Two Beers and a Pretzel

I was starting to seriously court the idea of going back to the beached of Thailand for my last 2 weeks of the world tour (and yes, the funds are drying up, so the months of endless travel are approaching their finale).  Southern India was great fun traveling with Sreekanth, but after parting ways, it doesn’t have the “instant friends” backpacker culture of other places I’ve been.  Delhi cured that ill and gave me hope enough to stay in India or 2 more weeks.

On the way to the Mumbai airport, I convinced the cabbie to take the brand spanking new (opened less than 24 hours) Bandra-Worli Sealink to bypass the city and be possibly the first person in the world to record a time-lapse video of crossing over the new landmark.  The bridge cuts over part of the bay to bypass 45 minutes (to a peak of 2 hours) of packed city travel with a 7 minute jaunt on a $1 tollway.

Then to the airport.  I got another really cool video while the plane was on landing approach in the clouds.  The sud and clouds were just right to create a shadow of the plane surrounded by a complete double rainbow.

On the bus to the terminal I met Jamilla from Sydney.  She had booked a really nice backpacker place for about $12 a night, so I got a room in the same hotel.  The next day we met her Ethiopian/Israeli friend Ballaysh and booked a cab to see the city.

If I thought I knew the rockstar treatment before, now I know what it’s like to be Beyonce’s bodyguard.  Ballaysh was getting the stare down from every guy, everywhere we went.

We saw the Red fort (started in 1638) - which has changed hands and been used by many regimes over the centuries…

The massive Jama Masjid mosque (largest in India)

The Lotus-shaped Bahai Temple

The Qutb Minar Complex.  The highlight of this UNESCO World Heritage area is the 73m tall Qutb Minar tower.  The tower and mosque were both started in 1193.  The tower was completed in 1368, and modified by the Brits in the early 1800’s.

Finally, Delhi’s “India Gate”

A guy in the Government Tour Office was recommending Kashmir to me.  I was planning on Leh (nearby, but in Jammu, not Kashmir).  A number of people have said it’s safe right now, but it appears that they are all from Kashmir and trying to get you to go there.  The US State Dept and a number of other official sources still say Leh and Ladakh are totally safe, but Kashmir is still very questionable - especially Srinagar in the summer.

FYI: Vodaphone is worse in India than it was in Australia.  I haven’t had a decent signal since Bangalore.

Not great, but OK…  The air quality is better than Bangalore (’cuz BLR rickshaws are 2 stroke, MUM cabs are 4 stroker or CNG) but it’s really just another big city…

After about 4 hour of sleep, I flew into Mumbia.  You could easily tell when you’d moved from country side to the city.

I checked into a decent but cheap hotel in the Colaba neighborhood, and promptly fell asleep.  The next day I booked a car to show me the sights.

The Gateway of India (built in 1911)

..Which is right next to the Taj Palace that was the terrorist target last year.

Marine Drive and Chowpatty Beach (which up close looks like crap - the dark line near the water is trash)


Hanging Garden (astonishingly unimpressive - even the animal sculpted bushed needed labels for you to tell what they were)

Mani Bhavan (Ghandi’s house and an inspiring memorial museum)

Tower of Silence - a creepy place where Parsi people put their dead here to be eaten by vultures and let the bones fall into the tower - yuck!

Washing Laundry (the biggest open laundry in Asia)

The Victorian Area of town

And a few more sights that were either not worth a pic, or pics not allowed:
Nairman Point (the Official area of Mumbai - kinda booring)
Jain Temple (a 100 year old silver temple that was surprisingly dull on the inside)
Malabar Hill (Where some of India’s billionaires live - booring)

After the tour, I checked out the “SOAK” exhibit at the museum of modern art - which detailed the 2005 monsoon flood where parts of town received over 3 ft of rain in a single day (while other parts only got 3 inches).  It was very interresting to see the evolution of the city from a collection of low-lying islands to what it is today.  Many different land reclaimation and waster control projects over the last 200 years explain why this city seems exceptionally unorganized.  Much of the current “land” did not exist 200 year ago, so the major routes around town are often quite oddly placed.

After than I swung by the Leopold Cafe - a favorite hangout of travelers and ex-pats, and another place that was targeted by the terrorists.  There’s even still bullet holes in the upper windows…

After that, I wandered the market main drag in Coloba and of all things - ran into an Egyptian girl that I had met in Ushuia, Argentina back in February.

Hampi, India seems like a miniature version of Siam Reap, Cambodia.

Everywhere you turn there’s a temple or palace ruin from the Vijayanagar Empire in the 1300-1500’s.  The whole area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The most significant differences from Angkor Wat are that 1 ) you get to stay right next to the ruins, and 2) the landscape would be surreal even without the ruins.  The whole area is dominated by large hills of crumbled and weathered boulders.

The only way to describe it is to imagine a giant child was playing with these rocks, scooping them in his hands and stacking them into small mountains.

Although there is also a nice temple in town…

There are also lots of people treating the “white guy” like a rock star…  everyone wants to take a picture with you.

