frustrations in india

one of the places that i was really looking forward to visiting while in india was darjeeling. and I was especially riding the toy steam train up the himalayas to get there. and yes, part of my desire was prompted by having watched the darjeeling limited. but also, darjeeling is supposed to be this really amazing town in the himalayas and i really liked the idea of getting into the mountains. but getting here from agra (where we saw the taj mahal) was no easy feat.

you can pretty much get anywhere in india via trains, but you spend an exorbinant amount of time getting from point a to point b, often times having to stop at point z, q, and l along the way. we only wanted to stay in agra for a day, just to see the infamous taj mahal. annette has already been here, and agra is a wicked dump of a city. so we wanted our stay to be as short as possible. we had even thought of getting into agra (after being on a 10-hour overnight train), hustling ourselves to the taj and then getting back on a train out that evening to head to darjeeling. but we should have known that nothing is that easy, especially in a massive city like agra.

as soon as we got off the train we were accosted by this man, saleem, who is a rickshaw driver/hustler. one of the things that people do when they want things from you is bombard you as soon as you get off the train in order to confuse you, i think. and you really don't know which way is up. we were just trying to make our way over to the ticket counter to get our next train tickets and saleem just kept telling us that it was not possible to go to darjeeling from there and we had to go to this town called new jailapurgi and that there was no train, blah blah, blah. usually i am pretty passive when it comes to people hustling me, but i was in a particularly foul mood so i started gettng snippy. and as the morning unfolded, i got angrier and angrier. the bureaucracy in this country is pretty unbelievable. there are 10 people behind the glass and only one person is actually working, if you can even call it that, while the others watch and drink chai. and lines do not in any way matter here. yu can just be standing in line and then 5 people will push to the front. being the tourist you don't know what is going on initially, because you were taught to respect line so you end up waiting and waiting and waiting and being a sucker until you can't do it anymore and then you become a royal bitch. and by "you", i mean me.

when we finally got to speak to rhe man behind the glass, he told us we couldn't buy tickets there and we had to go to delhi, which is 3 hours away, in order to go to a foreign tourist bureau to get to darjeeling, which i knew for a fact was BS. so i started getting mad at him and the asshole just sat there with this smug look on his face saying there was nothing he could d, but he could not sell us tickets to darjeeling. so then we asked him to sell us tickets to delhi, just so we had a plan of action out of agra, but he said he could not sell us tickets to delhi.
it was like i was asking the local butcher to book my train tickets. i mean, this is the ticket person at the ticket counter at the train statin. but i was the crazy tourist who wanted him to sell me a goddamn train ticket. he kept saying we had to go to another train station. eventually we got so frustrated, we walked out and guess who we met? our friend saleem. and then saleem proceeded to tell us that of course we could buy tickets to delhi from there and that the man just didn't want to help tourists. saleem offered to go buy the tickets for us. and of course, my tourist hairs stood on end a bit, sure that he was trying to rip us off. but we were so tired (and i was very hungry) so we acquiesced, and went back to the train station. We waited for saleem to get us tickets; which he did, although we were wait listed. i kept asking him what would happen if we didn't get on the train and he kept saying that we would and we went back and forth like this for a bit before i had to just give in and assume that we would get on the train.

after this delightful experience, saleem took us to our hotel (after a side trip to the travel agency of a friend of his, where we did manage to get tickets to new jailpaguri so we could move onward to darjeeling. although we did have to stay in agara an extra day, against our will). The good thing is that the hotel was just a 2 minute walk from the south gate of the taj mahal. and the great things about it was that the room was just 250 rupees, about 5 dollars for one night! and despite our pretty crappy morning, we found out that admission to the taj mahal was free the day we arrived, so we were able to save 20 dollars, which is a nice reward for our misery. obviously the taj mahal was magnificent and big and all those positive adjectives, so i will spare you the details.

