An Ancient Oasis

Monday evening Jenneli were back on the night train heading for Hospet, which is next to Hampi, which is the sight of some ancient ruins. We lucked out with the best train compartment we’ve seen yet! We slept well and after getting off the train found a great little hotel for $5 next to a large river and in sight of some of the ruins. Jenneli’s tender tummy had a wonderful helping of porridge as we found the restaurant on the roof to have a wide mix of world food. We took it easy till the mid afternoon at which point Jenneli seemed to have made a full recovery.

In the afternoon we visited the ruins. Jenneli said it best “This is the most photogenic place I’ve ever been”! Yeah! From Jenneli! The girl who takes an average of 150 photos a day on a trip! I’ll have to let the pictures speak for themselves, but I’ve never seen anything that looked quite so much like an ancient oasis.

It’s now the morning of the next day and I’m catching up on the blog before we have an autorickshaw tour at 10am. My stomach made me nervous last night but I believe it was the 2 lemon tonic waters I had earlier. They were very yummy but I think my stomach didn’t like all the acidity and bubbles.

Bangalore attacks!

We arrived into Bangalore in the early morning of Friday the 13th. We ended up staying a bit further away from the city than we planned because the hotels were full on account of a big convention. After settling in we headed off to the main part of Bangalore to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix! We both enjoyed the movie and so did the packed audience that cheered whenever the main characters made their appearance. We treated ourselves to Dominos after the show and went off to shop for a bit. Wrapping up the day we found ourselves in a little lounge/bar called “NASA”! I thoroughly enjoyed the décor, with space pictures on the walls, the staff dressed in airline pilot costumes, and all kinds of weird space looking stuff around.








Jenneli enjoyed it too right up until they asked us if we didn’t want to sit in the “family section”. Which is a partly enclosed part of the bar where men AND women can sit. I partially understood how she felt as memories of the dance club in Mumbai came back to mind. We had a drink in the “family section” and left to go rest up for the night at the hotel.








The next day we took a tour of the botanical gardens which were full of honeymoon couples trying to figure out what to do now that they are married. Some seemed incredibly happy some looked more like they had been having better days. The gardens where littered with large amounts of trash as most places in India so we enjoyed the incredible trees and flowers. After the gardens we went to FabIndia, Jenneli’s favorite store in India. She wanted to shop for a while and I decided to head to a small bar for a beer as sitting in FabIndia can’t hold my attention for the 2 hours Jenneli might be in there. At the bar I met a great fellow who grew up near Chennai and had been to America and Europe. We had a great conversation and he asked if he couldn’t take Jenneli and I out to dinner. Had I known at that point what I know now I would have politely refused.






Jenneli explained to me, as we picked her up from FabIndia, that she wasn’t feeling to good and that we also needed to get a mouse for the laptop. The nice fellow suggested that he could take us to a shopping mall and then to the hotel. The mall was great however getting to the hotel turned out to be a problem because of traffic and he asked if we couldn’t stop at a nice bar to wait out the traffic. At this point Jenneli was not feeling well at all but she though she might be able to handle it. The bar turned out to be the same NASA place we were at the previous night. Jenneli made a turn for the worst and I apologized and we bolted for the hotel. The next few hours Jenneli was not in good shape and just as we debated going to a hospital she improved well enough to sleep. It took 2 full days of bed rest but she is now better. We think it was a pretty bad case of of Delhi belly but it could have been food poisoning. Sadly we had to use up the last of our antibiotics we have with us. We have more back at Ongole, so we’ll have to cross our fingers till then.

The Hindu

The Hindu, as is written right under the title, is “India’s national newspaper since 1878”. This is the main English newspaper that I read daily, if possible. Each state also has local paper and I also try to pick these up if I can. At only 10 cents they are good entertainment on the busses and trains. They also contain a sudoku which Jenneli and I race to see who can finish first. (I have yet to beat Jenneli) It’s interesting to see what the paper picks up. Stories range from the immigration bill that failed in the US congress to the demolition of a building built on illegal land. I learned yesterday that a outbreak of hoof ‘n mouth disease was underway at the zoo we visited in Triviandrum and they had to close because animals were dying. Two had died the day we had visited, which explained certain exhibit closures and the security present.

