Chasing Down India

For the best PICTURES of our trip, click here

I guess a trip is really over when you post your pictures on internet.
It was a fantastic experience and needless to say that we fell in love with India.
Well, to be fair, with what we saw of India in a little under 50 days of intense traveling.
It’s a little bit like falling in love with a woman you’ve only seen once. We yet have to see India when she’s naked, when she has a bad hair day and when she is just in a very bad mood. And there is no other way to find out but to come back to Her.
So long India. We will see each other again for sure.
In the meantime, we came back with hundreds of great memories of you.

For those of you who are interested, we posted our pictures on two different sites. We had tons and after much negotiations and heated debate we narrowed them down to about 800!!! But we also made sure to create a second set where there are only about 150 pictures.

1- The link to the full set is:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?signin_error_code=1&conn_speed=1&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&email=&Uc=a6uguy9.6aeb4odx&Uy=i3tcuy&Ux=1

www.kodakgallery.com
You may have to use an account to log in. So if you want to see the full set of pictures, simply post a request on the blog and we will give you access. Don’t be shy.

2- The link to a condensed set of pictures

http://www.iknowjerome.com/

No need for a login for this one. We suggest that you use the Slideshow tool to see them.
Enjoy!!

Indiana Jay & Tanya Croft

Our last destination to visit in India was Varanasi – one of the holiest cities in India. Hundreds of Hindu pilgrims visit this town each year to wash away their sins in the Ganges river. It is hard to describe in words the images we saw, the emotions we felt – the strong sense of spirituality suffocates you as you walk along the kilometers of ghats. A real sensory overload: the smells of incense and foul water, the images of naked holy men and women bathing, the sounds of chants and beating drums. Anything and everything done around the sacred river – life seems to start and end there. Water buffalos bathe, locals brush their teeth and drink out of thirst, women wash their clothes, children play cricket, men swim for exercise, women shave their heads bald and offer their hair to the Ganges. Each person is seeking some kind of “spiritual” enlightment by performing these actions. But at the same time, everyone must go by its daily life. Meals must be cooked. Clothes must be washed. Money must be earned.

One ghat in particular will have its images engrained in our memories forever. For obvious reasons, all photography is prohibited and so memories are all we have. The Marnikarnika ghat – more commonly refered to as the “burning ghat” is an outdoor crematorium where multiple bodies are burnt on bonfires side by side – visible to all those passing. Once fully burnt, the ashes are then thrown into the Ganges river. The fires burn 24 hours a day and it is said that up to 200 bodies can be burnt in a single day. All Hindus have the right to be buried in this honorable way, assuming they have the monetary means because it is not cheap. Special wood must be purchased to burn the body – wood which prevents the smell of burning hair and decaying bodies. The bodies are wrapped in gold silk and red or orange cloth depending on the sex of the recently deceased. Not all people however are cremated. Children under 10, pregnant women, holy men and leppers are all thrown directly into the river, rocks tied to their limbs to serve as anchors. The elderly and sick make pilgrimages to Varanasi to wait and die close to the ghats – seeking ultimate cleansing of their souls for the afterlife.

The corpses are first bathed in the ganges river prior to the burning ceremony, the last cleasing bath. Once the final cleansing is complete, their bodies are placed on the piles of specially selected wood. Only male family members and friends are allowed to be close to the body – it is believed women are too emotional and cannot contain their grief. They must mourn from afar. Those surrounding the body circle the colorful corpse five times prior to lighting the fire, once for every element (sun, earth, water, air, fire).

No words can describe the solemnity of seeing all of the above in person…we watched only for minutes but it felt like hours. For us, it was hard to digest. How can the same river serve as a garbage dump and bathing pool and house the ashes of the dead? How can the river be both disrespected and worshipped at the same time? This is something we will never be able to comprehend. Like so much about India. But over our seven-week journey, we have come to understand that in India, things are just the way they are…

- Master T and J

The following takes place at 2PM, on a given day, in a small local restaurant somewhere in the state of Kerala.

As we enter the restaurant packed with local people, the manager greets us and leads us to our table.

“Good morning” he says

I look at my watch and turn to Tanya: “Ah shit. My watch must have stopped yesterday. It says it’s 2:03 PM.”

“Yes, yes, 2 O’clock” the manager lets go.

As we sit at the designated table, a waiter approaches us from the far end of the restaurant with the biggest smile we’ve ever seen.

“Where from?” he shouts before he even reaches our table

“You guess” I immediately respond, having already expected the question we’ve heard hundreds of time before.

“hmm… Israel?”

“Close. But we are actually from Canada” not giving him the opportunity to call us American, as they usually do once they realize we are not from Israel. “Do you know about Canada?” I ask.

“Yes, yes” he answers with his smile expending all the way to his ears.

“Oh. Well, have you ever been to Canada?”

“No, no sir. Me never be to Europe…”

“…”. I look at him a little puzzled.

“You like India? My country”

“Of course, we love India. It’s such a rich and complex country, full of warm welcomes and surprises, both good and bad, at every corner”.

