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Posts tagged ‘India’

Nov 19

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i’m going to be famous!

hello — greetings from southern india!

After my 26 hour train ride — in which I was the only foreigner and one of a handful of women in my compartment, I reached Chennai.  The train ride was actually fine – and everyone was really friendly and helpful.  And it was super fun to stand at the end of the compartment and lean out the door to see India speeding by!

I arrived in Chennai and was overwhelmed by being in a city again (and the awful case of bedbugs from the Kolkata hotel) – so I hightailed it out of there to head down to Mamallapuram – which is south of Chennai on the coast – on the Bay of Bengal.  Mamallapuram is known for the rock carvings – old ruins from the 8th-6th century AD.  pretty amazing!  It is a very touristy town — but right on the beach — so that is pretty awesome.  and now that I have confidence, I have headed into town for actual indian food — which is way cheaper.  And Katherine – thank goodness we learned how to eat with our hands – as most meals are eaten that way!

But besides a beautiful beach and amazing rock carving ruins….  i was in a photo shoot!

Ok — here is the story — it is a good one!

The first night I was here, the owner of the hotel asked me if I would join a group of tourists to be in a movie – we would get paid for the day and go to Chennai.  And it turned out that the guy arranging it had been on my bus from Chennai down here – so I said sure!  The next morning, our group met – we were:

  • Polish
  • Spanish
  • Italian
  • Cameroon
  • Kenyan
  • Jamaican
  • Irish
  • English
  • Swiss
  • French
  • and me – the one American!

We arrived at the building where the sets were and were given our costumes — we were all FBI agents – and some of the men were dressed up as FBI SWAT team members (or whatever you would call it with all that gear on).  And then we had breakfast on the rooftop of the building (theme of the day was us sitting around a lot).  We tried to get some information about the movie — turns out that a famous Tamil actor is the main actor, director and producer and it is about terrorists and apparently, the FBI.  There were people running around all over the place – which totally kept me amused since I could not understand them (they were speaking tamil) but it was fun to imagine what they were saying.

Eventually we were called in for our photo shoot (we later learned that we were just there for the advertisements for the movie — so we will not be in it – but on the movie posters…. or something).  They took all sorts of various pictures of us posing — the only picture I was in was a group shot while wearing an FBI jacked and pointing a gun at the camera. oh yes, there was a make-up man.  and a hair man (can you believe it?!  he BRUSHED my hair and then teased it out.  Um, hello?!  what part of curly hair don’t you understand?!).  It was very glamorous (in a very non-glamorous way….)

After all that hard work, we had lunch.  And then sat around a whole bunch.  and then had tea.  Well….  let me correct that — we had chai, milk coffee and lemon tea just about every half hour.  It was awesome!  And for this day of ‘work’?  yep — we got paid!  800 rupees for the day (which works out to be about 16$ or so).  Supposedly the actor and actress, who we saw a few times, are quite famous.  And there were a couple of americans working on some of the props — they were from LA.  I was very curious about how they ended up there, but they had no time to talk while they were painting body parts to look like they had been shredded…..

All is all, it was a pretty amusing day – and fun to talk to the other folks from all over.  The Kenyan lectured me on American politics.  The italian was all fired up over politics in her own country.  The french woman might travel with me this upcoming week.  We all had a beer together afterwards (and for the record, indian beer is just as bad as nepali!).    all in all — it was a pretty fun day and evening!

In other news….  here are some highlights:

  • a large group of 11th grade girls descended on the ruin i was at this morning and swarmed me saying hello (and hello over and over since that was about the extent of their english) – though a few got out that i was a teacher.  lots of smiles — i have a great picture of them all!
  • fun to walk along the beach – dip my toes in the water — though Tamil is fairly conservative so it is frowned upon to wear a bathing suit or wear minimal clothes
  • southern indian food is SO good!  one of my favorite parts is that we eat off of a big coconut leaf (or banana leaf?)
  • bedbugs f’ing suck and they itch like hell….  and they sure don’t look that good either….  hoping i am done with that and not carrying them with me….  but there aren’t really power washers around here…..

hard to believe that i have just a month left in india….  it is such an amazing country….  there are times i hate it and want it just to be easy (um, that would be when my arms are covered in bites and people are honking and staring and trying to rip me off and …..) and then there are times that I just love this place – for the craziness, for the kindness of strangers, for the smiles.  Tomorrow, I will head south to Pondicherry – an old french colony.  I will stay there for a few days and then head back to Chennai for an overnight train to Kochi – on the other side of the country!  I am not going to the absolute south, but I figure I will get enough beach time between here and the west coast.

hope everyone is well.  I of course have tons of great pictures that I look forward to sharing at some point….

much love — aurora

Nov 14

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Kolkata

Instead, I will tell you about Kolkata!

