Selina's Travel Blog

2006-01-22T22:55:00.000-08:00

Photos

So this is it, there'll be no more posts since there'll be nothing to post about. From now on, adventures will consist of going out for a beer on Fridays after work.

But stay tuned if you would like to see photos from the trip. I took 2G worth so surely there'll be something worth seeing in there. I'll post the URL once i've uploaded - give me a week :)

2006-01-22T06:38:00.000-08:00

Damn Customs

I am SO pissed off. So last night in Bangkok i bought my mum the best present ever, one of those electronic tennis-racket things for zapping mozzies. It was so awesome, nice dark blue colour, had a lightnight bolt in the middle and everything. And you could pull out the pins, stick it in a power socket and recharge! It even had a cool little light on it for in case you're in a dark room with no electricity i suppose. Anyway, I reckon that is my proudest purchase, got it down to 100 baht inclusive of a thai-aus plug converter. So what do you reckon happens to me at perth airport?? The damn customs people seize it!! Yes I have an official seizure notification. Most ridiculous thing I ever heard! How is one suppose to protect oneself from insects if the latest technology in mosquito elimination (given not very humane - though who can say getting zapped hurts more than getting squashed?) is unjustly denied us in this supposedly civilised country of ours? I am so angry. I bet some smug customs official is having fun swatting mozzies with MY ( i mean my mum's) mozzie swat. BAH!!

So anyway, as you can tell. I have returned. My trip is over. I am already bored, and it isn't even 3 days yet as originally predicted. I'm going to fall over whenever I go to a restaurant and look at the prices on the menu, or when i go shopping and see a price tag. I'm going to be haggling with the myer salespeople. Ack.

2006-01-21T09:08:00.000-08:00

Third time in bangkok doesn't make it any nicer

I've decided the only thing nice in bangkok is the shopping. Would you believe we missed the bloody boat yesterday (travel agent's fault) and had to come back today (arrived 8pm, our plane leaves tomorrow morning), which means...WE DIDN'T GET OUR FULL DAY OF SHOPPING!!!! i was SOOOoo angry with the travel agent, the poor guy. I gave him so many evils as he was rebooking our ticket, and made him pay for another night's accommodation (with airconditioning of course). It didn't turn out too bad in the end, we went to Shark Bay which was on the south of the island hoping to do some snorkelling. it looked gorgeous from the outside, a little isolated bay with white sand, crystal blue water, palm trees, the entire postcard thing happening. Well really the whole island is one big postcard. After hiring all the gear, we started paddling along in the water... ok kinda murky, visibility maybe 1m. swim swim. ok saw one fish. swim swim. more sand, some rocks. one fish. swim swim. brown coral, brown fish. yuck. poor brown fish, i'm sure their personalities are just as wonderful as those of the bright yellow and blue striped fishies, but unfortunately there's just no demand for you except perhaps for dinner. So anyway the snorkelling was crap and i was getting pretty scared as we swam away from the shore and the visibility decreased, imagining a great white suddenly appearing from the murky depths. I don't think i'll ever get over the whole swimming in the ocean thing. I'm just not comfortable with it. Even standing on the edge of the boat all decked out in scuba gear and reading to jump in, i feel pretty apprehensive. But once I'm down there, and breathing, and the water is clear and theres so many wonderful things to see, then its all good. So, diving good, swimming bad.

We walked back to the main road in disappointment and were just about to get a taxi when we spotted a road going down to another beach (Freedom Beach). It was quite pretty and there was still some sun since it was on the west side of the island now. Sonya shade-baked (she doesn't like the sun), and I went out on a kayak around the bay and watched the sun set while floating on the sea. it was gorgeous, one of the best i've seen on this trip. The sea was like blue satin tinged with pink and orange. If i cupped my hands around my eyes and looked at the sun disappearing into the water, it was like i was completely alone in the middle of the ocean. Of course every now and then, i'd here a 'plop' in the water nearby and see the ripples from some kind of disturbance of the surface, and my mind would start running through images of a gigantic shark lurking beneath the surface and all of a sudden leaping out in front of my kayak and taking a large chunk of it out with its huge teeth. i calmed myself down enough to enjoy the sunset, but there was always that little bit of fear at the back of my mind. I think it will always be there. ESPECIALLY since we went to this 'beach party' later that night which ended up being a screening of Jaws, but with the music remixed by a DJ. At least we got a free cocktail.

So now we're in big old bangkok again, we arrived around 8pm, ran around for about an hour trying to find a hotel room, but to no avail. realising this was taking up precious shopping time we have decided to camp out at the airport. khao san rd is absolute mayhem, filled to the brink with tourists, thais, tourists with thais. Anyway we are still here, we're going to repack our bags soon and come up with some genius ways of creating space that doesn't exist to put our shopping. then i've got a 6 hour appointment with an airport bench. i guess we'll have to work out some kind of sentry duty system. goodbye thailand, thanks for all the cheap rubbish!

2006-01-19T01:46:00.000-08:00

Me, Newly Accredited Open Water Diver

I am a scuba diver!!! i am officially allowed to hire equipment and go off on my own and throw myself into the ocean. Sonya came with us today for our last 2 dives, it was awesome, really really cool we went down to 16m, really good visibility, loads and loads of colourful fish and coral everywhere, so beautiful. I keep forgetting to put sunscreen on my legs, and am now sporting the worst tan line ever from the wet suit. I look like I'm wearing dark brown stockings!! ARGH!

So this is the final final episode. Tomorrow its back to Bangkok for some seriously last minute intensive shopping, then home again to my own bed, which i will appreciate for all of 3 days before I want to go somewhere else again.

See you soon!!

2006-01-17T04:47:00.000-08:00

Breathing underwater

So, 5 pairs of shoes later we decided it was probably time to leave MBK and find our bus. But of course not before flirting with some guys at the money exchange place first. It just goes to show, the random places one can pick up when overseas. He said he was a pilot, and i almost swooned, just looked him and giggled continuously for about 30 seconds while he stared at me confused. Anyway, i didn't really pick him up, we had a bus to catch and all. Let me talk about the bus now. Sonya almost cried when we got on, it was so damn nice. Double decker, new and clean, big screen tv and a toilet onboard. They even gave out blankets!! First time I actually slept on an overnight bus. The 3 hour ferry ride was also sublimed, compared to the transport modes we were used to in india. And to top it off, we got a TV in our room. I don't think I can handle any more of this luxury.