Reading the paper I have also noticed a few trends:

1. Property and real estate is big news. Builders will bribe government officials for land rights that will end up being reclaimed by the rightful owner or the government itself. Homeless will try taking over unclaimed land or even claimed land if they can get away with it. Often the court will have to decide who ultimately owns a piece of property.

2. Corruption. There is always a corruption scandal of some form or another at the local, state and national levels.

3. NRI are important. NRIs are Non Resident Indians. It may be that the English paper just has much more focus on NRIs but the paper will follow any story that impacts NRIs, that includes immigration, visas, terrorism in the UK, even when NRIs are elected to office in foreign countries. When the Nimitz docked the paper reported that the only Indian born sailor was a cook on board.

4. No city is ready for the Monsoons when they happen. The month before the monsoons the papers ran stories about how the problems from last year are still present and that government mismanagement is to blame for not being prepared. The government claims things will be better. The monsoons are pouring down now and the papers are covering how many cities were not prepared, like last year, for the monsoons.

5. Education is important. The papers are full of ads for higher education, courses in IT, engineering, degrees from colleges, the paper runs stories about student entrance exams, educational trends, prices and the like. The local papers will publish the names and photos of the top students in the area and where they are likely to go to college. The paper will also include educational supplements about a particular subject or field. The paper has the normal crossword but may also include math problems, chess problems, sudoku, brain teasers and story problems.

Wedding plans

I have to take a quick minute to blog about wedding plans. (In case you didn't read the first couple blog posts Jenneli and I are engaged now!) We’ve been on a lot of buses though Kerala and you can’t do much but sit, think, and look out the window. This results in wedding plans being the topic of about 1 out of 4 conversations. Nothing is final but maybe by the time we return home we’ll have a good idea of what we want. Jenneli has a million and one ideas and it’s been fun to hear all the activities she would like to do. Even if we had a month long wedding I’m not sure we’d have time for the “perfect” wedding. Still I know that what we end up with will be fun for everyone!

Potter's customer support line

So as you might have guessed Bangalore would be one of the cities we visited and we are now on the night train to it. We had joked back in may that it would be nice if we could watch the new Harry Potter movie in Bangalore as it’s one of the most modern and English speaking cities in India. Through no effort on our part we are doing just that tomorrow when the movie comes out. We are kind of hoping that there will be at least a little fan fair the opening day.

I also completed buying the rest of the train tickets we’ll need to complete our journey south. It only took 3 hours :) I’m getting better. For the first time I also had to get a waiting list ticket at the train station, though, apparently I can get a real ticket once I get to the local station by requesting to be part of the tourist quota which bumps up our likely hood of getting a ticket.

In other news we still haven’t heard about Jenneli’s possible position Australia but at this point we are thinking it’s unlikely to happen. We also don’t know exactly what the month of August will bring. If Anne Marie needs help with EWB projects we’ll stay in Ongole. If not we really want to make a trip north through upper India. We probably won’t know till after we get back to Ongole, which will be on the 26th of July. In case you are wondering our tickets out of India are set for the 28th of August.

Dream Boats

After the mountains of inner Kerala state we took a bus to the coastal city of Cochin. We ended up sitting near the front of the bus and had grand views of water falls, jungle, tea estates and our life flashing before us. We stayed at a small hotel in the old part of Cochin called fort Kochi. $7.50 for a night stay isn’t bad, and it had tv, luke warm water and a clean room. We treated ourselves with a fancy dinner, spending quite possibly the most yet on food at $35. On the way to dinner we noticed a theatre that played local Kerala shows. We decided to see the show before dinner and won’t forget the experience any time soon.

