A different side of India

Since Hampi we have spend the majority of our time in Bombay aka Mumbai. Bombay is the biggest city in the world with around 15 mil. people, of which almost half lives in the slum. We on the other hand decided to explore a completely different side of Bombay, Bombay the city of shopping and partying. Huge malls with all possible brands for knock down prices. Furthermore we met up again with Sumeet (an Indian guy who we met on the Andamans), who showed us around, gave us some really good recommendations for restaurants and nightclubs. In Bombay we were paying 500 Rupees a night, the same amount as a mix drink.

From Bombay we went by bus to Udaipur since all trains were fully booked because of the wedding season in Rajasthan. We had a sleeper bus, that means a small cage with a matras for 2 people, but suprisingly it was really comfortable and we were able to sleep a large part of our 16 hour trip. Udaipur is  known as the white city (because of the abundant use of marble) and world famous for its importance in James Bonds’ Octopussy. The city is characterized by a huge palace and a lake with an exclusive hotel (Lake Palace Hotel, really original name).

After Udaipur we went by bus to Jodhpur, the blue city. It has a really great and impressive fort and loads of blue houses. Really nice city. From there, we went to Jaisalmer, a desert outpost quite close to the Pakistani border. Here we have been on a camel safari in the Thar desert and slept under the stars on the sand dunes.  More about that and pictures when we come to Jaipur, internet is really crappy here!!

Doeidoei and hejda!!

Hampi

We have now kick-started the last and very intense part of our trip with a few days at a lovely village called Hampi. It’s in an area that was home to the capital of the Vijayanagar empire some centuries ago, and it’s packed with ruins of palaces and temples. Very cultural indeed! The nature is also really impressive and it looks like something the flintstones would love! All over there are giant boulders and rocks sprinkled over the hills and it is hard to imagine how it was created, in fact no one here seems to know and the only possible explanation we’ve heard about is that the monkey god Hanuman dropped a part of a mountain here while carrying it from the Himalayas to Sri Lanka.

We spent the whole day yesterday biking around to different ruins (more exercise than we’ve had the last 3 months combined) on our very nice and high quality Indian bikes. They had wobbly pedals, chains that hadn’t been oiled in the last 10 years, made strange sounds and had no brakes. Nevertheless, we had a great and very sweaty day. In the afternoon we climbed a hill to watch the sunset and got even more exercise. We’re very proud.

This afternoon we get on a train to Mumbai for 4 days of serious shopping and partying, wohooo!

Varkala and Goa

Another post??? Yeah!! To be honest we havent been doing a lot the past week. In Varkala we enjoyed some more holy cow, now for breakfast and some nice cocktails. Ruud spent a lot of time at the beach while Tove had to stay in the shade. Luckily we spoiled ourselves with a nice resort and a room with TV.  From Varkala we took a train to Goa, where we stayed four nights at Palolem beach. For our daily activities, see above. Except that Tove could go to the beach, after we found Nivea sunscreen  (FACTOR 50). We also went out for fishing, we caught a dozen small rock fishes and four sea snakes; probably the most poisonous creatures in the arabic sea.  Last night we went by nightbus to Hampi, a ten hour bus ride without a lot of sleep.  We will stay here two days and then we will go to Bombay. See you there.