“…”. This time, it’s his turn to be a little puzzled. “What you eat?” he says, trying to change the conversation topic probably because it is getting a little too hard for his level of English.

“I would like to have the Thali, if it’s not too spicy” I say. “Is the Thali really spicy?”

“Ok. One spicy Thali”.

“No, no, I first want to know if it’s spicy. If it’s too spicy, I mean Indian spicy, I will have something else. You understand?”

“Yes, yes, very very spicy for you sir. You will like”.

This is where I give up and decide to order a bottle of coke to make sure that I have something to wash down the Thali spices.

“Can I have a small bottle of Coca-Cola please”, I say.

Our waiter turns around, shouts something in Hindi at the teenager who is half asleep on a chair at the back of the restaurant. Before he is even done speaking, the teenager has already left the restaurant, jumped on a motorcycle and disappeared from sight.

“And you m’am?” the waiter asks Tanya

“Do you still serve Masala Dosa at this time?” Tanya enquires.

Our waiter answers with a big smile and starts wobbling his head from left to right.

“Ah, that’s too bad”, Tanya says all disappointed. “It’s says on the sign at the entrance that you serve masala dosa.”

“yes, yes”, our waiter let’s go, still wobbling his head and smiling.

I then lean towards Tanya and whisper in her ear:
“Tanya, I am not sure, but I think that a head wobble like the one he just gave you means that he agrees with you. It’s the Indian way. It’s not what we know as a head shake for ‘no’. I am pretty sure that they still serve Masala Dosa…”.

Once our order is placed and all all confusions have been cleared on both sides, our waiter leaves us to go cater other tables. Minutes later, the teenager comes back on his motorcycle, with a bottle of Coca-Cola that he bought from someone in the neighboring. He places it on our table, smiles and says:
“Where you from?”

Here we go again…

-jay

Our third to last destination – Kollam – The most southern city of the backwaters in the state of Kerala. Slightly off the tourist track and so foreigners are few and far between. Just a few snapshots of our daily expriences…

* We travel with the locals
Decrepit, run down buses whose fares are only pennies. The back of the bus is reserved for women and both the seats/aisles are squished with commuters. Jay and I are inevitably separated. As our stop nears, we yell at each other over the sea of surprised locals. We quickly strategize the exit plan. People rush in, other rush out – no respect for elders or women with children. Jay tries to avoid any casualties with our large packs as he pushes his way out. I swim to safety clutching our cameras and day packs.

* We eat with the locals
Masala dosa with sambar, thalis served on banana leafs, chai teas at every stop. The menu is hand written on the wall, but few options are actually available – in reality, all customers feast on the same 2 meals (whatever is left for the day). Fingertips are our cutlery. Waiters bring us spoons but we insist on eating the real Indian way. We watch locals to copy their style, they watch us in fascination. Two girls giggle as Jay attempts to put fistfulls of rice into his mouth gracefully. Waiters pass between the tables and endlessly scoop more food onto customer’s plates (indian version of all you can eat). We say “no”, but more mystery stews continue to appear before us. Tables fill and empty in several waves as the 2pm lunch rush clears out – we continue to eat. The waiters love that we are feasting on their food. As we leave, they shake our hands, honored we ate there, proud we enjoyed the cuisine. Jay and I are grinning because our tummies are stuffed and it cost us less than $1.00 CAD.

* We stay amongst the locals
Their Indian tourist hotel triples in price for foreigners such as us and it becomes our guesthouse. We are excited by “fresh” stained towels, a bar of cheap soap, a shower with lukewarm spray and a tv with HBO. As I do a detailed bug inspection, flipflop in hand, Jay channel surfs looking for a cricket game to watch…

Only a few observations to help describe what we are experiencing here. It took 5 weeks and only now are we starting to scratch the surface of what India has to offer. Slowly we are starting to understand how things work around here…so much learning is left to be had…

- Master T

Our happy trails are winding down and they are almost coming to an end. Ugh – time flies. We just flew back to Delhi this morning from the south-eastern part of India and tonight we are taking an overnight train to Varanasi – our last stop – a holy city on the Ganges River.

For those who are curious, Jay and I managed to visit almost 17 cities while we were here! Crazy stuff…and each place has been so different

New Delhi => Agra => Fatehpur Sikri => Jaipur => Pushkar => Jodhpur => Jaisalmer => Udaipur => Mumbai => Goa (Baga Beach) => Hampi => Goa (Palolem Beach) => Cochin (Kochi) => Allepey => Kollam => Varkala => Trivanrandrum => Delhi (passing through only)….

Looking forward to sharing our stories and pictures with everyone!

- Master T

Dear Powerful,

I am a simple Indian auto-rickshaw driver from the province of Kerala who seeks a simple clarification (if possible).

You have blessed our beloved Province with wealth, making it one of the richest in India. You have made sure our children are healthy and well educated (highest literacy rate in India with 91%). You have given us access to over 900 Km of splendid backwater canals that would make people from Venice cry of envy (if only they knew Kerala existed). You have chosen our land to be where a Communist government would first ever be elected (in 1957), just to prove wrong every bad tongue that says that Communism cannot work. And for all these things, we are eternally grateful.