I was a little nervous about taking the train - as it was my first first experience with it -- but when I got to the station, I had a seat and waited - I accidentally got there several hours too early - so I had some time to people watch. Or should I say - I gave people time to watch me?

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Nov 8

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Varanasi

Stepping out of my guesthouse and into the narrow alley ways was …. well, it was a bit of a shock.  Glad I had been to India before!  It took me a few minutes to get my bearings and to remember to ignore or just say no to so many of the requests coming my way (music lessons?  tea?  silk?  hashish?  boat ride?  see the cremations?  see my store, no you don’t need to buy?  where you from, madame?  how are you today?  need a male companion?)

alley leading down to the ganges

I got directions from my guesthouse to head down to the Ganges – and there I headed.  I got turned around in the many alley ways and ended up on the main road – full of stores. It was a pretty insane re-introduction to India, though it got me on my feet pretty quickly.  I was followed for a short distance – though as soon as I stood next to the police (which seem to be at a lot of the intersections) he disappeared.  I guess it pays to not be super friendly sometimes!  🙂

I tried to make my way down to the Ganges – but got stymied by a procession of people (which I later discovered — when I saw the beginning of the procession — was a typical procession of people headed down to the Ganges with a body to be cremated).  But eventually I made it down there — and then spent my time wandering the ghats –there is a total of 80 of these bathing steps that go into the Ganges.   Here is where a lot of the propositioning came about while I walked along the river.

boats for hire

not sure what this is… but one of the many religious icons on the ghats

clothes drying

bathing in the Ganga

mural along one of the ghats

boat ride for pilgrams — they loved waving up to me!

My best moment though was when two young girls called me over to talk — we talked about school (their favorite class is english… and science.. and math…. and all of them!  when asked which class they did not like?  none of them!  um…. something tells me they weren’t telling me the truth! 🙂 and we took some pictures.  they were very cute.  And I thought that they were going to be my first interaction that did not have an ulterior motive — but no, one of them called over their dad to see if I wanted a boat ride.  But – none-the-less,  they were pretty great!  I told them I would share their picture and their names with my students!

my new friends!

peace, yo

Varanasi is one of the holiest cities in India for Hindus.  They pilgrimmage here to wash away their sins or cremate their loved ones.  I saw lots of people washing in the water (who knew Indian men liked tiny tighty-whiteys so much?!), doing their laundry and of course – cremations.  Also, you can take a boat ride out on the Ganges – which I hope to do during morning time.

Turns out that I am here during a big festival, the Ganga Mahotsav.  Last night was a large event – a musical concert and then a large puja on the river front.  I was sitting alone on these stairs trying to figure out what was happening – and a family came and sat next to me.  Mom offered me a cookie (though Lonely Planet has me all paranoid about accepting food from people b/c of some folks were drugged on trains and all their stuff was stolen) and the son told me about the festival.  They had traveled 3 days to get here with the goal of bathing once in the Ghanges.  They were perplexed why I would be traveling alone – but were happy enough to sit with me and tell me about the puja that would begin.

The actual ceremony was pretty amazing — full of lights and chanting and bells and incense.  I would say there were thousands of people there — out in boats or up on the stairs.  I found a seat right below where the puja was happening (that was after I was totally ripped off by some lady to put a diya (earthen lamp – candle with marigold in a banana leaf – i think….) in the water. She then proceeded to do the same with every tourist in the area…. but the upside was she lead us to a river front seat).  in a few nights, there is the culminating event – which will have thousands of diyas floating down the river and chants and incense — the program says that it will ‘make you believe that you are in heaven, witnessing a celestial happening’ – definitely something to look forward to.

preparing for the puja

Today was spent taking care of business — found an ATM that worked (well with the help of my new buddy, a security guy at the bank who laughed at me ‘reading’ hindi (which is what happens when you see the same screen in english and in hindi OVER and OVER again!), got a new SIM card for my phone and spent 4 frustrating hours trying to figure out trains and the rest of my trip (so much for doing with the flow!  who knew, in a country of a billion people, you should make your train reservations WELL in advance!  like 3 months in advance…. not quite sure what will happen since i am waitlisted for every possible train I wanted to take….)

I picked up a great book today that i cannot wait to sit on the steps of one of the ghats and read tomorrow – called The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga.  I can already tell it is one of those books I want to read slowly so that it will not end.  But — I will leave you with this image about the Mother Ganga (ghanges):

“No – I urge you not to dip in the Ganga, unless you want your mouth full of feces, straw, soggy parts of human bodies, buffalo carrion, and seven different kinds of industrial acids.”

Oh, India – where else would that be one of the holiest sites?