I started the diving course yesterday and we did the confined dive today in the pool. Was awesome, can't wait to go into the sea tomorrow. Koh Tao is really quiet, at least more than i expected. I guess everyone is on Koh Phanagan or however you spell it for the full moon parties. Its quite a pretty island, i'm not sure how it compares to the others since i haven't been anywhere else but i'm satisfied.

Since no one comments my blog, I will assume it is not being read. That makes me feel sad and unloved. (ie please fix :)

2006-01-14T21:29:00.000-08:00

Back to Bangkok

I have serious culture shock from the India - Thailand transition. I can't get used to seeing scantily clad thai girls clinging to old western men, EVERYWHERE. I think we accidentally wandered into the red light district last night. Or maybe it was just a normal thai street, who knows.

But at least I can eat the food without too much fear now. And we got a pretty good deal for the scuba diving course, poor guy... me and sonya are pretty lethal with our bargaining now. Every 300B we save means another pair of nice shoes from MBK.

2006-01-13T08:28:00.000-08:00

One Final Post from India

I'm in Chennai airport, waiting to go through the last security check. Thought I'd log in for one last posting from amazing, insane India. Everything in the airport doubles in price. And everything in Chennai is already at least double the price of Alleppey. Our last meal there cost us 6 rupees each (that's less than 20c - ok so the place was dodgey as hell and the bean curry was served out of huge slopping buckets but hey). I'm quite sad actually, about leaving. It hasn't even sunk in yet, I feel like i'm just taking another trip to some other place in India. But this is it... it's the end... our 49th and final day here. Back to normality and a quiet grudging acceptance of an ordinary and predictable life. Nah it's not so bad, I reckon I'll be back soon. People say you either love India or hate it. I'm not sure it's as simple as that. I can't say I love it, that sounds like I would want to live here and i'm definitely not sure about that. All I know is, every day i've been here has seen so much variety and colour, all my senses are being constantly assaulted in both pleasant and disgusting ways, i am still constantly amazed by little things, there's been such emotional extremes, and i've learnt so incredibly much, beyond haggling. And I've done things I would never do back home - from taking crazy risks to losing my temper at strangers, or cutting in line and other rude but usually necessary things.

There is no way you can get bored in this place. What a constrast it is to Perth... beautiful, clean, quiet, peaceful Perth. Expensive, slow, inconvenient, isolated Perth. But it's home, and i'm very excited about seeing a clean shower and my own bed, soon.

We still have a week somewhere in south-east asia, we will have to decide tomorrow in bangkok where we'll spend it.

G'bye to India, I'll be back don't worry about that.

2006-01-12T21:37:00.000-08:00

Too much food, not enough stomach space

We are in Chennai. It is our last day in India. We've been singing our India song to everyone we meet, well Sonya is a little shy so its mostly been me making an arse of myself. But they seem to enjoy it.

I think I've been a little over enthusiastic about the return to Indian food cos i'm having stomach issues again, but its okay cos i've got our favourite things to think about.

2006-01-10T23:34:00.000-08:00

Our favourite things - by Sonya & Selina
(sang to the tune of My Favourite Things from Sound of Music)
(with changes)

Restaurants on rooftops serve thali & chai
Temples & markets, mosques built up high
Dark alleys used as a public latrine
These are a few of our favourite things

Bright coloured sarees & puppets & gypsies
Temples on hilltops & middle aged hippies
Grand ancient palaces built for the kings
These are a few of our favourite things

Warm sandy beaches & Nepali waiters
Tandoori snapper & Israeli ravers
Plenty of churches to redeem our sins
These are a few of our favourite things

Sleek wooden houseboats & oily massages
Idlis & dosas & unripe bananas
Songs that keep singing in our hearts & dreams
These are a few of our favourite things

When the body aches, when the belly stings
When we want to chuck
We simply remember our favourite things
Then India is worth our buck!

2006-01-08T04:16:00.000-08:00

The Yes Girls

Our last night in Palolem, i played 2 games of soccer until dark, the second with the israelis and some local indian guys who turned out to be from the junior national team. I go where the soccer goes, so i went for a night time swim with the indian boys then for a few beers.

The trip to Kerala was quite an adventure. The overnight bus was horrible and dropped us off at 5.30am in some obscure part of Mangalore. We got to the bus station, found out there were no buses for another 15 hours, then someone told us there was a train that was leaving in 10 minutes. So we leapt into the nearest rickshaw and got to the train station at 6.30am which was when the train was suppose to leave. We cut in line and bought two tickets then raced to the platform just as the train was speeding up. So what do we do? We run along with the train, grab the railing and jump on while the rail guards scream behind us. For a while there I thought Sonya wasn't gonna make it cos her bag was so heavy but we got there and turned out we were in the ladies compartment.

More to come.

----
so anyway that was 6.30am we jumped onto the moving train and we eventually got to alleppey at around 7.45pm. in between, we made two train changes, ate massive amounts of train food (ie from people selling random stuff from outsde the window. once i started buying i couldn't stop), learnt to eat rice with my hands, sat for a few hours on the luggage racks, made friends with plenty of indian girls who spoke little english but were really sweet.

Yesterday we went out with the intention of going on a public ferry to see the backwaters (what Kerala is famous for, actually apparently Appelley is another Venice of the East), anyway we got distracted and ended up buying some churidhars (will explain what they are later - will show pics) and ended up going to the shop owners house with his wife and she fed us keralan chicken fry. For dinner we went to India Coffee House, a small eatery with plenty of locals and travellers alike, and waiters wearing ridiculous costumes resembling the soldier uniforms at the Wagga border with huge fans on their hats. The food was delicious, i am fully back into Indian food now.

This morning we met two guys from Mumbai and shared a 4 hour canoe through the backwaters with them. It was fantastic, rowing past villages with people making boats, doing their laundry, or just standing there staring at us. We ate at a restaurant (though it was actually a family's dining room) amazing keralan curry fish and rice and various other things. We found a cool resort type thing right on the backwaters so we've booked a room for tomorrow night. I can't believe we're in the last week of our india trip!! a few more days and we're off to chennai to await our flight. we've said yes to almost everything for the last 6 weeks and its turned out to be pretty interesting!

2006-01-06T00:27:00.000-08:00

The Goan Allergy

I am definitely allergic to something in Goa. It must be my body's way of telling me it is time to go. We did find a better cocohut yesterday, it was on stilts and had its own bathroom and whenever you shower you feel like either the floor is going to collapse or someone can see inside. We got it for a steal though. I reckon we've been getting better deals than local indians from the sounds of things.

