Manjinator's Blog

It's been a few months now, but here's what I reme...

2007-04-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

It's been a few months now, but here's what I remember:

We arrived in Mumbai around 2 or 3 am. The airport was much more modern and clean since the last time I'd been there in 2003. Unfortunately, that lessened the impact on the senses of stepping into India that I'd always gotten right out of the plane, with the heat and the smells and everything. The customs and immigration was unexpectedly fast and smooth. We found all our luggage on the carousel and cashed in some travellers checks for rupees. We remembered to use the relatively clean bathrooms inside the terminal rather than the really skanky ones outside, which I remembered from last time. (A few weeks later I found out they're still really skanky). In the inside bathroom, there were the usual ladies handing out toilet paper and expecting big foreigner tips. I didn't have any Indian change, so I gave her the first thing I found in my purse, something British. The woman looked at it and me with disdain, probably hoping for American money. Sorry.

As soon as we stepped outside the terminal there was the throng of greeters and drivers, holding signs with their passenger's names. We found our driver, who we'd booked through our travel agency, and followed him through the crowd, pushing our luggage cart. As soon as we entered the parking lot we were greeted by friendly men welcoming us to India. One of them insisted on pushing the cart for us and I stupidly let him. I was so excited about being in India I forgot to think. I wish the driver had given us some advice then. Our van was only a few yards away, and the man wanted $20 (US) for loading our luggage. Too late for bargaining, I made a show of outrage, told him that was ridiculous and gave him a few hundred rupees instead (which is actually pretty generous), and he took it. Our first learning experience.

This van, like most of our transportation for the trip, was big and modern and air conditioned and I chafed at the windows being closed. Mom and I sat in the back and Danny up front. We were off to Pune. Driving from the airport through Bombay to the Pune expressway, the city was surprisingly quiet in the middle of the night, and there was little traffic to slow us down. I remember when we were young and the planes landed during daylight hours how chaotic and exciting the drive to my great aunts' house in Matunga would be after just arriving in India, how shocking and fascinating the sight of all the people living in shacks beside the road, children playing and sleeping beside them, the enormous stinking slums. Now all the shops were shut and there were more dogs in the streets than people. Occasionally we'd see groups of men standing together, or walking or cycling down the road.

Once we got on the highway Danny got his first chance to experience Indian traffic. This driver was relatively conservative and the highway not very crowded, but it's still an interesting and scary experience to a newbie. The driver turned on the radio and played the MTV influenced pop songs that we would hear everywhere. I was surprised at the number of radio stations available, with the DJ's doing American style DJ talk in Hindi. On the way we stopped at a travel plaza for a tea and bathroom break. We got to Abu Mama's house in Pune about 3 hours later.

Mama and Mami were up waiting for us with hugs and happy to meet Danny, and soon we all went to bed. Mama and Mami are wonderful hosts and their house is perfect for company. There was a bedroom for Mom and one for Danny and me. I guess I slept a little, but for the first few days I'd wake up before 5 am because of the jetlag. I enjoy getting up early and seeing the sunrise in India, although back home I'm rarely up before 9 or 10.

I'd be up at 5 am sneaking around the kitchen trying to make some tea. For that reason, this time I'd remembered to bring an immersion heater and tea mug and tea bags so I could make a big American sized cup of tea anytime I wanted some without bothering anybody. Indian tea is lovely but the cups are so tiny! Mom would get up early too and we'd have early tea together. Eventually, everyone else would get up, and there would be the official morning tea with biscuits, followed about an hour later by breakfast. Ravi and Suharna, their housekeepers who have been with them for years, who live with their two sons in a small house in the back yard, would get up around sunrise and start the breakfast preparations. Breakfast would be something yummy and not at all low carb, like pohay, or upamma.

Mama and Mami took a liking to Danny and were pleased and amazed by his appetite, although Danny told me that he just didn't know how to say no to Mami's urging. All the same, the food was delicious. Home style Maharashtrian food is my favourite cuisine, and every meal there was a feast.

I love Mama and Mami's house, which Mama designed. It's a two story surrounded by a pretty walled in paved garden / yard. The upstairs is rented out and they live on the ground floor. There is a terrace on the roof. It's not at all a big house by American standards, but perfectly roomy and comfortable and appealing. Like many Indian houses of the well off, it has high ceilings and cool tile floors. Many art works are on display. The living room is open to the dining room, which opens into the back patio via french doors. It's lovely to sit at the dining table in the early morning with the french doors open and feel the cool morning breeze and hear the early morning noises of people getting up and about in the neighborhood, the kids heading off to school and the fruit and vegetable vendors with their carts calling their wares. Mama likes to sit on the patio in the morning and read his newspapers.

