It turns out taking the bus her in India was a lot more comfortable then the 18 hr bus we took across Nepal...
We had booked a "sleeper" bus from Ahmedabad to Diu and not really knowing what it was we were pleasantly surprised to have quite a large upper berth for both Teresa and I to sleep on the 10 hr ride to Diu. It ended up being an upper berth which basically felt like we were riding on the roof of the bus the whole time and you could really feel the bus lean from side to side as it weaved in and out of traffic and felt like we were going to go flipping over quite a few times... So we slept on and off for most of the night between waking up so honking horns, screeching brakes, and bumping up an down...
When we arrived in Diu we got a rickshaw to take us over to a little hotel called "Sea Village resort," which is locate about 2 km outside of the actual town and over looks a secluded little cove. The rooms are all detached bungalow type rooms and I think that they actually were once large shipping containers. They all were pretty dirty and with out hot water, or even a shower for that matter, but the price is really really cheap and we were literally a few feet from the ocean. One really nice feature is that we had a really large porch which we probably spent the majority of time here just sitting on and watching the ocean.
The town of Diu is really pretty small and is located on the Western side of the island. It has a huge fort to the southern end, which we spent a day exploring, and is blocked off from the rest of the island by a huge wall with a moat around it that is left over from when the Portuguese settled here. The streets are all tiny and windy like the rest of India but here they are really clean and it feels more like a European town especially with all the Portuguese influenced architecture.. There are also a lot of churches instead of Hindu temples which were pretty neat to explore and all of the statues of the saints looked very different then the ones in the Catholic churches back home.
Being that our hotel was sort of out of the way and it gets really too hot to be walking all over the island we rented a little scooter to get around. It was a little nerve wracking at first, especially driving through town with all the cows, people, motorcycles, rickshaws, buses, etc.. to dodge. But once we made it out of town the rest of the island is pretty deserted and we had the roads mostly to our selves. I thought we were a spectacle before just walking around town with people always pointing and talking or staring.. but you should have seen it when they saw two white people driving around on a scooter..
Our days here in Diu basically went something like this... Wake up between 8am and noon and ride the scooter or walk into town for breakfast. Come back and lay on the beach and swim for a few hrs. Have a nice little snack and possibly a beer. Then we'd go back to laying on the beach or go exploring the island on the scooter to some of the other beaches, forts, or villages. Followed by some more laying around. Then we'd go back into town for some dinner, which I think I got sea food every night, and then go to bed and do it all again the next day.
Since our beach was pretty well secluded from the rest of the island it's where most of the westerners can go and swim with out being hassled by the drunk Indian men that are on the rest of the island. We made it up to Nagoa beach one afternoon to explore and found it almost unbearable having to deal with that many Indians who don't know how to handle their alcohol and we found ourselves having to yell at people from coming up and staring awkwardly at Teresa and from taking photos. For every 1 western girl there on the beach there was at least 50 drunk Indian men surrounding them taking pictures and staring... We decided to stick to our beach for the rest of the week.
We also drove the scooter across the island to a small fishing village on the eastern part of the island and it was really neat to explore. Although about half way there the scooter got a flat tire and we had to drive all the way back and find a puncture shop to fix the tire...which was an experience..When we finally made it over to the town it had a very laid back feel to it and there were entire forests of palm trees. There were dozens of ships being built around the town out of huge planks of wood. Everyone seemed really friendly but we still don't know any Gujarati so we didn't really understand what they were saying to us. Our plan was to hang out at a beach near the town that was supposedly always deserted but when we got there we found it to have quite a few people there and were greeted by a guy taking a crap right in front of us... so we retreated back to our little beach once again...
Today we are catching a sleeper bus back to Ahmedabad and we have a flight back to Delhi on the day after that and we are both pretty sad to go... This part of the trip really has been more of a "vacation" from traveling with out a lot of hassles and the whole island is actually pretty clean compared to the rest of India...
When we get back to Delhi on the 28th we only have about 8 days left before we fly to London so we don't really know what we are going to do.. probably just some day trips from Delhi to some of the museums and interesting things in the city. The whole country is becoming almost unbearably hot this time of year and there aren't a lot of tourists left so hopefully we can get some good deals on hotels and souvenirs...
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Friday, April 18, 2008
Rishikesh-Haridwar-Delhi-Ahmedabad-Diu
We had a change of plans while eating dinner on what was supposed to be our last night in Rishikesh before we headed off to Amritsar and then on to Dharamsala...