In the morning we got up and headed down for breakfast. As it turns out Chochin is famous for it’s backwater cruises and there are day trips and over night trips. We had thought about an overnight trip but didn’t get it worked out the night before the manager informed us that he called on our behalf and a trip was available if we were interested. We debated the pros and cons and decided to go for it. We ate in a hurry and packed up as the car was already waiting to take us to the boat.

The boat turned out to be a very cute little houseboat/straw hut complete with a fan, lights, bedroom and private bathroom. Three crewmembers were there to cook, drive and captain the 24 hour tour of the backwater. We were worried that it might be boring as the boat trip on the lake in Thekkady became pretty uninteresting after the first 10 minutes. We needn’t have worried as it was peaceful and we could stretch out and relax. The food the chef prepared tasted great and kept our bellies bursting. In the evening we docked along side the canal and slept to the wonderful pitter-patter of the rain hitting the water. Ten geckos also provided us with entertainment as they consumed all the little bugs that the lights attracted. This turned out to be our first night in India that we didn’t hear car horns! I really recommend it if you get the chance, quiet, romantic and all around wonderful!

Off to the country

Jenneli and I had been planning on seeing the jungle of southern India and now we finally were going to see it! We took an 8 hour bus ride to the Periyar wildlife sanctuary and upon arriving noticed how much cooler it is. 72f! The cool is much appreciated even if it’s accompanied by large amounts of rain. We took a boat ride around the nearby reservoir and got to see a giant squirrel and a bunch of monkeys. No tigers but apparently few ever do.

After Periyar we took another bus to Munnar which catches me up at least to the town I’m currently in. I had been hoping to catch up with the blog on the bus but because of all the rain it’s been a bit dangerous to use the laptop, plus the bus is a bit bumpy to say the least. In fact the bus is a bit like a roller coaster on the high mountain roads around here. Jenneli and I have had to hold our breath a few times as we careen around corners and pass within inches of other buses barreling down the road in the opposite direction.

Today we took a rickshaw tour of munnar. The landscape here is amazing and luck followed us and staved off the rain at each of the places the driver took us. Truly as we drove around the rain would pour and then the sun would come out right before we stopped to see an attraction. We were almost chilly at times and are not exactly looking forward to the return of heat and humidity. Apparently Ongole is back to being a large sauna.

Munnar is home to tea estates. They cover the hillsides in a huge green patchwork quilt. The constant rain keeps the colors vibrant and the occasional sunlight gives the mountains a magical glow. The air here is clean and fresh, something we’ve had a lack of the past few months, years if you count LA.

Tigers are impressive!

After arriving in Trivandrum we sought out some accommodation. Jenneli had to put up with me viewing 3 different hotels, but I’m glad we did as we ended up at a great little hotel that had a restaurant on the roof. We need to waste some time so we took an autorickshaw to the zoo. Am I ever glad I did! We got to be about 2 meters away from a tiger and a jaguar. The jaguar was gnawing down on a bone while the tiger made some very throaty noises and clawed around the cage. The tiger had been separated from the rest of the group because she had 3 cubs and she was not pleased by this. The rest of the zoo had some interesting animals as well but I won’t get the sound or sight of the tiger and jaguar out of my mind for a while.

3 Big bodies of water and a statue

We arrived at 8am and discovered the very tip of India is quite the view. You can see the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean and the Arabian sea all at the same time! There is also a magnificent statue of an old poet a half kilometer off the coast. We also enjoyed a cute little park and relaxed taking in the view. There wasn’t much else to do so we went back to the train station and took off to Trivandrum. The best part of the day was finding that the train station sells books with train times for the entire rail system. This simplifies a large part of the pain that is buying tickets online. It also allows Jenneli and I to plan travel away from the Internet!