Nov 7

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Oh, India

Hello India

Arrival in India hits you – hard.  Last time I was here we arrived in the middle of the night and had our senses assaulted with the sound of horns, the smell of spices and jasmine and the sight of cows and ricksaws and people- so many people….

This time is no different – except it is a dusty border and it is day time.  When you arrive by bus, you are dropped of two kilometers or so away and you hire a bike rickshaw to take you to the border.  It was a feeding frenzy when the bus arrives.  I was quoted a price but when we arrived at the border, dude told me that price was in Indian rupees.  Whatever.  And that was after he tried to get me to change my money at his buddies place (I might have been swindled on the rickshaw ride but not on the money).

taking my very expensive rickshaw ride to the border

Getting over the border was quick.  On the Nepal side I went to the office and filled out my departure paperwork and they stamped my passport.  Then I walked under a big arch along with tons of other people and trucks honking their horns and lots of dust.  Then amid street side stores and noise and chaos and people telling me to change my money, there was a table with two men reading the paper. You know, border patrol.

I had purchased my ticket from Sonauli (the border town) on to Varanasi up in Kathmandu — and was told I just needed to find the ticket agents office and they would help me out.  I eventually found it – amidst the staring and the dust and the many offers to ‘help’ me out.  Upon arrival, Mr. Bablu looked at my ticket very nonchalantly and told me to come back at 5.  I asked why and he told me the bus was at 5:30.  No, no – I am taking the bus at 6:30 tomorrow morning (decided a night time bus ride my first day in India wasn’t quite what I wanted…).  He said fine, and showed me where the ‘hotel’ was — the one place the Lonely Planet half way recommends….  to say it was a shit-hole would be kind….  There is no need to go into details on that place or the food or how depressing it was – but needless to say, I arrived back at the travel agency at 6, on the dot, as Mr. Bablu had requested the day before.

And that is when things got interesting…..

No one was there at 6.  So, I just stayed there.  A non-Indian female by herself with bags gets lots of attention – so I figured that soon enough people would find me.  Sure enough, a guy came down the stairs asking what I needed – I told him that I needed my bus pass.  He called to another man and they came downstairs to unlock the office, inside of which a 3rd man was sleeping.  None of these men were Mr. Bablu.

Upon looking at my ticket , the ‘head’ dude tells me that this bus is late this morning, but I can take the express bus for an extra cost.  What?!  So, I try and reason with him.  I tell him that there is no such thing.  I tell him I will not pay the price.  Meanwhile, time is passing — it is getting closer to 6:30.  I really want to get on that bus.  I really do not want to stay in Sonauli a second longer.  Then, another foreigner comes in with his confirmation note for the bus.  He is told the same thing.  He also tries to argue and is told that he has to pay more for the 6:30 bus.  These guys aren’t budging and they just talk in Hindi to each other, laughing.  They tell this guy that it will be 495 IRs to travel on this bus.  At that point, it is close to 6:30, so I pull out the money in my pocket – 300 IRs.  The guy takes it and asks if I have any dollars.  What?!  Oh, hell no.  So, I tell him I have no other money – and he takes me to the bus.  So, now – both myself and the other foriegner have paid extra for this bus (the guys in the office told  him that if he did not pay he could go back to Kathmandu!).  The men continued their intimidation on the bus, thankfully not with me, though.  Two other foreigners were forced to pay more – and  all three guys (they were all men, these other foreigners) were asked for more money for their bags – and one was even asked to open his bag.  They all said no – and eventually these men from the travel agency went away.  But, it was simply infuriating.  There was nothing we could do (though, in hindsight, I wish I had called the travel agency in Kathmandu).

Oh, and the express bus?  yeah — it took 13 hours.

It was suppose to take 11, but our 4-speed bus (in which I could see the road through the gear shaft) did not go all that fast.  And our driver, well, it is tough to be a driver in India.  Here is what he needs to avoid hitting:

  • Dogs
  • Kids
  • Rickshaws
  • Motos
  • Bikes
  • People walking
  • other buses
  • cars
  • horse and ox drawn carriages/wagons
  • trucks
  • donkeys
  • pigs
  • and of course, monkeys

And did I mention how comfortable the seats were?!  ha!

Anyway — 7:30 at night, I arrived.  Found a phone and called my guest house.  A guy came and picked me up and brought me back – on his scooter.  It was a crazy ride – me trying not to fall off b/c of my big pack.  And of course — lots of people staring.  The hotel is nice enough, though my room is really really cheap.  I have to figure out what costs will be in this country to see if I can upgrade….  but there is wifi!  🙂
So here I am
In India.
Amid the noise and the dust and the cows and the honking and people wanting to ‘help’ me out, here I am.  amazing how, admidst a billion people, you can be all alone.

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