Fearing we were going to be traveling alongside the same pretentous hippie/traveler crowd that I had been really starting to get tired of we decided to change our plans from the "hill station" towns of the Northwest and head to a rarely traveled to town of Diu on the Arabian sea..
We are hoping that this will be a little more off the beaten path of the usual backpacker crowd and more laid back then the rest of the towns we've been to recently. Supposedly there are some pretty scenic beaches, cheap hotels, and really cheap beer.
So we canceled our train ticket to Amritsar and re booked one that left in two days going back to Delhi....as well as booked a flight from Delhi to Amdebad...
We made it back down to Delhi and found a hotel room just fine even though it was pretty late a night. The next morning (the 17th) we woke up early and tried to arrange both a hotel for that night in Ahmedabad (since we would be getting in pretty late again) and a bus the next day to Diu.
I don't know whether the phone lines are just really bad or people just didn't understand English very well but after dozens of phone calls I was unsuccessful in booking a hotel and possibly had a bus booked. Although I couldn't really tell as the girl I had talked with on the phone spoke very little English...
We decided to leave some of our luggage at the hotel we stayed at and I put a padlock on it and paid a little deposit to help insure it would still be there when we returned and we made our way to the airport, about 9 hours early, but we really didn't have much else to do. We had contemplated going to watch the Olympic torch make its way through Delhi but they wouldn't announce when it would be making its' appearance and they had overly guarded the route and didn't really let anyone near it... which kind of defeats the purpose if you ask me...
Anyways, made it to the airport and although the signs showing the status of the flights reassured me our flight was "on time" we didn't get to board until 45 minutes after our scheduled departure... After waiting on the tarmac for another half hr or so the pilots finally came rushing onto the plane claiming they were "stuck in traffic" from the torch relay and we would be leaving almost 2 hrs late... I don't really understand how the whole plane load of people managed to be there on time but the pilots didn't...
This only further added to the stress of landing in a foreign city with no hotel booked as we were now going to arrive well after midnight...
We flew on Kingfisher Airlines, which is owned by the beer company Kingfisher, and it is quite different then the rest of the airlines in India... The flight attendants, for one, wore tight little skirts in high heels. Where on the rest of the airlines the women wore Saris. And unlike flights in America our fare actually included food and a lot of it...
So we made it to Ahmedabad and got a taxi to a hotel we had found in a guide book and after a little driving around and asking for directions we were able to check in and kind of get a good nights sleep.
Since I couldn't really understand the girl on the phone when I had tried to book the bus ticket I couldn't decide if we were to be there at 9:00 am or 9:00pm.. so playing it safe we woke up early and after a little more driving around and asking for directions we made it to the travel agent. We did in fact manage to book a ticket but it wasn't until the 9:00 pm departure...
Since then we've been spending the day roaming around. Going to book stores, coffee shops, and now an Internet cafe.
There's not a lot of English spoken here...just a few key words. And they don't even speak Hindi (which we have a translation book for) but the main language it Gujarati. Which Teresa and I have no idea what any of the words look or sound like so we are kind of just winging it. Despite that fact the people here seem to be very friendly and very concerned that we make it to where we are trying to go and even though we get quite a few stares they aren't as intrusive as they are up north. Apart from the one guy sitting directly across from us on the bus from the plane last night who proceeded to take pictures of us (mainly Teresa) on his camera phone.
With any luck this time tomorrow I will be laying back on a beach on the Arabian Sea with nothing more to do for the next week or so.... I'll try to keep the blog updated
Fearing we were going to be traveling alongside the same pretentous hippie/traveler crowd that I had been really starting to get tired of we decided to change our plans from the "hill station" towns of the Northwest and head to a rarely traveled to town of Diu on the Arabian sea..
We are hoping that this will be a little more off the beaten path of the usual backpacker crowd and more laid back then the rest of the towns we've been to recently. Supposedly there are some pretty scenic beaches, cheap hotels, and really cheap beer.
So we canceled our train ticket to Amritsar and re booked one that left in two days going back to Delhi....as well as booked a flight from Delhi to Amdebad...
We made it back down to Delhi and found a hotel room just fine even though it was pretty late a night. The next morning (the 17th) we woke up early and tried to arrange both a hotel for that night in Ahmedabad (since we would be getting in pretty late again) and a bus the next day to Diu.
I don't know whether the phone lines are just really bad or people just didn't understand English very well but after dozens of phone calls I was unsuccessful in booking a hotel and possibly had a bus booked. Although I couldn't really tell as the girl I had talked with on the phone spoke very little English...