I had the best afternoon yesterday since coming to Goa. Sonya went back to the hut to sleep and i decided to try and walk to the other side of the island to watch the sunset. I spotted some guys playing beach soccer, and i've been dying to play since i got to india. I played until until my right foot was bright red and couldn't physically take the pain of kicking the ball any more. It was like repeatedly kicking a piece of sandpaper. Had a swim to cool off and continued my walk, though by this stage the sun was practically in the water already. Not long after (actualy it was maybe 10m after) i spotted some guys playing beach cricket. What a great feeling! wicket keeping in my bikinis and sarong on a tropical beach with the sun disappearing into the sea and everything glowing red around us. After everyone dispersed I went in for another swim. It was almost dark now, but the sky in the distance was still pinky and there was not a single other person in the water besides me. Then all of a sudden a local indian guy appeared next to me bobbing in the water as he started to spread out his fishing net. I watched and talked to him for a while and he showed me some little baby crabs that got caught in the nets. It was the most tranquil, unique beautiful scenario i've been in in goa and it really made up for the other nasty stuff thats happened in the last week. For those 4 or 5 hours I really felt like I was travelling and getting involved with my surroundings and it was bliss!

2006-01-05T01:05:00.000-08:00

Fear and loathing in Palolem.

Some interesting things I did yesterday:
- tried chillom
- smoking a hookah (sweet melon, and then mint and peach, yum!)
- bought a bag of bacardi breezers from the liquor shop and drank them on the beach with some brits like true derros
- bought and wore a string bikini (bad mental images right?)
- went swimming in the ocean at 4am
- kissed an israeli guy

We checked out today and have now discovered the buses to kerala are full. Fuck. I'm am SICK of drinking and partying and lying on the beach all day and i want to LEAVE.

Stranded in paradise. At least the food here is delicious, i have never tasted such fantastic fresh fruit juice before. and we can probably find ourselves a better cocohut tonight, maybe even one with its own bathroom!

2006-01-03T20:54:00.000-08:00

There were no parties in Arambol. We got all psyched up and ran onto the beach, ready for a big night out. It was silent and empty. We wandered along in disappointment until we found a bonfire, so we spent the night chilling out and talking to people. A nice english guy had a spare hotel room so we got a few hours of sleep in a bed. my impression of arambol? israelis. I have never seen so many in such a concentrated area before. Though we met a really nice one, my general impression was i didn't like them very much.

The next morning After a 2 hour ride from hell in a taxi we got to Palolem Beach (south goa) where i am now. We're staying in a hut right on the beach. The beach is much the same as any other in goa, but the crowd is the right blend of package tourists, budget travellers and a whole lot less israelis than arambol. We drank beer, watched the sunset and ate tandoori red snapper on a table in the sand. Sonya went to use the internet and I continued to drink more beer for a long time. The waiter came over and gave me his email address and told me to visit him in nepal. Then he came up very close and asked me if i had a boyfriend and I decided to stop drinking beer at this place and went away. We ran into some scary Indian-Americans we met in Baga who insisted we sit with them. I lasted about 10 minutes in their company, no offense to them. More beer, more walking along the beach, still no parties and soooo tired from no sleep but bored as hell and quite drunk and really want to party. Then as if to taunt me, some israeli guys came to talk to us. And to taunt them back, we went to have a drink with them. To taunt me back, they turned out to be incredibly nice and quite handsome (teehee). The tide rose and the steps up to the restasurant became submerged in water. I'd been wearing my contact lenses for about 48 hours and my eyelids felt like sandpaper, so i took them out (the contacts, not my eyelids) and cast them into the ocean, as if in a gesture to say "here! take my sight! for I am already blind by the amount of alcohol i have consumed tonight". The rest of the night was a blur (literally), the boys walked us back and we agreed to meet them the next day for some beach soccer. The moral of the story? Its got something to do with israeli people i think. Or was it drinking too much beer?

2006-01-02T07:38:00.000-08:00

The right beach.

We rode north to Arambol today, which is where we are now. It took about 45 minutes and we passed through some really nice scenery, and really beautiful smooth wide roads with lane markings. As soon as we'd parked the bike on the beach (extremely stressful) we bumped into a couple of aussie guys we've been randomly meeting everywhere. One of them ODed on e's at a new years rave and had to stay in hospital overnight. That makes our new years eve seem less bad.

Arambol is a cool place! I like it so much better than where we are and everything south of us (ie Baga and Calangute and Anjuna where all the honeymooners and holidaymakers and rich indians go). Here it is other budget travellers like ourselves and more of the young backpacking crowd that we're used to.

We were suppose to ride back before dark but all of a sudden we found ourselves drinking lemonade and watching the sun setting over the sea. One of the Aussie guys offered his floor for the night, which we gladly accepted (riding back in the dark would not be the best). We're checking out of our hotel in vagator tomorrow so it also means i won't have to see the waiters there again (i'll explain this one to the select few when i get back :)

Before coming here i always expected to be getting pissed on the beach in Goa, not in clubs that look exactly the same as the ones at home just with a snobbier indian crowd. So that's what we're gonna do tonight. Right after we treat ourselves to some more yummy seafood (even though I had an allergic reaction to something yesterday - i've got no idea what)

Wish us luck! There'll be no sleep tonight (the floor doesn't look so comfortable so we might as well stay out). I know I said we were finished with partying, but you know, i lied. I've got a new years eve party to make up for!

2006-01-01T03:17:00.000-08:00

Curse of the New Years Eve Parties.

In regards to last night - please see above. We are so over partying.

On a brighter note we had quite a lovely morning. Woke up before noon for a change and relaxed at Little Vagator Beach eating delicious fried fish and calamari and chips, and drinking fresh fruit juice all morning.

Then we got ourselves another scooter and the day wasn't so relaxing any more. Its a great old thing though, not as ancient as the other one thank god so hopefully it will last longer than 5 hours. Its missing one rear view mirror and the right indicator doesn't work. We got it for cheapies though since its after new years. To get the most out of our bike before we have to return it, we decided to ride it to Calangute Beach. It took us about 30 minutes and the speedometer says i was going at 30km/hr but i swear it was faster than that. We had a few near misses, a taxi kinda ran us off the road and these other bikers had to come and rescue our scooter from falling on top of us. Other than that the most scary thing is just zooming inches away from buses and trucks coming head on and trying not to wobble too much.

Its quite funny at Vagator, which is quite small compared to the super touristy (western - ie many many european men in speedos, ew), we lay on deck chairs for about 2 or 3 hours and i reckon maybe we had at least 20 people approach us either to sell stuff or cos they wanted photos with us. One guy kept trying to show us this dodgey laminated card while making a scooping motion near his ear. Finally realized he was trying to say he was a certified ear cleaner and would we like our ears cleaned.