Even with the bizarre landscape and the active temple, the ruins dominate your time…

The royal bath in the palace complex…

…click the 180 degree panorama of inside the massive palace complex for a bigger version…

However cool that is, UNESCO did me one better with scrollable 360 degree views of all the major monuments…

http://www.world-heritage-tour.org/asia/south-asia/india/hampi/map.html

The royal elephant stable…

The Lotus Mahal…

After a sleeper train back to Bangalore, I piked up my Olympus uTough 8000 from the repair center.  I didn’t have a copy of my receipt to take advantage of the warranty, so the repair bill was a whopping $30 USD.  I love this country…

On the morning of the 23rd I was still feeling a little quesy.  Sreekanth went on a morning jeep safari and I stayed back in the room.  Around lunchtime, our cab arrived to take us back to Mysore.  I was feeling much better.

Once in Mysore, we went straight to the doctor and the pharmacy - even though I’m pretty sure the sickness was food poisoning, and it had passed.  Again, doctor visit + medicine = $1.55.

After dropping our bags off at Sreekanth’s parents’, we went on a tour of the town to the Mysore Palace - former home of the Maharaja of Mysore.

They did not allow photography inside the palace, and there were strict policies in place to deal with violators (but the bunny somehow got away).

Outside the palace, Sreekanth was playing with his SLR - which really made me see the limits of the Canon G9 (I can’t wait to get back to my 20D and better optics).

One nice thing about being the only white guy is that you feel like a celebrity.  OK, I wasn’t the ONLY white person - I’ve counted at least 10 others in the last week.  But people all ask where you’re from, and many kids want their picture with you.

The nicities to not transfer to the autorickshaw drivers.  These guys will all try to rip you off, and once you tell them you’ll only pay using the meter, they ask you to get out.  They would rather sit there than make their standard rate.  I’ve gotten pretty good at verbally reprimanding them, because they waste my time, and seem to think that they can rip me off just because I’m a white guy.  Take me back to the tuk-tuk drivers of Bangkok.  Yes, they hassle you about massage girls and suit stores, but at least you can negoiate with them and they smile the whole time.

Next was the largest church in this part of India - the Saint Joseph’s Cathedral and Saint Philomena’s Church.  Pretty basic gothic architecture by European standars, and the stained glass was either missing, or never completed.  But the outside was pretty neat with monkey’s climbing the spires and eagles flying around.

Then we went to a temple on a large hill overlooking Mysore - home of Chamundeswari, the protector goddess of the city.

Finally, we went to the market to experience the bustle of the town.

On the 24th we caught a train back to Bangalore, and we’re getting ready for a sleeper bus for a few days in Hampi - a city on the UNESCO world heritage list.

Now for the much anticipated update on India…

I got sick.  We’re talking loss of control of some major bodily functions type of sick.  I’m better now, but avoiding spicy fod for a while.  The neat thing is that I saw a doctor and got two different  prescription medicines for 70 rupees.  That’s $1.55 for a doctor visit plus medication!!  They say the US has the best available healthcare (and if I need a major surgery, that’s where I want to be), but geez, we’re paying out the arse for all the little things…

Anyway, on the 20th, Sreekanth went rock climbing while I hiked around the hills and took pictures.  It was a really cool rock formation about an hour South of Bangalore.  They didn’t have a harness to fit me, or time before the rock face got too hot for me to climb, but I had plenty of fun hiking around and snapping photos. 

That afternoon, we caught a bus to Mysore, met Sreekanth’s parents, and crashed there for the night.  The next day we hired a cab to take us to the Kabini River Lodge near the Rajiv Ghandi National Park.  This lodge used to be the private hunting grounds for the Maharaja of Mysore, and has hosted such dignitaries as Prince Edward and Admiral Halsey back in the 1920’s…  so it was pretty nice.

We met my friend Roopa there with her husband and brother.

Before lunch, we walked thru the camp and saw some local insects, birds, and monkeys.

After lunch and a brief stint in the tree house play area before a quick nap and then setting out on the safari.

Unfortunately, I started feeling bad about an hour after lunch, but held in the discomfort to ‘enjoy’ the safari.  It was worth it, but painful.  We saw spotted deer, peacocks, monkeys, wild boar, wild elephants, eagles, woodpeckers, wild cattle, and a host of other animals.

The grounds of the lodge were on the riverbank between 2 national parks that boast the largest density of 3 different apex predators of any park in Asia (tigers, spotted panthers, and wild dogs).  One reason there are so many predators is that the park is well protected from poachers, and there is an abundance of prey - especially spotted deer.  Since the safaris are only allowed in about 5% of the park, we didn’t see any of these.  They did mention sighting a tiger in our camp a few days before, but that didn’t do much for me - having not seen it.

The next day we took another jeep safari in the morning, and went out on the crocodile infested river in a native craft not too dissimilar from a 5 ft diameter upside down wicker umbrella covered in tar.

A bit after that, we took a boat safari in the late afternoon.  I thought I was feeling better, but lost it on the boat ride (again, about an hour after lunch).

The river was damned in the 70’s to create a reservoir, which aside from forcing the relocation of a few villages, also has some unforseen advantages…  Many plantations has blocked the migratory paths of elephants during the dry season to the lush mountains.  Now, grasses grow year round, so the elephants can stay and are not killed as frequently by the electric fences of the plantations along their old migration paths.  The practical upshot of this is that there are wild elephants everywhere - among a number of other animals…