Eventually we'd head off to take our baths, after Mami announced that the water was hot. Like most houses we went to, the water heaters are only turned on right before bathing.

Mama took Danny and me to the nearby vegetable market, where all the sellers know him well and greeted us happily. I had my camera out and took pictures of the market, and Danny watching Abu Mama buy vegetables.

The neighborhood had changed a lot in the past 4 years. Senapati Bapat road, the main road near their house, used to be full of medium sized shops and businesses, and some vacant lots, which last time I was there had been occupied by a community of travelling camel owners living in straw tents.

Now those vacant lots had big, modern shopping complexes with fancy department stores selling expensive western brands. There was a Piramyd department store, and a Crossword book store, which had open shelves for browsing books, and even had couches, like a small Barnes and Noble. Until recently, at any Indian book store, all the books would be behind the counter, and you would have to tell the salesman what you wanted.

Although a lot of people like the modern department stores, I still prefer shopping at the small old fashioned shops in the traditional crowded shopping districts like Laxmi road. That's a unique experience you can't get back here, and it turned out I got better and cheaper clothes in the small shops. Later, Abu Mama took us all shopping at another big department store, Shopper's Stop. It had an underground parking garage and a guard at the entry. Made us feel like VIPs or something. Mom and I got a few salwar kameez sets, and Danny got a couple of Kurtas. (At first he called them kutras (dog) which we all found hilarious, and keep reminding him of.) Danny was surprised that the store's PA was playing some western pop song. I forget what it was. Unfortunately Mami wasn't feeling well so we went home.

Later, I took Danny out for a stroll on Senapati Bapat road. It was an adventure just crossing the street, which took us several minutes. There were several 'pavement dwellers' sitting around on the sidewalk, and as soon as they saw white Danny, two little children in rags started chasing after us asking for money. They were persistent and kind of scary. We didn't have any money on us to give, and finally Danny got that message through to them with a 'I've got nothing on me' gesture.

It was a life of leisure for us. We'd nap at naptime with everyone else, then have afternoon tea with snacks. When Ravi and Suharna were done with their work, they'd get to watch the tv. Ravi and the boys watched cricket with Abu Mama and Suharna would watch the Marathi evening soap operas with Mami. Usually by that time (10 pm or so) I'd be very sleepy and go to bed.

Out last item of business in Pune was to stop at the travel agency to pick up our tickets for our trip to Kerala. I'd use all opportunities travelling around town in the car and stopping in different parts of town to take photographs and film. I met the travel agent who I'd corresponded with for weeks by email. With our itinerary finalized and paid for, we were ready to head off to Kerala the next day.

the Planning : We decided to go in January - Febr...

2007-03-16T15:28:00.000-07:00

the Planning :

We decided to go in January - February because the weather would be most pleasant and it was convenient for our schedules. This left me plenty of time to research and plan our itinerary. Last time, in 2003, Mom and I had started a new travelling MO - we would spend only part of the time visiting relatives, and part of the time travelling to cool destinations outside the usual places - last time it was Karnataka, including Bangalore, Mysore, Belur, Halebid, and most memorably, Hampi.

This time, we decided the cool destination would be Kerala. There was no shortage of useful information about kerala tourism on the internet. It has become quite a popular tourist destination with the local government's encouragement, and there is pretty good infrastructure for travelling - eg plenty of hotels and decent roads. We're not the roughing it types, especially with Mom, and Danny the couch-potato who's never been outside the US. I decided we would have to see the backwaters on a houseboat, the mountain town of Munnar, and some beach location, all of which were supposed to be marvellous places to visit. I had read that the Kovalam area was getting kind of crowded and touristy, so I was thinking we'd go to Varkala, or some lesser known beach instead. I checked out some hotel web sites and was surprised to see that they were almost comparable to US hotel prices, often over $100 a night, not nearly as cheap as the places we'd stayed at in Karnataka a few years ago. I figured the internet rates were inflated for foreign tourists, and according to people on Indiamike, you can get much cheaper rates if you know where to look. I'd also always found the thought of staying in posh resorts in India kind of distasteful and pointless, defeating the purpose of experiencing India. I was hoping we could stay at some more down to earth, but clean and comfortable, place where we could easily experience the local culture. Mom suggested that I ask my uncle in India to suggest places.

