost in Paradise

Well, the wedding was a fabulous wonderful success. I stayed with Shanti at her older brother's house and the boys stayed at the other brothers house. We were all fed extremely well (3 meals a day plus snacks) and were made to feel right at home.

We got there one day before the actual ceremony, we missed the big party the night before, but that's ok. We spent Saturday shopping for appropriate clothes and on Sunday were busy with festivities from 10 am to 11 pm. Now, busy might not be the best word. A lot of hurry up and wait action. Depending on how fancy you are you either had two or three changes of clothes. You arrive at the center around 11 in something nice and traditional (some men wore western clothes) and had a buffet lunch. Then you hang around for a few hours and if you are a woman change into fancy saris. All the sister in laws wore these beautiful red/maroon outfits with so much gold you would not even imagine. Then around two these drummers and musicians started playing outside and all the women are dancing in a circle and then some of the men started dancing all funny like and waving 10 ruppee notes everywhere to get the drummers all riled up. It was a blast. Then the ceremony, none of which we could hear because a band was playing pop hits in the background so loud. The bride looked amazing. She was so covered in henna and jewelry you could hardly see here. She just sat still and smiled for basically 7 hours. Kudos to her. At one point all the family members got up and started dancing around again to welcome the bride into the family and give her her family/wedding sari. There is really just too much to write. During the dancing and singing at the end of the ceremony, while scott was going wild with his camera, Matt and I were sipping Chai that was delivered. I guess its a long ceremony so you need to keep the guests alert. When we first sat down we were all served juice. Too wacky. Then after the 2 hour ceremony we all changed into our evening clothes. Shanti lent me a sari and we went to this apartment with all the other girls to get our makeup done and get all spruced up. I looked pretty darn amazing if I might say so myself. I couldn't walk in the traditional way you wrap a sari so they basically wrapped like a mermaid. It was great. I will upload pictures probably in Mumbai.

basically the point of this blog is to say I am out of commission for the next ten days or so because we are staying at a beach shack in goa. We literally rolled out of bed this morning to lie on the beach all day. The ocean water is warm. We aren't staying at the rowdy party beaches so its us and a bunch of old European tourists. its great. Its paradise. We are going to get seafood for dinner. I can't even describe how amazing it is here. If it wasn't for the women selling you sari's, fruit, and jewerly on the beach you wouldn't know you were in India. Not that India isn't nice...i mean..well, anyway. I'm going to continue working on my tan and will write again maybe towards the end..or maybe in mumbai. We weren't originally going to stay for so long, but because its busy season we couldn't get a train out of here until the 13th...oh well..too bad. not really.

So it turns out the James Bond flick Octopussy was filmed partly in Udaipur. The girl lives on the Lake Palace and the dude lives up in Monsoon Palace. Because of this there are loads of restaurants that show the film at 7 pm daily. Its great. last night we went next door and I had amazing Tandoori Chicken while watching James Bond. It was awesome. There was a supped up Rickshaw and all these other funny Indian quirks that we all experience on a daily basis. So funny. For some reason or other there was a puppy Dagtsund running around as well. We got to play with it a bit. So cute. After dinner we went back to our lovely guest house where we have a pristine view of the lake palace from our balcony and sat and looked out at the mesmerizing, serene and utterly delicious scene in front of us. Unreal. So cool.

Couldn't do it. Pictures upload taking too long. Sorry.

More Chapati?

So, Bundi.

We had four glorious days in Bundi and three amazing Thali's cooked by the one and only Mama. The first day was very relaxing, just getting a feel for the place, that sort of thing.

The first morning a sweet talking kid named Romeo sweet talked Emily and I into going on his tour to this spectacular waterfall. We didn't see through all the smoke and mirrors until we were all ready on the road and Romeo gave us the run around on bus and train tickets. Scott was really pissed. Despite the fact that we paid too much for his taxi to the waterfall, it was completely worth it. The drive out there was wonderful. Just us and the open road. We stopped at a random shack and this kid made us chapatis from scratch. All you really need is water and wheat and that's about it. Add in some butter and a few bananas and your picnic is complete. After about 30 minutes we arrived at a block in the road and we had to walk the rest of the way. Around the bend is a huge huge huge waterfall. I didn't believe it. Right in the middle of the dessert. So great. Scott and Emily went swimming, but I stayed ashore. I was into this Milan Kundera book and didn't want to get wet. Anyway, some other Americans were swimming as well and when they all came back ashore one of the guys had this funny look on his face and said "This waterfall looks a lot like Red Rock, huh" I was utterly confused, I thought maybe he was referring to some place in California but was still in the dark. After a few minutes of me confused and him and scott laughing I found out I went to high school with this guy. Julian was his name. We were never close friends but definitly in the extended family if you know what I mean. Once he said his name I recognized him - sort of - you can tell its been four years of college and a year of travelling. He went to prom with one of my close friends Elizabeth Lee. Small small world. Anyway, we ended up hanging out a bit in Bundi and he is also here in Udaipur and going to Goa. Maybe we will see him there too. Funny. Small small world.