Looking forward to more seafood tonight, it seems my appetite has returned to me. Oh how i missed it!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2005-12-31T03:01:00.000-08:00

The keyboard hurts my fingers so this will be short.

i am no longer sick. could be due to either ayurvedic medicine or massive amounts of alcohol. either way i am healthy and ready to go, at least as healthy as one can be after 2 straght nights of dancing and drinking and getting back at 8am. our scooter died on the first night and we got stranded at a beach somewhere. now we're just stranded cos theres just no transport anywhere short of hitching, which we've also tried.

so tonight's the big night. we're going to club cubana, which is in calangute beach about 30 minutes by car from here. the tickets cost 2800 rupees, which is like $90. insane isn't it. but its all u can drink/eat. but if its anything like the other night we will probably find some random local indians who will pay us if we let them come in with us (stag guys/local indians have a hard time being let into the clubs and single girls seem to be a precious commodity here)

its quite funny here. yesterday we were just walking along the beach in front of all the beach shacks when this american guy runs up and asks if we would like to join him and his friend for a drink. like i said single girls r scarce. i'm not complaining!

after a month of conservative dress, its great to be able to wear singlets and skirts again. we've got our outfits picked out and a backup plan if we can't get in. its all good.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO WHOEVER IS STILL READING MY BLOG!

PS - i am SO over kashmiri boys.

pps - itook the restrictions off the comments thing so anyone can leave a msg

2005-12-29T01:55:00.000-08:00

We're in Vagator Beach, Goa, staying at a very hippy tofu hotel. Went to the Anjuna flea market yesterday, which was totally INSANE. Girls were grabbing my arm and literally dragging me into their shops. Got some decent clothing at least so we can go partying now. It's damn hot here.

There's some really scary sights around. Old overweight european men walk around in g-strings.

Don't tell my parents but we hired a scooter this morning and have been riding/wobbling around town trying not to hit anything. India is not the best place to learn how to ride a scooter.

The train ride over was pretty alright, apart from a few cockroaches scurrying around. We were in a carriage with 2 other women and a priest-to-be so that was alright.

I wish i could write more about the food, but fact is i haven't been eating anything. One meal a day and its been limited to toast. I'm so depressed. I keep wondering how nice it would be to be able to travel india in perfect health. Has it been done before? I don't think I have any muscles left.

The tofu restaurant serves some interesting dishes. Today's Bean of the Day was lentils. There's some cute waiters working there and i think we somehow agreed to go out with them tonight.

Yesterday we were standing at the bus stop trying to get to the markets, when a four wheel drive full of indian guys stopped and asked us for directions (cos you know, we look real local and all). Anyway they were going to Anjuna too so they asked if we wanted a lift. Why not, beats waiting for the bus. So now they keep wanting to meet up with us (this is when not having a mobile comes in handy). They are so obviously the type of boys who come to goa every year to try and pick up loose western women. Thanks for the lift boys and good luck.

I dread finishing this entry, because it means i must walk out of here and get on that scooter again. Eeeeeeeeek. I wonder if my travel insurance covers this sort of stuff.

2005-12-27T05:19:00.000-08:00

I am still sick. From now on, unless otherwise specified, it may be assumed that I am in some kind of unhealth and discomfort. The biggest problem with being sick, apart from feeling like shit, is not being able to eat anything.

2005-12-26T00:21:00.000-08:00

Boxing Day in Mumbai

On Christmas eve we spent an entire day shopping for clubwear, then spent an excruciating amount of money getting to a club out in the suburbs (Enigma in the JW Marriot hotel), lined up for an hour, got in, gaped with disappointment (it was packed with seedy looking people, so dark we couldn't see anyone's faces, the music was unbearably loud and only trance/dance, it took half an hour to get a drink, there was one huge chandelier that was the only interesting thing about the decor and even that was ostentatiously oversized and out of place) , and got out of there after half an hour and back to Colaba (where we're staying) again. Unfortunately it took an hour to get there and another hour to get back, by the time we go out of the taxi (and got majorly ripped off) there were only really sleazy scary people lurking about in the streets and one followed us all the way back to our hotel.

So that was our exhilirating christmas eve. On Christmas day, we took a boat out to Elephanta Island, and a guy from Delhi was sitting next to me. Got talking and spent the day with him, then met up again later that night and he drove us around town. Its great to meet an Indian thats not a shopkeeper and autorichshaw driver for once. We got to interact with one of the new generation of hip young professionals. He was much like us really, a very nice guy, no marriage proposals, just good conversation and really delicious icecream from a place called Bachelor's while listening to bhangra in the car.

Mumbai is totally different to anywhere else in India we've been. It's modern, cosmopolitan, touristy, big, expensive, there are females in the streets wearing short sleeve tops, people are helpful and friendly (we were extremely distrusting at first but then realised they were actually trying to help not scam us).

I don't think we'll get to be in a Bollywood movie. They only seem to want really white looking people. Bah to them.

2005-12-21T07:22:00.000-08:00

Five fingers are not the same...

Horseriding was fantastic, mine was a cheeky bugger and my arse hurts like hell but we went through really pretty scenery. Also tiny little villages where masses of tiny kids ran out of their houses to wave and say hello to us.

We went to a Tibetan market, and guess who started talking to us..... you are so clever, yes, a Kashmiri guy, how did you know! We decided to let him take us to a lake, and went in a paddle boat. He couldn't swim and it took forever to convince him to come with us. Then we had dinner on a rooftop (once again) and it was so weird, cos obviously the restaurant was for tourists and totally overprised and the waiters couldn't believe we'd brought a kashmiri with us and just looked shocked everytime they came over. and these two brit girls sitting at the table next to us, they just kept turning around and staring at us through the whole meal. they were as bad as the indian guys in the street! and this guy had never been on a rooftop restaurant in udaipur before even though he lived here! he couldn't get over how nice the view was. it was like, we were showing an indian guy his own city!

time to go, good night!

2005-12-20T22:59:00.000-08:00

Udaipur still

So i got a bit sick again. It was so cold, I wore everything i owned to bed and had 2 blankets but it was still freezing. Felt terrible all day yesterday and didn't eat much. I seem to be going from one extreme to the other, either eating until i want to throw up or nothing at all. Yesterday, on another rooftop, we met some indian-american guys. We went on a boat ride on the lake, it was beeeeeeeautiful, really. Seeing the city from the water makes you understand why its called the Venice of the East.