We decided to leave some of our luggage at the hotel we stayed at and I put a padlock on it and paid a little deposit to help insure it would still be there when we returned and we made our way to the airport, about 9 hours early, but we really didn't have much else to do. We had contemplated going to watch the Olympic torch make its way through Delhi but they wouldn't announce when it would be making its' appearance and they had overly guarded the route and didn't really let anyone near it... which kind of defeats the purpose if you ask me...
Anyways, made it to the airport and although the signs showing the status of the flights reassured me our flight was "on time" we didn't get to board until 45 minutes after our scheduled departure... After waiting on the tarmac for another half hr or so the pilots finally came rushing onto the plane claiming they were "stuck in traffic" from the torch relay and we would be leaving almost 2 hrs late... I don't really understand how the whole plane load of people managed to be there on time but the pilots didn't...
This only further added to the stress of landing in a foreign city with no hotel booked as we were now going to arrive well after midnight...
We flew on Kingfisher Airlines, which is owned by the beer company Kingfisher, and it is quite different then the rest of the airlines in India... The flight attendants, for one, wore tight little skirts in high heels. Where on the rest of the airlines the women wore Saris. And unlike flights in America our fare actually included food and a lot of it...
So we made it to Ahmedabad and got a taxi to a hotel we had found in a guide book and after a little driving around and asking for directions we were able to check in and kind of get a good nights sleep.
Since I couldn't really understand the girl on the phone when I had tried to book the bus ticket I couldn't decide if we were to be there at 9:00 am or 9:00pm.. so playing it safe we woke up early and after a little more driving around and asking for directions we made it to the travel agent. We did in fact manage to book a ticket but it wasn't until the 9:00 pm departure...
Since then we've been spending the day roaming around. Going to book stores, coffee shops, and now an Internet cafe.
There's not a lot of English spoken here...just a few key words. And they don't even speak Hindi (which we have a translation book for) but the main language it Gujarati. Which Teresa and I have no idea what any of the words look or sound like so we are kind of just winging it. Despite that fact the people here seem to be very friendly and very concerned that we make it to where we are trying to go and even though we get quite a few stares they aren't as intrusive as they are up north. Apart from the one guy sitting directly across from us on the bus from the plane last night who proceeded to take pictures of us (mainly Teresa) on his camera phone.
With any luck this time tomorrow I will be laying back on a beach on the Arabian Sea with nothing more to do for the next week or so.... I'll try to keep the blog updated
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Delhi-Dehra Dun-Rishikesh
Well we took a nice 7 hr train ride from the New Delhi Station and ended up in the town of Dehra Dun where we had to take an hr and a half taxi ride to the yoga capital of the world, Rishikesh..
Despite what I've heard and read, this town is in no way any cooler (temperature wise) then Delhi and in fact I think it feels much hotter... between the sweltering heat, hoards of people asking for money, the motorcycles racing down the narrow streets and having quite a few near misses, and the obnoxious "I'm better then you" hippie crowd... lets just say this town has made me a little irritable...
The actual town of Rishikesh is about 5km down the hill and is your usual town of cement boxes filled with shops and food stands and of course more then its share of garbage and feces littering the roads... but we are staying in the slightly nicer area between the Ram Jhula and Lakshman Jhula, which are the two suspension bridges that connect the West side of town to the East side over the Ganges river.. The bridges are supposedly pedestrian only, as is the Eastern part of town, but apparently nobody told the dozens of motorcycles drivers that come barreling onto the bridge and into town nearly missing dozens of people as they careen barely in control...
This northern part of Rishikesh is home to Dozens of Ashrams, Temples and Bathing Ghats. It was sort of in our plans to give the yoga and meditation jazz a try and check into one of the many Ashrams here but the majority seem to be catered towards the Indian crowds with all of the writing and teaching in Hindi. As for the ones we could understand they are barricaded behind tall fences where the tourists are shuffled in and out of via large air conditioned taxis , not wanting them to have to deal with the real part of this town, and cost way more then we could afford. So we made due with taking a couple Yoga classes that end with some "Om" chanting and meditation. The chanting and meditation weren't exactly my thing but I did sort of enjoy the Yoga part and trying to contort my body into weird positions (that left me really sore the next day) and watching the yogi bounce his limbs around is if they were disconnected from his body.