our next travel venture out of agra was a 26 hour train ride, which i wasn't really all that worried about. we had been traveling in 2nd class ac sleeper cars, but opted out this time because it was 20 dollars cheaper to ride in the sleeper car. we figured we should save the money and just forgo ac. and that would have been fine, except for the fact that we were the only 2 female non-indian people on the train with mostly males. they just had no idea what to make of us. i don't think there was even one minute where we were not stared at on this journey (which ended up being 28 hours, by the way). we paid for sleeper beds, but we quickly discovered that during the day, you do not get your own bed-seat, anyone can sit on the seat you paid for, which they do. i was on the bottom bunk, so i shared my seat with anywhere from 1 to 6 people. i figured at night we would be able to lie down, and i was partially right. as it got later in the evening, less people were on the train, so i finally got to lay down. but, while i was sleeping, i felt something on my le, so i jolted up, and there were 2 kids sitting on my "bed", which was fine, but then one of the girls used my feet as a pillow and curled up right away, while the other girl curled into my knees. so i had to sleep in a cramped fetal position for a couple of hours, which was not the most comfortable. my body did adjust though and i finally fell back asleep, only to be jolted awake by a woman who had another child with her, who somehow managed to squeeze herself and her toddler into the bed with us, so we were a total of 5 people sleeping on a bed that is maybe 6 feet long and is really just a twin. needless to say, i did not sleep too well. annette, luckily, had no one bothering her because she was on the top bunk.

the other thing about this train ride is that since there was no ac you had to keep the windows open and every once in a while i would get sprayed with some kind of liquid from outside and had no idea what it was. we think maybe someone was peeing off the top of the train and we were getting some of the yummy after effects. yum. but the icing on the cake was when annette and i were sitting on my seat, playing cards, and we happened to be next to a group of the indian equivalent of frat boys who just could not stop laughing at us and talking abut us in hindi. we really didn't take to them all that much, especially when they tried sneaking pictures with their camera phones. when i decided that i really despised them was when one of the onboard toilets overflowed, which they saw. the pee and other such delights were all over the floor and seeped onto our backpacks, but they said absolutely nothing. a woman from another berth had to come and tell s so we could get our packs off the floor. all these guys did was laugh.


anyhow. As you can infer I have not had the most pleasanr last few days. But the good news is that we did get to darjeeling. And absolutely love it! So my next blog entry will be more positive. I promise. Namaste.




there are all kinds of animals walking the streets in india. cows are ubiquitous. while we were in agra we saw camels and elephants being led around by people. there are also hordes of wild pigs and goats rummaging through trash. actually all the animals rummage through the trash, i think. look how skinny this camel is...the state of the animals here (like many of the people) is quite grim.


monkeys are also all over the cities of india, mostly these red-faced monkeys. i love, love, love the monkeys (as i am sure i have mentioned before). but sadly, they do not all love me. while we were at the fort in agra, we stopped to look at this family of monkeys. i was in monkey heaven. there were also these kids getting kind of riled up by the monkeys and one of the moneys in a different part of the lawn let out a warning cry at the kids, which riled up the other monkeys sitting on the lawn where i was. all of the sudden, the monkey you see in the picture, looked at me with such hatred in its eyes, jumped the fence, shrieked, and started chasing me. i started running and shrieking too, trying to copy the monkey's sound so it would leave me alone. it came within an in inch of swiping my leg and biting me. now every time i see a red-faced monkey in the city, i am terrified. there were a group of them sitting at the train station and i couldn't walk down the stairwell, i was so on edge. i hope this new phobia leaves me soon.


this is me looking on with disgust as annette makes me stand in another embarassing pose picture. she knows i hate them, which is why she makes me do them. these pictures are a constant source of humiliation for me. alas, annette's rock-hard heart does not care.

these are the little rickshaws, or tuk tuks, that careen us about town. this will also be the last thing i see as i die on the roads in india.

the people in india are constantly asking the whiteys if they can take pictures with them. seeing as annette is the whitey in our dyad, she gets asked quite frequently. as soon as she is asked, i run away, and sometimes secretly take her picture from afar. even at the taj mahal, people were taking more pictures of her than they were of the actual building. it is pretty hilarious because it is not me.

Oh, india, how i have a love hate-relationship with her. There are ups and downs. We are at odds constantly, but that challenge keeps me on my toes.

This blog will have no pictures because I have yet to find a computer that uploads at a decent rate. But I will share some of the highlights and post pictures when I get a chance.

We began in mumbai, the land of bollywood. Despite my love of all things glamorous, I did not get a glimpse of. But I did get to eat at Leopold's, the cafe where Gregory David Roberts, the author of Shantaram, spends a great deal of time (at least in the book he did). There are so many people there looking for a similar experience as to the Lindsay character of the book, but I have to say as exciting as it was to be there just to say that I was there, I did not experience the magic that was painted in the book. But that happens when you try to force an experienec, I guess. But I am happy to have visited, nonetheless.