We're going horseriding now. If you don't hear from me for a few days, then it probably ate me.

2005-12-19T07:49:00.000-08:00

Udaipur

Our last night in Pushkar we climbed up to the temple on top of a hill overlooking the town. It was really beautiful, the sun setting behind the mountains, the lake... and the hippies playing guitar and smoking a bong. We met some other tourists as well, German, Irish, Swiss, American guys. Actually the American I started talking to in the bus reservation office. Had dinner with them and it was great talking to people who weren't trying to get us into their shops or wanted sex.

Now we're in Udaipur, very very romantic town, very honeymoony. Met an English, Swiss, Scottish and Aussie guy in the hotel. Went to ea

sorry i am feeling really ill

2005-12-16T07:39:00.000-08:00

Pushkar

Many things have happened.....
We didn't like Jaipur much cos we had like one intense hour of really really scary indian boys and autorickshaw drivers screwing with us. Anyway now we've both gone off Indian boys, they can be really really scary. We've agreed its just the cultural difference. Considering the bollywood take on western countries... they probably think all western girls are porn stars or something. I still like the Kashmiri boys but I think they've watched Titanic a few too many times.

We took a local bus to Ajmer, then another bus to Pushkar. These guys on the bus tried to pressure us into going to their guesthouse, and told us lies after lies. They were terrible at it too. At first we kinda just played along but after a while when he asked me "So what do you think of India so far?", I replied "We've met ALL sorts of people here" and gave him a look. And he promptly admitted that he may have been bending the truth a little because blah blah blah. Anyway we ran away as soon as we arrived in Pushkar and found a clean hotel from the Lonely Planet.

It's an interesting little town, thank god there's no autorickshaws here and i don't fear for my life so much when crossing the road. These horrible "priests" practically forced us to go to a ghat on the lake (where they bathe in the holy waters) and performed this ritual thing and gave me blessings, happy family, beautiful husband etc etc then promptly demanded ridiculous amounts in donations. When we said we would give less, they got really angry and started yelling at us and refused to take the money ( strange considering during the ritual he kept saying "give whatever you wish, whatever you feel in your heart blah blah blah" ) so we were like "fine then screw you" and walked off to the sounds of their angry screaming.

It's an extremely touristy town. Sort of reminds me of McLeod Ganj but much less friendly and much more crooked. Weird considering this is suppose to be like the most holy city and even eggs aren't allowed to be served here. Even the toursists here aren't that nice. We did meet one cool Israeli guy and we're going to go for a little trek with him tomorrow. EVERYONE here is a hippy and is here to get stoned. except us of course. We got stopped by a guy on the street tonight "you want to smoke some grass? hash? no? okay, you want some fruit?"

We went to a real nice place for the sunset. These steps on the edge of the lake, packed with tourists, and gypsies playing their little violin things and cute little beggars asking for money. Really pretty girls in bright colourful sarees selling anklets. But no one is as innocent as they seem. I saw a woman on the street in a really beautiful purple saree, she looked really shy and sweet and when i motioned to ask if i could take a photo, she looked at me, smiled, and said "five rupees".

2005-12-14T22:32:00.000-08:00

Jaipur

The Taj Mahal was very beautiful but not enough to bring tears to my eyes. We spent about 4 hours in there trying to get our 750 rupees worth of photos along with a million other tourists. We spent about half an hour trying to leave the damn place, besieged every few seconds by swarms of school boys wanting to take a photo with us. They probably have more photos of us on their cameras than of the Taj Mahal.

Much more to write but no time.

2005-12-12T00:57:00.000-08:00

Almost at the Taj Mahal

Second class on an Indian train is quite an experience. The number of people on it, and the number of people trying to get on and off simultaneously... we almost didn't make it off at our stop.

Yesterday we went to the markets at Karol Bagh. I bought a pair of jeans ("Diesel" apparently). The price went from over 1000 Rs to 400 Rs. Probably could have gone even lower but I really needed a second pair of pants. The salesmen, there were a hell of a lot of them, were all very fashionable and charming, of course. While waiting for them to take the hem up, I gave one some peanut brittle. When we said goodbye, he took my hand, touched it to his heart and kissed it!

We went to McDonald's for lunch. I'm not longer ashamed of the fact that it was the highlight of my day.

On the way back to the hotel, we succumbed to the charms of a guy trying to get us into his jewellery shop. Guess what, he turned out to be Kashmiri. I know I promised there would be no more Kashmiri rants, but they seem to be everywhere... as smooth as they were, i definitely prefer my dharamshala ones, though we just realised we most likely got ripped off by them. The Delhi ones were a lot more business-oriented. One of them was quite annoyed that we refused to buy anything from them.

After that Ali (the hotel guy from West Bengal whom we both thought was very sweet and innocent), took us to a hindi movie which turned out to be one of those complex plots with lots of blood, ie we didn't have a clue what the hell was going on and i slept through most of it. Then we took him out for dinner, and he turned out to be not so innocent as we thought and we are really quite disturbed. Anyway, during the 3 hour train trip, perched on my small patch of chair that some kind indians squeezed out for me, i couldn't stop thinking about all these people we've met, and wrong my pre conceptions of them were. We have these ideals, we succumb to their charms and just assume they are purer than us corrupted westerners. But in the end, they are all the same, the same as australian boys, any boys. But maybe even worse because they are businessmen. We had better be more careful from now on, nothing is free in this world and their chai comes with expectations.

Anyway now we are in Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. The autorickshaw driver followed us from hotel to hotel trying to get a commission... I think in the end he got 50 rupees from this place. Everything is a little crooked here.

2005-12-10T08:12:00.000-08:00

Back to the Big Smog

A 12-hour ride on an overnight bus on windy, mountainous, unsealed roads, is not the best. With empty chip packet constantly on hand, me and sonya had to remind each other of pretty things to keep our minds off our stomachs. The warm sun in Perth (we were wearing everything we owed), Cottesloe beach (even though I never go), my bed, green grass and blue skies, hot showers that last longer than 10 minutes, clean sheets, even my dad's cooking... and we've only been away for 3 weeks. Actually that sounds like a long time! I think it warrants nice thoughts about home...

The day we left McLeod Ganj, it took the entire day to say goodbye to everyone. We ate Tibetan food for lunch, and invited Jewellery Guy. We can't really remember their names very well so they are called: Jewellery Guy, Fox Guy, Crazy Guy, Crystal Guy etc etc. Only Amin we refer to by name. Anyway so jewellery guy came along for Tibetan food even though he doesn't like it, and to be honest i didn't enjoy it so much myself. The only nice thing were the Momos (just like the chinese thing which i don't know the name of - you know the little buns with savoury stuff inside) that we bought off the street 5 for 10 rupees. Nothing beats food off the street, and I'm pretty sure we can't do that anywhere else in India.