Abu Mama took our request to a travel agency, and contrary to my intentions, they sent us recommendations for more expensive resort type hotels. I was seriously considering re-directing them to find us something a little humbler, but after looking into their recommendations a bit, I was seduced. They had scenic locations, comfortable rooms, nice restaurants - with alcohol! What the heck, why not splurge a bit to stay at a fancy place for once. It's certainly cheaper than anything comparable in the US or Europe. Who knows, we might even enjoy the spa treatments. I was most concerned that the resorts would be too isolated from local population, or snooty and discouraging guests from meeting local people. Once when we were staying at a nice, but not too posh resort place in Karnata, I tried to go for a walk in the rural surroundings. Shortly, a young man drove up to me on a scooter - he had been sent to guide me by the worried hotel manager who didn't think a tourist should be walking around in the village (which from my experience was populated by very nice, friendly people).

Anyway, we ended up creating an itinerary with our choices of hotels from their list. We would arrive in Mumbai late on Jan. 14, drive overnight to Pune, and spend two days at Abu Mama's. Then we'd drive back to the Mumbai airport on the 16'th to fly to Trivandrum, and drive to the Coconut Bay Beach Resort about 30 minutes away, a few miles away from Kovalam, to stay for 3 nights. Next we'd drive to Alleppy and spend 24 hours on a backwater houseboat cruise. Next, we'd drive to Munnar and spend two nights at the Tall Trees Resort, then drive to Cochin, spend a night at the Avenue Regent, then fly back to Mumbai. We would have a single car and driver with us for the whole trip. Yes, we would be spoiled American Tourists.

My 2007 visit to India

2007-03-02T12:43:00.000-08:00

I'm going to try to write about my recent trip to India on this blog. It's been about three weeks since we got back, and I'm worried about forgetting the small, interesting details if I don't write about it now. I was going to wait until I had pictures to post along with the words, but with my combination of being too busy, too lazy and too obsessive, and having thousands of pictures to go through, that would take weeks.

I had been vaguely planning on going to India in late 2006 - early 2007, three years since my last trip, for at least a year. The urge got stronger when I started reading IndiaMike.com and the online journals of some other westerners about their travels in India. They reminded me that I was about due for that jolt of India I need every few years to revitalize me from the stupor of office work and suburban home in Durham NC.

Quotes from Indiamike about why they go to India:

wow - the traffic, crowds, pollution and touts - sounds strange but its actually making me miss it more! you'll grow from this my friend
India is a great elixir for the bored, serious shock therapy for the burn-outs, and the world's largest roller coaster for all adrenaline junkies ..... that's why!
We were a bit afraid of the crowds and the hassle with people in advance too. Read a lot about how awful India would be and stuff.. And I, myself, do not like crowds or busy streets either.. Once I accepted some facts of how things go in India and rediscovered my humour in going about with people I did not have a single serious problem. Although I expected to hate India afterwards, I must say I _LOVE_ India and especially the people!! (BenV)
I can relate... the thought of jostling noisey crowds at the local shopping centre on a Sat morning leaves me feeling like I'd rather stick hot pins in my eyes, and who likes to be hassled or ripped off?But somehow in India you manage to take it all in your stride and it even becomes part of the fun. Immerse yourself and you'll love it; see past the pollution and poverty, talk to the locals, take photo's of the kids and see the fun it creates, take the trains and remember to take each day for the totally unique experience it will be... or stand back on the sidelines and India will stand back from you...I know which is more fun.'Shantaram' is a great book if you want some inspiration, and Hampi is a great place to escape to if it all becomes too much. (IndiaMad)
But I think if you are the kind that deep down knows that there is more to life than the "sterile environs, and monotonous hum drum activities" that are normal to the so called developed countries, you will most certainly be impressed with the chaos that is India. Life after all is chaos isn't it, we just try to control it by being organized and thinking we are vry important to this universe. Being in India certainly dispels all such illusions as one realizes how ultraminiscule each one of us in the grand scheme called life It's my day for philosphic musings (LadyVetPhd)

General impressions of this visit:

too many things too do in too little time! too many people to visit (but I love them)! Not enough free time to walk around and take pictures thoughtfully. Too much time in moving cars or trains, seeing beautiful scenes but not being able to stop and take a good picture. Not even having open windows because the air is unhealthy.

comfort vs. seeing the 'real India'. the more you pay for your travel arrangements, the more comfortable it is, and the less interesting.