So, that was fun. The next day we rented motorcycles and tooled around the city. Since it was so small it was really easy to get around, and man was it fun. You will see some of the pictures. I never drove of course, just sat on the back. But going through the countryside on a sunny day, stopping off for some local thali, then coming home to a sleepy village shadowed by the great goblin palace was just perfect. Could not have imagined a better day. That night we put Emily on a bus to Jaipur where she hopefully would get a bus or train to Delhi where she had an 8 am flight. We were very worried about here. A small cute asian girl who all ready gets nervous travelling. I thought she probably would be OK, but there was a good chance buses would be late...we finally found out today she made it back fine. Even though her flight from Delhi was delayed 8 hours she still made it there by 7 am. Phew. What would we have done, i don't know. There was maybe a 5% chance she was still somewhere in Jaipur - ugh...anyway, she's fine. :)

Now we are in Udaipur which is really nice and relaxing. Fairly touristy but we are staying at a guest house right on on the lake and we can eat dinner overlooking the lake palace which is truly glorious. Because of wedding season it took some manuvering to get to Mumbai in time for the wedding, but we will make it just barely a couple days before to get acqainted and all. I have no idea what to expect. There have been weddings all over every where we go and lots of fireworks and marching bands. We'll see what happens.


But oh those dinners made by Mama. Three veg dishes, dahl, rice and chapati. Unlimited chapati and unlimited refils. Before you were half way done with your first with one more to go one of the hilarious daughters came out with a huge grin "more chapati?" sure why not. I could never eat more then 3, but then refils of all the other dishes. Too much. Too delicious. Yummy. Those daughters were hilarious. The younger one literally goes through life laughing at the world. Its all a joke to her. She is great. She couldn't speak english but would just say "hi" then burst out laughing. Ah. Good family.

More chapati?

Mama's House

There is much to tell.

After hanging around Delhi for a few days we decided to complete the so called 'Golden Triangle' and head to Agra, Jaipur and then down to Pushkar. I was not at all excited about going back to the dreaded city of Jaipur, but it was the only way to get to Pushkar, and because this is travel season all the morning Agra trains were booked and we ended up in Jaipur at midnight, hotel-less, and all the hotels were booked. We eventually found a really sketchy place that let us in - but it turned out to be pretty darn nice. one word. Cable. So I watched rugrats (cartoons) while the boys watched News in the other room and we got a good nights sleep before heading to the fair.

Agra - is - dirty, smelly, crowded and all around an icky place. So many tourists, so many people hassling you all the time - we only spent 7 hours there but it was more than enough time I can tell you that much. However, despite the dismal nature of the town, the Taj Majal is pretty spectacular. It is not particularly huge - it is just breathtakingly beautiful. The marble just radiates all around - its as if the whole building is surrounded and protected by an angelic glow. As Emily put it, each square foot is like a work of art. Just amazing. All of the inlaid detail work of precious gems (whatever that means...) - beautiful. I'm having some trouble with this computer uploading pictures, but when I do get them up you will see how crazy it is. The pictures of us standing in front look like we are in front of a blue screen. Unreal. The hazy blue of the sky behind adds to the allure as well. Apparently the dude was going to build a matching black one for himself behind the white one, but his son decided he was crazy and had him imprisoned - or something like that.

Anyway, it was worth the trip for sure to see that amazing place.

Now, camel fair. What a great time. It is just what it says it is - a camel fair. It is like the Indian Camel desert man version of a county fair. Vendors selling camel accessories, street food, clothes, cheap goods, ferris wheels and of course, camels. So many camels. Everywhere. There are some in the main grounds that people can ride around a bit, or just take pictures of. But in the fields behind the main grounds there are just makeshift camp sites with the men and their camels. Hundreds, thousands, its hard to say. Its great. This is like their yearly vacation to go to Pushkar, meet up with old friends, sell and buy some camels, maybe make some money in a race or two. Ah. These desert people are truly amazing. The women. Oh the women. They are so sturdy and amazing. they wear the giant hoops through their noses, bangles up to their armpits, and a particular kind of sari that I like much better then those around other states. They are colorful and bright (lots of hot pink) without being tacky. They hardly have any teeth, most don't wear shoes and have a fire burning in their eye. I didn't take any pictures of them because it didn't feel right. There might be some in the background somewhere though. Then there were the men, they wear loose white shirts and pants, with a tan or brown scarf and a warm dark shawl at night. Then they have a bright pink or green or grey turban and an amazing mustache. The mustaches. On the second day we saw the mustache competition. Not as impressive as we had hoped, but there were four or five great ones. The winner had a sort of a giant twirly thing and on the end of each side were two stringy dread locks that went down to his knees. Once again, pictures to come.

The computer is acting funny so I have to cut it short. One more thing though - as well as all the real desert camel men and women, there are also hundreds of thousands of INdian tourists and about 30,000 westerners who pass through Pushkar during this week. So lots of people. We stayed at this funny hotel kind of out of the way which was nice. I talked to the owner so many times on the phone to haggle for a good price we were practically best friends when we arrived. They had a sign that said "CATHERINE" written when we got off the bus. priceless. way better then any welcome GVN could have given me in Calcutta. I'm pretty sure this guy does some shady business though. He's fairly wealthy and said he had to change the name of his hotel a few times for tax purposes. ha.

Basically - Camel Fair - great - strange - weird - fun times.

Now were are in this amazing sleepy town (90,000) called Bundi. There's not a lot going on here (Kipling spent a long time here writing..) but we are staying at RN Haveli which is this guest house run by three women. This is rare here - for women to own and run their own business - Mama and her two daughters. For dinner last night; That is, for thanksgiving dinner last night, Mama made us the most amazing Thali I have ever had. It took three hours. Lots of butter. mmm.