Then we spent a few hours drinking chai with Crystal Guy, and his friend, who we haven't named but I shall call Cute Guy because he was, as were they all but he was the most recently discovered. Anyway i'm pretty sure they all know each other, and i'm scared that after i left they all started talking and have just realized that I have inadvertently promised to wed them all. Just jokes.... ok so i am a REALLY big flirt. But only because they reciprocate so damn well. They all kept trying to get us to cancel our bus tickets and stay longer and i kept wanting to as well... but it really was time to go... and i miss them a lot already, i don't think we'll ever find another town quite like mcleod ganj. So there it is, Selina likes Kashmiri boys. I have just admitted it to my mum on MSN and have just been told that it is actually my dad using her account. Great. And I'm sure everyone reading my blog thinks i'm some kind of silly boy-crazy girl only here to find a husband, and I assure you it is completely true minus the husband part. But I think i have got it out of my system now and we can continue our trip without distractions and you no longer need to read about my Kashmiri rants.

Anyway, so we got off the bus at 5.30am somewhere in Delhi, and ended up spending the day with Andrew, another engineer from Malaysia/Sydney. We were all completely buggered walking around Delhi, trying to find breakfast at 7.30am in Paharganj (not difficult with Indian food though my stomach wasn't quite ready to go back yet). We went to the Red Fort, and sat around in the sun for 3 hours in the relative peace and quiet, trying to adjust to big city life again. Then we went to the Bahai Lotus Temple and found Shamim (nice to see someone from Perth), and strangely enough also Naison (remember meeting him in high school) who I was not expecting to see in Delhi. So we're all going to Agra together on Monday to see the Taj Mahal. What to do in Delhi on a sunday? Maybe we will chill out on the roof and drink chai all day. That's all for now...

2005-12-08T22:16:00.000-08:00

Goodbye to the Kashmiri boys

OK so i'm a big fat flirt, but even so I was not expecting a marriage proposal 2 weeks into our trip. Can you imagine the look on my mum's face if I bring home a Kashmiri boy? Don't worry boys and girls, as nice as a Kashmiri wedding sounds, it's not gonna happen this time round.

Some funny moments:
Sonya- "These horses here look really funny"
Me- "That's because they're donkeys"

Some Kashmiri wisdom we've picked up:
"The five fingers are not the same"
"Life is like an icecream. Eat it before it melts"

We've been teaching some conversation classes to Tibetans. Mine are so cute, one is a monk from Ladakh, another one is from Szechuan and has 12 brothers, two of them are monks and the Chinese have locked them up as political prisoners. They've been telling me all about Tibetan food but we've yet to try any.

We've gone home with two lots of Kashmiri boys in the last 2 days for dinner and chilling out in their "shanti" rooms. They're all really friendly and insane and cute, and ask questions like "have you ever been drunk before?". Last night, we played carom and drank wine with these boys who run a jewellery store (Jia, Jawed and Yasen i think their names are). They had the most adorable stray puppies at the back of their house. The night before it was Shaffie, Raffie, Tarrick and Amin. Sounds like we're getting around doesn't it? Anyway it is most definitely time to leave this town, we're going back to Delhi by the night bus in a few hours. I'll really miss this place i think, we've made lots of friends here. But it is time to move on. I can't wait to go to Kashmir next time, it sounds like the most beautiful place!

2005-12-06T23:59:00.000-08:00

So much for coming here to recover in the nice clean mountain air. The cold has given me an Upper Respiratory Tract Infection, according to Dr Marwan down near the temple. I'm on antibiotics, again, and some kind of evil green looking herbal cough syrup.

We are the biggest slackers here. Wake up around noon, walk around a bit, eat, talk to some randoms... though we've been here so long people have started to recognise us. Not hard considering theres like 3 streets here. There's some really funny kashmiris here. Very cute too i must say, which is a bonus. There's a crazy one who always sits on the curb and every time we pass him he shouts greetings at us in Korean, then after about 3 seconds he recognises us and apologises profusely "australians, yes yes, australian i know i forgot so sorry you australians no korean. chai? yes?" and last nights classic "i am so cold here! no business, gloves so expensive. you keep me warm! chai? when you are here i am warm!"

We're in high demand here for tea drinking, everyone's here to kill the time during the low season, not many tourists so not much business. I guess two odd looking australian girls look like entertainment potential.

Last night Amin invited us back to his room. No not like that you dirty bastards. The minds of Kashmiri boys are clean, i know it. Him and his 3 friends live in the same room while they're here, and we played cards and drank saffron tea for a few hours. It was really interesting listening to them talk about kashmir and their lives. Its a completely different world. They have something called a Winter Wife, some kind of pot thing to keep them warm in the cold. We're going back there for dinner some time.

We've been eating some amazing foods here. Practically no indian, figure I'll get plenty of that later. We went to a vegetarian Japanese restaurant yesterday with the two Australian girls we met on the bus over here. And today for breakfast I had cereal, though have you ever had cornflakes topped with almonds, cashews, coconut slices and drenched with honey? You should try it.

Everyone here sings. Shopkeepers, fruit sellers, Tibetans, Kashmiris... we went to an open mike night at a cafe, and two guys say cool tibetan songs and they made me think of the prairies though i've never been. The rest were the weird hippies who are all over the place here playing their hippy guitars and singing their hippy songs and tossing their hippy hair and glaring at whoever doesn't have dreadlocks and aren't searching for their souls. Man, must we be a novelty here then.

There was a wedding here a few days ago. An australian girl and a local Kashmiri guy. I wonder what my mum would say if I brought home an indian boy, hehehe.

2005-12-05T00:28:00.000-08:00

Still sick in McLeod Ganj

Now that I've actually walked around a bit I can write about more than just the view from our room, though that is quite incredible. Our balcony opens up to the valley surrounded by mountains and is covered in fog in the mornings. Theres a nice rooftop restaurant in the hotel, with great views where we eat breakfast and drink tea in the sun. When it gets dark, and cold, the restaurant moves into a cosy little room on the roof where we can eat watch tv and read books amid all the blankets and cushions.