Mysore-Kalpetta-Kochi-Munnar-Backwaters

Damn…the second post in two weeks, we are spoiling you. Last time we were enjoying our last day on the Andamans. The day after we left from Port Blair to Chennai. In Chennai we went directly to the train station to leave for Mysore. We arrived in the morning and registered at the tourism office for a one-day sight-seeing tour. The tour took us to several places and we  felt Japanese, hopping in and out of the bus, running through the sights and shooting pictures without looking because we didn’t have enough time to do both. We really liked Mysore since it was a nice and friendly city without a lot of hazzle. After four weeks on the Andaman Islands this was a welcoming kick-off for the rest of India. After Mysore we went to Kalpetta to go on a safari in the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary. The next day we went up early and were picked up by a jeep to go to the nature park. We only saw a lot of dear, a peacock, a kind of big squirrel, tame elephants and….. TIGER….tracks.  Unfortunately, no wild elephants and tigers, you can’t always be lucky, right? After that we went to Kochi, which took us 8 hours by bus. Kochi has an interesting portugese/dutch/british colonial history and  modern shopping malls. It was really laid back and relaxed and we even managed to be big sinners and eat some holy cow…. Yeah!! We continued our journey by travelling to Munnar, a little village at 1500m with a lot … a lot of tea plantations. We rented a rickshaw for a day to visit all the interesting sites which included, waterfalls, tea-, coffee-, pepper- and cardamom plantations, a big dam and a top station with a spectacular view. However we couldn’t see anything there, as it was raining and really misty. Our luck was great as always. We had a great day and a really friendly rickshaw driver.  After Munnar we felt like treating ourselves to some luxury so we went to Alleppey and rented a houseboat. We had a great day relaxing on a nice boat with three crewmembers including a cook. The next day when we came back we took a bus to Varkala. A touristy place at the coast. Relaxed atmosphere, good food, big waves and enough sun to turn Tove into a lobster.

And finally, here are some pictures!!!

 

Amazing Andamans

Dear friends, we are happy to announce that we have not disappeared from the face of the earth. The last four weeks we have been enjoying a very easy life without internet and other civilized things, on the beautiful Andaman Islands. It took us four days to get here from Kolkata on the magnificent vessel the MV Nicobar. We were sure that the ship was at least 50 years old, but to our surprise we found out that it was built no earlier than 1991 in Gdansk… I guess that all the spitting, littering and general animalistic behavior of the Indian passengers really ages a poor boat. Although there was a swimming pool on the top deck, this was not filled with water but with garbage. At least somewhere there was a dustbin, but this was ignored by the majority of the passengers who seemed to find it way to energy consuming to walk the five steps from the deck “café” and threw everything on the floor instead. At first, we were put in a cabin together with three charming nuns, but as they managed to move into a private room we were instead forced to share the room with two animals in human clothes. Among other things, they threw up in the sink and the dustbin (naturally without even trying to clean it up) and got up at 5 in the morning to pray and play loud music on their very cool Chinese knock-off phone.

Together with a finnish couple and an English guy, we were the only foreigners on the boat. The Indians wondered why we didn’t take the plane instead. So did we after one day… One Indian guy also explained to us why there were so few women eating in the dining hall. It turns out that since they are housewives, they are not physically fit to travel and that’s why they get seasick. We were stunned by his intelligence.

As soon as we reached Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, we took a ferry to the small island Havelock. There we moved into a small bamboo hut on the beach. This would be our home for the next four weeks. We had great neighbors; 3 puppies born 3 weeks before we arrived, a giant crab, a rat, a small kitten, and a tiny mouse. All of these also visited us in our hut!

So, what can you do on a small tropical island for almost a month? Not a lot! But that’s the whole point. Besides from doing absolutely nothing, we also did a lot of reading, studying, fishing, snorkeling, swimming and eating. We traveled around the small island on a Honda aviator, not a plane but one of the coolest scooters available. We also celebrated Ruud’s birthday with a fabulous indo-russian birthday cake complete with 22 candles followed by a great dinner, as well as our 1 year anniversary with fancy food and Indian wine, wohoo!

After the wonderful time in paradise, we are now back in Port Blair again for a bit of sightseeing before our plane leaves for Chennai tomorrow. We have been to the aquarium, the anthropological museum, an old jail where the British put freedom fighters and a small island where the British were living the good life in the 1800’s (the island is now abandoned and the buildings devoured by trees).