After Mumbai, we hopped on a 16 hour train ride to Udaipur, which is northeast of Mumbai. The train ride was not too bad because it was broken up into 2 parts. The second part was in a sleeper car, which we shared with 2 Finnish women. So it was pretty easy going.

Once we arrived in Udaipur, it was apparent that we had left the constant bombardment of city life. Don't get me wrong, it was still hectic, but it had more of a smaller town feel than the ginormous, cacophonous city of mumbai. Here we just walked around and looked at the various sights, which included lots of places to buy clothes and bags. There were also a lot of temples, some of them more impressive than others. One of my favorite experiences was at dusk when all the lights of the town started to glimmer and the prayers of the jain temple filled the air with their rhythmic chanting.

Here in Udaipur we got to have chai with a couple of shop owners. And although we knew on some level that they were buttering us up with their sweet chai and charming conversation so we could buy things, it didn't take anything away from the actual conversations we had. First, there was Gopal, who was an arrist. He painted these tiny, ornate pictures with a paintbrush that was made of one hair from a squirrel's tail. With him, we discussed friendship, loyalty, and Indian vs. American education. He was a very wise man. And as it turns out, a great business person. Annette liked him so much that she didn't even bargain for the pieces she bought. And she is the queen of bargaining.

We also had tea with Dinesh, who owned a store that sold stereotypical, Indian looking bags (of which I bought 4). He told us a little about domestic lives, including the inner workings of marriages. He also gave us the wise advice of never trusting rickshaw drivers because they are apparently players and convince foreign women that they are bachelors, when in fact they have a wife and 4 kids at home. It was funny remembering this tidbit when we went to agra and met an obnoxious, pushy rickshaw driver named Saleem (who actually ended up helping us out a lot) who as it turns out was having an affair with a french woman staying at our hotel. Pretty hilarious.

Ok, that is all for now. I am caked in layers of dirt, grime, and possible urine that I should go attempt to rinse off now. See, what I mean about India? She brings so many adventures, but at the same time keeps me in my place by showing me who is boss.

hiking in australia

some of you who know me may not know that one of my biggest fears is rocks. specifically, wet rocks. i know this sounds ridiculous, but rarely have i encountered a rock that i have tried to step on that has not tried to make me topple over. even when we were in south africa, we did a hike up a rocky gorge to the top of tabletop mountain. now, the going up is no problem. and if i may toot my own horn, i am pretty adept at climbing rocks, but coming down is a whole other story. as we were coming down the gorge, annette asked me for some water, and that one teeny tiny question forced me to lose what focus i had and i rolled down the gorge. not once or twice, but 5 times. all i could hear was annette saying, "oh, oh" over and over. i was rolling down pretty slowly with all my limbs splayed about, but still it felt like i may never stop. i was fine in the end, just received a gash on my right arm and some bruises (my ego probably the most bruised). but this just illustrates how i am constantly facing a losing battle with these damned rocks.

despite my fear of going down rocks and crossing wet rocks (my absolute nemesis), i decided to do a hike in lamington national park that involved a river crossing. i figured that since i would be on my own, it would be a good time to face my fear and cross that river like the tough girl that i am. and that would have been all fine and good if there was just one river crossing. but there were 8. to be honest, i did not do the first crossing very gracefully, but i was able to maintain some semblance of standing (and oh how proud i was!). but when i got to the second crossing, panic set in, and instead of stepping on the wet rocks, i just walked into the river, up to my knees in the water. at this point, i thought that the worst was over, but alas, ther was another crossing about 500 meters up the trail. now this time i could not just walk into the river, because i could not see how deep the water was and i did not want to swim, so instead i had the bright idea of crawling on all fours across the rocks. and that is what i did for not just this river crossing, but for the other 5 that were there to meet me. yes, i looked like an idiot, but the rocks did not get the best of me (at least not really)!



i was hoping to see koalas on this hike, but all i saw was this sign...