The town is really gorgeous. Tibetans, Kashmiris and lots of tourists chilling out, soul searching, watching the world go by. There's shops selling anything western we could possibly want, pringles, pantene, gillette, chocolate, and all the restaurants have a nice selection of western food. I was so ecstatic about this because coming from Amritsar, where we had problems even buying toothpaste and toilet paper, and where EVERYTHING was spicey, well this really feels like paradise! Its great to be able to indulge for a little bit in peace and eat pancakes and scrambled eggs and soak in the comfort of familiar things. Because I doubt we're going to get an opportunity again for a long time. Its going to be back to the smog and crowds of Delhi soon.

Yesterday we walked around aimlessly and wandered into a Kashmiri shop. The owner, Amin, invited us to drink tea with him which we accepted. He had nice eyes, and one can not refuse to drink tea with a Kashmiri with nice eyes, everyone knows that. He spoke really excellent english, which made me think about the jewellery scams i'm always reading about. In the end he ended up taking us on a small hike off Bhagsu Rd just before the waterfall, which involved climbing up the side of a mountain for a bit which wasn't a lot of fun. But when we got to the top the view made up for it. We went back and drank more tea, he invited us for dinner but we declined and promised to come and visit him again in a few days.

At night we went to the cinemas, a room which looks exactly like the inside of a bus with a small screen at the front showing pirate dvds for 30 rupees each.

Everywhere we go people shout at us "Japanese? Korean? No? Where? AUSTRALIA? NOO. YOu not look like Australia." No one believes us and when we eventually tell them china and malaysia, they look at us like "Ahh thought so. Should have said that earlier. Knew you couldn't be australian".

2005-12-03T23:40:00.000-08:00

McLeod Ganj

We've finally left Amritsar. I had barely got over the diarrhoea and the fever before we got on the first bus outta there. Seven long dusty hours later we're in McLeod Ganj in the foothills. It is really really beautiful. I can not describe it. I've still got a terrible chest cough thing happening but as soon as thats better we're going to go trekking. Might stay here for a while. The hotel has a cool rooftop restaurant and serves everything bland i could ever want, porridge, scrambled eggs, toast, pancakes..... yum.... and its clean and quiet. what more could one ask for after 4 days in amritsar!

2005-12-02T00:11:00.000-08:00

Still sick in Amritsar

Still here. Feel terrible. Poor Sonya has to look after me. Today is the first time i've ventured outside for the last 2 days. wish i could find some bland food. can not wait to get out of this polluted city and into the mountains for some fresh air.

2005-11-30T04:47:00.000-08:00

Amritsar

The train to Amritsar left New Delhi train station at 7.20am. We got there an hour before and was besieged by touts. People were telling us they worked there, should we believe them? Finally got on the train. A big indian family were sitting in front of us, from London. They had ALL their important documentation as well as 7000 pounds stolen while they were on the platform waiting for the train. Another nice Indian guy talked to us for a while.

We got to amritsar and were immediately besieged once again, this time by rickshaw drivers. We eventually capitulated and let one of them take us (and our bags - poor guy) to the golden temple. When we got there this Sikh man kept telling us about free accommodation and telling us to ask the richsaw driver to take us there. I did not believe him, but eventually we were convinced and turned out he was right (felt quite bad about this). So we ended up staying one night at a free dormitory which was part of the Golden temple. We went in a shared jeep with a Canadian guy Marcus to the border ceremony. got there late, saw practically nothing and ended up getting groped by teenage indian boys in the crowd. Basically the guards on either side of the border march around with ridiculously exagerrated motions, occasionally throwing their legs into the air and stamping the ground. wasn't anything too interesting.

The coolest thing is the Langha ( i think thats what its called ) of the Golden Temple where they serve dhal and chapati to whoever goes in for free. Everyone sits on the floor (i reckon it could seat 1000 people probably ) in rows and people go around with buckets and scoop it out into your tray. It was amazing!! We ate there for lunch and dinner. After dinner we went to see the Golden Temple properly. It is the most wonderful thing. An intricate gold dome temple thing in the middle of a massive pond surrounded by marble floors. There is a bridge that leads into it, and the whole place is filled with pilgrims. There are four men inside the temple who continuously chant a passage from their holy book (the original one is actually housed in the temple). We can hear the chanting from our hotel (the one we're staying in tonight). It is really magnificent by night. Me and sonya both agreed we wouldn't be able to explain how we felt there with words. The whole atmosphere just feels.. like its in a different world. I feel like i've been jumping worlds every day since i got here. We ran into the helpful Sikh from earlier (i apologised tearfully) and he told us a lot about sikhism and his life (he used to be an aeronautical engineer). Marcus' friend Sasha who was born in england (but indian decent i think) then told us heaps about sikh history while we watched the awesome ceremony where the holybook is transferred from the temple on a daise and taken to its bed in another building to sleep for the night.

The free place last night was just dreadful. What can one expect for nothing right, it was a dormitory for foreigners and the bedding was really oily and greasy and black. The bed was just a hard plank of wood. If i had a sleeping bag i probably could have handled it, but i ended up sleeping in my normal clothes. Oh yes outside the dorms is a big square, many pilgrims sleeping on the floor. I hardly slept at all and woke up feeling just dreadful. Now i am sick as a dog, went to the doctor and will get antibiotics soon. So much for going to dharamsala tomorrow, at least the hotel we're in now has a "western style" toilet and is pretty clean.

Today we just got lost looking for food, theres literally like 3 restaurants in the entire city and they were so bloody hard to find. we were starving when we eventually got to The Brothers, where they serve western food too (finally some bland food that won't kill my throat!). Our waiter just happened to be an indian version of orlando bloom! don't worry, i made sure i embarrassed him by taking a photo.

I went to see a doctor because i felt so bad, and will be getting a dose of antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and multi vitamins. This is along with the two types of anti malarial tablets i'm already taking. Crazy stuff.

2005-11-28T20:34:00.000-08:00

Old Delhi

We both decided we loved New Delhi yesterday, there was something really satisfying and perfect about our day and the fact that all our fears about the country seemed unfounded. The touts were not that bad, the autorickshaw drivers didn't screw us, there were barely any crowds, and that nature market was amazing.

Today we went to Old Delhi. The perfect picture was shattered into a million pieces.

1. Started by going to a Sikh temple, Gurdwara Bangla Sahib. We had to wash our feet before entering a gigantic square with a huge pond in the middle full of the biggest koi fish/cat fish i have ever seen. people walked to the edge and splashed the holy water on their faces, threw it over their shoulders and drank it. there were a few people dunking themselves in whole.

2. New Delhi train station. Barely walked into the carpark before touts were trying to scam us into going to a fake ticket office.