Night trains and machine guns

We were sad to leave pondicherry, especially since I was sick for half of it, but tickets had been purchased and we had a night train to the tip of India from Chennai to catch. Catch it we did. We got to the station early had some great food and hopped on our train after. Shortly after we got on an armed guard got on and scoped out the car. As it happens some security people from the government were going the same way we were. We had an armed guard two compartments away for most of the journey. We could sleep at ease knowing that nothing would happen to us or our luggage.

www.IRCTC.co.in = Confusion

There are several ways to get tickets in India, which is convenient, however none of them are intuitive. Lets start with online reservations. First off a town may have more than one name, in the 1990s the government decided to make India more Indian by changing many of the names. Bombay became Mumbai, Pondicherry became Puducherry, Calcutta, Kolkatta to name a few, added to this the local name of the place may not be the official national name. This means I often get to do a wiki search to find out possible town names to find the station names. After I have the start station and end station I have to find out if a train actually goes between the stations or if there may have to be a junction, as the online system can’t figure that out. I have to search for each of 5 types of seats as some trains only have seats and some only have sleepers. After finally finding a train between the two stations I have to see if there are seats available, if there are I can reserve a ticket online. If not I have to pick a different day or get on the waitlist for a possible ticket later. To buy 2 tickets took me 6 hours in an internet café, granted I had to figure out plans and everything, but this gives you some idea. You can buy tickets at the station but there are lines and communication problems to deal with. At least at the internet café you can check the wiki for town names.

Pondicherry aka Pondy aka Puducherry

The morning of the 2nd we took a 4 hour bus ride to Pondicherry. It started at what's claimed to be the biggest bus station in asia, and I have to say it was HUGE. The bus ride went quick and we were pleasantly surprised at how pleasant the Pondicherry turned out to be. It was founded by the French and still had many influences including the architecture and naming. It turns out it also kept a large part of the cuisine and we enjoyed some wonderful sudo French food. Our stomachs enjoyed the bit of change and we spoiled ourselves with a bit of wine. We stayed the first night in a little ashram, which is kind of a place devoted to meditation and spirituality. The second night we spent in a more standard hotel, though there wasn’t much difference between the two except the ashram did have a wonderful garden.

The second day didn’t exactly turn out that great for me. I had great plans of showing Jenneli a wonderful little art bar/restaurant that served some fabulous French food and mojhitos. As it turned out I ended up getting a little sick. I had been fighting it for a week but the bug in my system won out and I had to take Imodium and antibiotics. I recovered but wasn’t up for too much so Jenneli went out on her own and gave me a wonderful surprise of Pizza Hut! I had wined the day before that we should get some but Jenneli wanted to try the local food, which turned out to be a great decision as we had some fantastic food. I really enjoyed the pizza hut and soda and went back to sleep. I’ll have to show her the art bar next time.

July 1: The Journey south

We left Ongole in the morning and arrived in Chennai around 1pm, after a quick ride in a rickshaw we arrived at our hotel. July 1st turned out to be an interesting day to arrive in Chennai as the USS Nimitz also arrived that morning to much fanfare as well as protests. The protests concerned both the possibility of the Nimitz having nuclear weapons and it returning from Iraq. The city seemed very happy about it and there were articles in the state newspaper the next day about some of the seamen helping orphanages and boys homes. We took a quick trip to the city museum and felt like we had gone back to the museums of the 1930s. There were snakes in formaldehyde and lots of latin names. It was a strange atmosphere and Jenneli and I enjoyed it. After a quick dinner of yummy pizza and cake we headed to back to the hotel to sleep.

The big party!

Saturday we invited all our favorite Ongole people over for a small americanesc party. Bryan supplied a cache of chili that he had brought from Texas and we augmented it with some food from the near by KB Restaurant. Everyone enjoyed themselves and it was quite a success. Unfortunately there was some miscommunication and instead of thinking we were going to have a party, uncle (our landlord) thought he would be hosting us for dinner. So we got auntie and Uncle to have some of our chili but they wanted us to keep our stomachs hungry so we could join them for food after the party. Which we did, Jenneli and I were full the entire next day. Bindu was the life of the party and kept every laughing and smiling! Everyone had a great time and hopefully we’ll be able to have another party for everyone.