my wet legs and muddy feet after my step into the river




undaunted by the perils that i have faced crossing the treacherous river




the treacherous river




the hike was peppered by many small waterfalls...i hiked down to the bottom of the waterfalls and to the river




as i was walking, all of the sudden i saw this blue lobster...i have no idea where it came from or why it was there...but it kept me company for a bit before scuttling off...so pretty




weird looking tree that i encountered...it was so tall that i couldn't even see where it stopped as it went into the clouds...almost like jack's beanstalk...i should have tried to climb it and see what was at the top





pretty berries...i just liked the way they looked against the background of the green leaves

south africa: kruger national park

this was one of the best experiences i have had in a national park, simply because you got to see wild animals in their natural habitats. kruger is acres and acres of land that is protected so that animals and people can "interact" in safe ways. the downside is is that you can't get out of your car all day (for obvious reasons), but the upside is that you start your day quite early and by the end you may have seen 10to 15 different species of animals. basically you drive 10 to 20 miles an hour and keep your eyes peeled. sometimes you will see animals far off in the brush, other times animals will cross the road right in front of you. a lot of times we saw monkeys and baboons just sitting in the road, chillin'. rarely were the animals too scared when the cars went by since they were so used to these sightings. we actually had elephants cross the road in front and behind us. it was amazing.

here are some pictures of some of the wild animals we saw, but this does not encompass all the animals we saw. these are annette's pictures. i already downloaded mine off my camera so didn't get a chance to upload them to the blog, seeing as how i am such an intermittent blogger.






we would often see herds of zebras together feeding on the grass. they really look like horses, but their striped patterns were quite extraordinary.



the monkeys were sooo cute. they are definitely my favorite animal. the monkeys we saw were blue bottomed ones and they would often frolic in the trees (especially the cute baby ones). also, there was a lot of monkey penises to be seen. seriously. every time i would see one sitting in the road, it's lipstick would be out full force. one time we saw a male monkey mount another male monkey before it got rejected. horny little buggers.

we (and by we, i mean annette) had one bad encounter with the monkeys. at one of the camps where we slept, we left the doors to the car open to air it out. as this was happening, annette noticed that monkeys were around so she started taking pictures. as she was photographing, i noticed that one was going into the car and then we kind of got worried. the one monkey got into the car and first tried to take my backpack, but couldn't lift it because it was too heavy. then it tried to steal a bag of food, but it was also too heavy. annette tried banging on the windows to get it out, but it hissed at her and then went for her ankles. finally the monkey got out by making away with 2 plums. i didn't really mind that it took 2 plums, but it made me sad that the monkey didn't share with its friend.




we were so lucky to see a male and female lion just laying and sunning themselves by the side of a dirt road we were on. when this picture was taken, we were just sitting in the car right next to them. they were aware of us, but saw us as no threat. we got to stay and stare at their magnificence for over 20 minutes. it was amazing. i am not sure when i have been so awestruck.



i don't know if you now this, but hippos are huge. and they are awesome attackers. we saw hippos both in the water, playing and fighting, like this picture. but we would also see them and their monstrous asses waddling along in the grass, feeding. they paid us no mind, so focused were they on feeding their massive bodies. they had the cutest little ears though.




we would often see the giraffes in groups of 3-5. they are seriously tall. i know i have seen giraffes in the zoo, but the impact of how elongated their bodies are didn't hit me until i saw them in the wild. these 2 were doing some kind of mating dance, where they would keep the lower part of their bodies side by side, and swivel their neck around one another. i wanted the music from swan lake to be playing as i watched this elegant dance.





the elephant is my 2nd favorite animal. they were so incredible, lumbering along. the crazy thing about them is that despite their largesse, we would see them in a field and literally 5 seconds later, they would be hidden. it just goes to show how incredible animals of the wild are with camouflage. we saw lots of elephants on our 4 days in the park. they would be right on the side of the road or cross in front of us.






one of the hardest animals to see in the park is the cheetah because they are nocturnal hunters and they spend the majority of their day sleeping in trees. somehow the kruger gods decided to bless us and we got to see 2 cheetahs on 2 separate days. they didn't do much, just laid their lazy asses in the tree for hours on end, but it was cool just to catch a glimpse.







i love baboons. most of the people we met hated baboons and said they were mean animals, but i like them. they, like the blue bottomed monkeys, would sit in the road with their penises dangling about. but it was sweet watching them nit pick one another.