3. Cody went to see his friend and we arranged to meet him at the Red Fort. Thus started the only 2 hours me and sonya have been by ourselves without a male. And oh what a stressful horrifying 2 hours it was. At the prepaid autorickshaw booth we were literally swarmed by drivers trying to take us places, all of a sudden i realised we didnt' have a clue what we were doing where we were and how the hell anything worked and all these people were shouting at us and standing so close and surrounding us i just panicked. We ran away from the train station and spent ages throwing random prices at rickshaw drivers, all of them refused. Cody had always done the bargaining before, we didn't have a clue!! Finally found a rickshaw driver willing to take us there for 35 rupees, but after we got in it turned out he did not speak any english and had no idea what red fort was. But we got there eventually. Btw, he had the most amazing eyes i have ever seen. they were some kind of swirling mix of green/yellow/blue. of course i was not perving on an autorickshaw driver, sheesh, just making an observation! but damn i shoulda taken a photo.

4. Jama Masjid mosque - biggest one in delhi/india can't remember which. This was in the muslim quarter, amazing how sharp the contrast is to parhaganj (where our hotel is). They charged us 150 rupees to take in our cameras, but i think it was worth it. Its a pretty amazing place, a huge square once again. Cody was taking a photo of me and sonya when a big group of young kids walked passed hesitating and giggling. I motioned for them to join us in the picture and their eyes just lit up and before i knew it they were all pressed around us posing for the shot. A few girls giggled shyly and approached us to ask us questions and shake our hands. The boys surrounded Cody. It was so cute. He had many following him around the entire time we were there. We climbed up one of the towers, a never ending dark and narrow spiral stairwell. But the view at the top was really breathtaking, we could see all of delhi (probably not considering how big it is but thats how it felt at the time). We clung to the railing, the platform was so small i can't explain how scary it was standing up there. about 15 people were squashed up there at one point, the muslim boys were so curious about our cameras and whenever i took a photo i would find them trying to look over my shoulder to see the screen. And when they caught me looking, would give me a big sheepish smile.

5. Haridam restaurant (indian fast food). indian mcdonalds is more like it. me and sonya shared the North Indian Thali, a tray of a mixture of different dishes. Only bad thing about this is we had no idea what each food was.

6. markets in old delhi ( dont know the names)
CRAZY. thats all i can say. this area is how i imagined india before i came, as in the crowds, the constant press of people, the horrible smells, the dirt and rubbish and noise, beggars, touts, girls swishing past in beautiful sarees, rows and rows of colourful silks, stores gleaming with jewels, and all this while everyone stared and stared at us. now i know what people mean about sensory overload. you wonder how its possible that everything manages to fit together and just work.

7. Beggars.
On the autorickshaw back to the hotel, while stopped at intersections beggars came up to us with horrendous deformities. Poor sonya was sitting on the outside. One guy disturbed us so much we were speechless for a long time after. I hope sonya recovers because if it was me sitting on that side with him so close to me i think i would have shat my pants.

After today i think we are both glad to be leaving Delhi tomorrow morning. It's an amazing city but theres only so much i can handle. We will be back in a few weeks.

Delhi

2005-11-28T19:46:00.000-08:00

I'm in Delhi, it's insane!! Bangkok was totally crazy too, we fell for a tuk tuk scam (pretty harmless, just ended up at a million jewellery/silk stores and the driver pissed off while we were in a temple). after 2 days we were ready to get outta there, unfortunately had to stay for 6. Many other stories but those will come. we got to delhi at midnight, petrified of course. driving along the freeway, everything looks very eerie because of all the smog subdueing the street lights. we saw a huge elephant walking along the side of the road. went through some slummy looking back alley streets, people were sleeping on the road, but they all had beds and looked quite comfortable. the occasional cow. we were thinking, hrmm its kinda cool the driver took us through here so we can get a look at what the slums look like, when all of a sudden he stopped the car. he tooks us through a really small alley that smelled like a million toilets combined and a man pissing on the wall (later found out this was actually a toilet), and there was our hotel.

The next day we met Cody, Canadian guy studying in Singapore, and went to:
1. National Museum - a group of school children were so fascinated by us they couldnt decide whether to stare at us or at the exhibits.
2. An awesome Nature's Festival at Dilli Haat - where handicrafts from all over india area sold. There were really cool dance performances and it was just an amazing eco-friendly thing. there was no bargaining, no dodgey people, everyone was friendly and the products were colourful handmade and good quality. There was a band singing oasis and the cranberries, that was a laugh.
For lunch we had: dosa (this flat pancake type thing), tomato and lime rice, and this thing starting with "O" which looked like a pizza but wasn't. all of this was ofcourse accompanied by a variety of slushy stuff possibly curry and a coconut thing. I tried porrie (its this fried pastry ball thing, with a whole on top and empty inside, you scoop this soup into it and fill it with this other stuff and shove the whole thing in your mouth. really is an explosion of flavours, of every kind. then these tourists offered us the rest of this snack that they had bought because they got too much, i have no idea how to describe it. it looks kinda like a pretzel, but its some kind of fried candy i think, filled with super sweet oily juices.
3. Took an autorickshaw to Connaught Place. Insane crowds, lots of touts (people badgering you to buy stuff), these well dressed well spoken young boys followed us for a long time throwing out bits of advice, then asked for money.
4. Went to Regal theatre, hoping to catch a bollywood movie. Only thing showing was Bobby, turned out to be an "adult" movie. Really tame and pretty boring, girls with huge silicon boobs and low cut tops, and kissing (big deal i guess since that never happens in normal bollywood movies). apart from me and sonya there was only one other girl in the entire cinema, a couple sitting behind us who kept making out throughout the movie and making really disgusting slurpy noises. Prayed they would go and get a room, and eventually it was answered. We left in the intermission.
5. Pahaganj markets - ate at a nice restaurant from the LP. Aloo gobi (potato and cauliflower), butter chicken, and some paneer (spinach) stuff, and butter naan. yum! In conversation, i said "yes" to a question a little too forcefully while I was staring into space, and unfortunately this space was occupied by the waiters bottom. he turned around, saw me saying yes to his arse and gave me a big smile. for the rest of the meal, the entire kitchen would often turn, stare at me and laugh.
6. we had an in depth conversation with the hotel manager, Ali, whose village is a 30 hour train ride away in Bengal. He works 24 hours a day, his bed is behind the reception desk and he gets 1 day off every month. He will get married in 5 years, his father told him, and the bride is chosen by his parents.
7. Drank chai and talked on the roof til midnight while looking out over new delhi with occasional fireworks going off in the distance and indian music playing on someones stereo.