Being that this town is on the Ganges river, which is the holiest river in the Hindu religion, there are also tons of Hindus here on pilgrimage. They come here to bath in the Ghats lining the river, fill containers with the holy water to take home to loved ones who are sick, and visit the technicolored temples that look more like Disney land rides then holy sites. We have even seen a funeral procession in which a body was burned along the river banks and ashes spread into the river and every night there are dozens of butter lamps which are lit and began floating along the banks.
That whole aspect of the Hindu religion and the many Temples and statues and shrines dedicated to the different gods makes this place pretty neat to visit. All day long you can hear chanting and singing over load speakers from the different temples, the ringing of bells, uncountable numbers of Sadhus, and a rather consistent smell of weed.
There's also a fairly large rafting scene here and I originally had planned to join in on some crazy class III Ganges river action until I saw the types of people that were floating past us on the river... All paddling out of order, ignoring the guides (who didn't seem that well trained), and the river is well.. very polluted. I figured it would be more frustrating to me not being in control and having to deal with a bunch of people who had no idea what was going on and acting obnoxious and thought it best I just wait till I get back to Colorado to get back on the river...
So after 5 days in Rishikesh, which is far more then enough for me, we are headed to Amritsar tomorrow by train to Visit the Golden temple and then hopefully over to the boarder of Pakistan to watch the closing ceremonies which are supposed to be pretty entertaining...
Despite what I've heard and read, this town is in no way any cooler (temperature wise) then Delhi and in fact I think it feels much hotter... between the sweltering heat, hoards of people asking for money, the motorcycles racing down the narrow streets and having quite a few near misses, and the obnoxious "I'm better then you" hippie crowd... lets just say this town has made me a little irritable...
The actual town of Rishikesh is about 5km down the hill and is your usual town of cement boxes filled with shops and food stands and of course more then its share of garbage and feces littering the roads... but we are staying in the slightly nicer area between the Ram Jhula and Lakshman Jhula, which are the two suspension bridges that connect the West side of town to the East side over the Ganges river.. The bridges are supposedly pedestrian only, as is the Eastern part of town, but apparently nobody told the dozens of motorcycles drivers that come barreling onto the bridge and into town nearly missing dozens of people as they careen barely in control...
This northern part of Rishikesh is home to Dozens of Ashrams, Temples and Bathing Ghats. It was sort of in our plans to give the yoga and meditation jazz a try and check into one of the many Ashrams here but the majority seem to be catered towards the Indian crowds with all of the writing and teaching in Hindi. As for the ones we could understand they are barricaded behind tall fences where the tourists are shuffled in and out of via large air conditioned taxis , not wanting them to have to deal with the real part of this town, and cost way more then we could afford. So we made due with taking a couple Yoga classes that end with some "Om" chanting and meditation. The chanting and meditation weren't exactly my thing but I did sort of enjoy the Yoga part and trying to contort my body into weird positions (that left me really sore the next day) and watching the yogi bounce his limbs around is if they were disconnected from his body.
Being that this town is on the Ganges river, which is the holiest river in the Hindu religion, there are also tons of Hindus here on pilgrimage. They come here to bath in the Ghats lining the river, fill containers with the holy water to take home to loved ones who are sick, and visit the technicolored temples that look more like Disney land rides then holy sites. We have even seen a funeral procession in which a body was burned along the river banks and ashes spread into the river and every night there are dozens of butter lamps which are lit and began floating along the banks.
That whole aspect of the Hindu religion and the many Temples and statues and shrines dedicated to the different gods makes this place pretty neat to visit. All day long you can hear chanting and singing over load speakers from the different temples, the ringing of bells, uncountable numbers of Sadhus, and a rather consistent smell of weed.
There's also a fairly large rafting scene here and I originally had planned to join in on some crazy class III Ganges river action until I saw the types of people that were floating past us on the river... All paddling out of order, ignoring the guides (who didn't seem that well trained), and the river is well.. very polluted. I figured it would be more frustrating to me not being in control and having to deal with a bunch of people who had no idea what was going on and acting obnoxious and thought it best I just wait till I get back to Colorado to get back on the river...
So after 5 days in Rishikesh, which is far more then enough for me, we are headed to Amritsar tomorrow by train to Visit the Golden temple and then hopefully over to the boarder of Pakistan to watch the closing ceremonies which are supposed to be pretty entertaining...
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Pokhara-Kathmandu-Delhi
Just a short update....
We manged to book both a plane ticket and seats on a bus on the same day and it only took about 10 hours of waiting around and going through a half a dozen middle men...
When it came time to pay we wanted to use a credit card and since the hotel we were staying at had no way of doing credit card transaction they had a guy hop on a motorcycle and drive over with a credit card machine... You don't get that kind of service in the states...