And finally, so that you believe us, here are some pictures:

Kolkata

A second post in 2 days!! Unique…. Yesterday around noon we left Darjeeling. It took us almost 4 hours to get to Siliguri, where the bus would leave around 19.30h. The calculated time to get from Siliguri to Kolkata was 11 hours. But guess what….it took 16 hours. Only 5 hours delayed… quite good right!! The bus had to stop somewhere for a few hours because people were celebrating Puja, a hindu festival, on the street/highway/stable/pedestrian road. This morning just before arriving in Kolkata the tyre broke down and had to be replaced, but … we made it. Tomorrow we will leave at 14.00h to the Andamans, Port Plair. The trip is supposed to take 60 hours, but we count on at least 75 to 80h on the ship. Internet seems to be quite a problem and really slow there but we hope to keep you informed at least ones a week.

For now good night and bye bye, doeidoei, hej du !!

Update

We are sorry for being such lousy bloggers, the last week has been kind of chaotic, so we haven’t had a lot of time for surfing.

In Amritsar we also had time to visit the Pakistani border, where there is a hilarious ceremony every evening when the border is closed. The soldiers are dressed up to the maximum, and have the highest kicks I’ve ever seen. John Cleese would be jealous.

 

Golden Temple

After Amritsar, we went to Varanasi. The train ride was way better than expected, we even got clean sheets and pillows!! That is what you get when travelling in style (Ruud-style that is ). However, Varanasi was not quite as organized and clean. We have never seen more shit (human, cow, monkey, donkey etc..) in one place before. The holy river, the Ganges, is so full of shit and garbage that there is apparently no dissolved oxygen in it any more. During our early morning boat ride, we also saw several corpses floating by (we wont post pictures here as they are quite disturbing). And this water is what people use to clean themselves, drink, wash their clothes etc. Needless to say we didn’t hand in anything for laundry. The city is nonetheless very interesting, and full of spirituality. All along the river, stairs lead down to the water, and this is where people pray, do yoga, meditate, take a dip, sell and buy things, hang out etc.

 

Riverside temples

Bathing in the Ganges

Big Buddha

Sunrise over Kanchendzonga, the 3rd highest mountain in the world + Darjeeling in the foreground

Golden Temple

After Varanasi we went to Bodhgaya, where Buddha reached enlightenment under a Bodhi tree. The town is very small, and full of Buddhist temples built by different countries in their own styles, monasteries and pilgrims. A really nice and relaxed place!

Big Buddha

From Bodhgaya, we planned to go to Darjeeling. However, due to enormous amounts of bad luck (12 h train delay, no hotel that accepted foreigners in the hell hole of Patna…) we instead jumped on a train to Kolkata. We had no seats, but managed to bribe the train manager into giving us two beds in 2AC (fancy fancy!) that we in the end only had to pay half the price for (money which naturally went straight into the guys pocket).  Sometimes you just gotta love corruption.  In this country, everyone has a price!

Kolkata turned out to be a really nice city, with normal buildings, streets where people actually followed at least some traffic rules, and huge amounts of shopping. We had our fare share of bad luck trying to find authentic Bengali food and therefore ended up in desperation eating at mcDonalds TWICE. Yes, we are ashamed.

We managed to book tickets for a boat that leaves for the Andaman islands on the 30th, and wanted to go up to Darjeeling for a few days before  taking off. This turned out to be nearly impossible, and after hours trying to buy train tickets at various places only to find out that every single train was completely full, we got two tickets at last by bribing a travel agent. Everything is possible!!

Now we are in Darjeeling, a lovely town with great himalayan views. This morning, we saw the sun rise over 250 km of himalayan peaks (we even saw Mount Everest in the distance!). Other than that, we have been to a zoo and the himalayan mountaineering institute (it’s big business here since Tenzing Norgay, the first to make it to the top of Mount Everest, lived in Darjeeling). We have also sampled the world famous tea.

Sunrise over Kanchendzonga, the 3rd highest mountain in the world + Darjeeling in the foreground

 

Tomorrow we go back to Kolkata (by bus, trains are still full..) and prepare for the three day boat ride. Ruud wanted to go on a cruise ship, but unfortunately only freighters  were available. Next update will probably (and hopefully, since internet is apparently not reliable there) be from the tropical islands!!