The bus ride went pretty smoothly but you could really see the Maoist activity stepping up another notch. Everywhere there were flags and marches and banners supporting the Maoists..
So we manged to make it into Kathmandu and only 4 hrs behind schedule do to the traffic on the one road leading in and out of the city. We were pretty stressed out since we had to then find a travel agency we had never heard of to pick up our plane tickets for the 8th and the office was planning on closing until after the elections.
After about an hr of wandering around, asking people for directions, and a couple phone calls to the travel agency, the nice staff at the Kathmandu Guest House managed to convince the travel agent to come and meet us there instead.
With tickets in hand we wandered around and after stopping in a few places with somehow managed to stay in the same room in the same hotel that we were in the last time we were in Thamel. This time it had a TV in it and I was happy to catch up on some much missed BBC and CNN.
Two days later we were up bright and early once again and on our way to the airport. The streets were all really empty since most people had to return home to there villages to vote in the Election. Made it through the really "tight security" at the entrance to the airport ( about half a dozen people walked right around it, baggage in hand) and proceeded to wait for 3 hours until the ticket counter for our airline opened up.
We were shuffled through a few different rooms and 3 more security checks ( even one as we were boarding the plane) and we scored a window seat facing the North so we could see the mountains as we flew towards India!
This time landing in Delhi wasn't half as intimidating as it was the first time. It was broad day light and we had a pretty good grasp on what to expect. Made it through customs and picked up our baggage and expected to be horded by people as we left the airport. No such luck, everything seemed really calm here as well and we were only asked for money once....
The drive into the Pahar Ganj area too seemed pretty tame compared to how I remembered it being the first time. Maybe it's because I'm just getting used to all of it and there wasn't really any culture shock.
Pahar Ganj is still its usually dirty, dodgy self tho. Plenty of street vendors, drug dealers, and rickshaw wallahs to keep you pretty busy saying "No" or to just ignore. We have a nice hotel and have a train booked for tomorrow at 6:50am up to Derha Dun and then we are off to maybe an Ashram or possibly some rafting...
We manged to book both a plane ticket and seats on a bus on the same day and it only took about 10 hours of waiting around and going through a half a dozen middle men...
When it came time to pay we wanted to use a credit card and since the hotel we were staying at had no way of doing credit card transaction they had a guy hop on a motorcycle and drive over with a credit card machine... You don't get that kind of service in the states...
The bus ride went pretty smoothly but you could really see the Maoist activity stepping up another notch. Everywhere there were flags and marches and banners supporting the Maoists..
So we manged to make it into Kathmandu and only 4 hrs behind schedule do to the traffic on the one road leading in and out of the city. We were pretty stressed out since we had to then find a travel agency we had never heard of to pick up our plane tickets for the 8th and the office was planning on closing until after the elections.
After about an hr of wandering around, asking people for directions, and a couple phone calls to the travel agency, the nice staff at the Kathmandu Guest House managed to convince the travel agent to come and meet us there instead.
With tickets in hand we wandered around and after stopping in a few places with somehow managed to stay in the same room in the same hotel that we were in the last time we were in Thamel. This time it had a TV in it and I was happy to catch up on some much missed BBC and CNN.
Two days later we were up bright and early once again and on our way to the airport. The streets were all really empty since most people had to return home to there villages to vote in the Election. Made it through the really "tight security" at the entrance to the airport ( about half a dozen people walked right around it, baggage in hand) and proceeded to wait for 3 hours until the ticket counter for our airline opened up.
We were shuffled through a few different rooms and 3 more security checks ( even one as we were boarding the plane) and we scored a window seat facing the North so we could see the mountains as we flew towards India!
This time landing in Delhi wasn't half as intimidating as it was the first time. It was broad day light and we had a pretty good grasp on what to expect. Made it through customs and picked up our baggage and expected to be horded by people as we left the airport. No such luck, everything seemed really calm here as well and we were only asked for money once....
The drive into the Pahar Ganj area too seemed pretty tame compared to how I remembered it being the first time. Maybe it's because I'm just getting used to all of it and there wasn't really any culture shock.
Pahar Ganj is still its usually dirty, dodgy self tho. Plenty of street vendors, drug dealers, and rickshaw wallahs to keep you pretty busy saying "No" or to just ignore. We have a nice hotel and have a train booked for tomorrow at 6:50am up to Derha Dun and then we are off to maybe an Ashram or possibly some rafting...
Saturday, April 5, 2008
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