However, we remain completely confused as your true identity. Some of us here (~20%), who seem to think that you go by the name of Jesus, have erected churches that are packed on a daily basis. Others (~30%), who like to call you Allah have built mosques in your honor. Finally there are those who, like me, find you friendlier with an elephant head and a few extra arms. All of us share the common desire to thank you for all your blessings, but we find it terrible disconcerting to not know what you look like. For this reason, I ask that you please clarify who we should worship you as: Jesus, Allah or Ganesh.

Since we are aware that you must be extremely busy and that you probably receive tons of requests of the sort, we do not expect any answer in the very near future. Therefore, for the time being, I ask that you please don’t get offended if, for good luck, I play it safe by putting a sticker of Jesus next to a sticker of Ganesh in my auto-rickshaw. I was also going to put a sticker of Mahomet but was advised otherwise by some Danish tourists who I took on a tour on my auto-rickshaw.

All of us here would really appreciate an honest answer eventually, as it would allow us (mostly the rickshaw drivers) to avoid buying religious paraphernalia in triple.

Yours truly

ViJay Patel – auto-rickshaw driver

We are leaving tomorrow for the Kerala backwaters (southern India) on a small boat. We’ve heard great things about it and we can’t wait to experience it…

Our blog is late of a few days but we will try to post everything we write in our little respective notebooks whenever we get a chance. Hopefully, before the end of our trip.

A lot of people have been asking about pictures. Unfortunately, it’s really not that easy to upload pictures from here…

-j&t

[Based on a true story]

The sun was slowly rising on Hampi, southern India, announcing another excruciating hot and cloudless day for the region. For miles and miles around, all that could be seen were piles of enormous sand-color boulders barely standing on the hill flanges, ever-threatening to fall and crush the rice fields that lay underneath in the valley.

Barely distinguishable in the morning mist, were two famous silhouettes walking up the final hill before the ancient ruins of Achyutaraya after days (minutes) of walking. Our two heroes, Indiana Jay and Tanya Croft, were exhausted (still sleepy from an overnight bus from Goa). They had finished their last ration of water (cookies) hours ago and didn’t know how much more they could last. Ferocious animals (stray dogs and monkeys) were already running around them smelling an easy lunch (free treat). Indiana Jay was seriously injured (sprained ankle) and Tanya Croft had not taken her secret magic Elixir (Ice Cream) in hours. Moreover, their map of the Old world (lonely planet guide book) had a few inconsistencies and they had got lost a few times. Thanks to the indications from an ermite (local kid) they had run into, they now felt pretty confident that they were on the right path and that they would shortly find the treasure (pefect picture) they were looking for.

As to reward their countless efforts, the majestic ruins started to emerge from behind the hill they were climbing. An entire rich and powerful Hindu civilization had once lived and prospered here and some lost souls from hundreds of years ago (12th century to 16th) could still be heard swiftly running through the many remaining columns. Indiana Jay and Tanya Croft took what they had come for and left the place untouched so as to not awaken the dead.

The next day, our fearless adventurers would celebrate their successful quest with a big meal (a chai tea) in a small and remote (Unesco) village that can only be accessed by leaking motorless boats. The celebration would be a joyful one, as the village seems uniquely populated by dozens of young ever-cheerful kids…

-Indiana Jay (with some help from Tanya Croft)

Standards for cleanliness and comfort with transportation abroad tend to differ from home. Quite frankly, they are vastly different. If you can get from A to B as originally planned then you are content, if there are no other stops in between then you are extatic.

To date Jay and I have taken rickshaws, auto rickshaws, camels, boats, planes, trains and buses. Each has its own story to tell so it was hard to pick. Let’s start with the overnight sleeper bus – one of our favorites. Traveling short distances in India takes 3-4x more than you would expect. As such to “save time”, a lot of travelers opt for the sleeper bus. This is not a phenomenon that we are familar with in North America. Imagine a regular bus but then over the seats there is a small hard bed – kind of like a bunk bed. You climb over the seats to get to you “bed”. There are singles and doubles…These buses are practical but challenging for the inexperienced and so here are a few tips you should know (in most cases we learnt the hard way)…

(1) Drink no liquids all day prior to the trip
The bus may or may not stop on the side of the road for a potty break. If you are lucky and it does, there may or may not be a bush to squat behind which means all the ladies need to get creative.

(2) Make sure every inch of your skin is covered (no matter how hot it is)
Sleeper buses have a bed covering but god knows how many people (and what kind of people) have slept on them. You just don’t want to wake up with any mystery itches

(3) Bring lots of snacks
In theory the bus is supposed to make a 20 min stop for supper but there is no guarantee. A pit stop for 10 min may be all you get – unless you are on a diet of roasted peanuts and mystery fried puffs, you may be out of luck…its amazing how many cookies one can eat for supper!

(4) Avoid heavy consumption of food prior to the trip
See point (1) above. On a bus, breaks are guaranteed but shocks and a functional muffler seem to be optional. Each speed bump feels as though the bus will topple over. Earplugs are always a bonus…then again you may also miss your stop!

(5) Always make a friend on the bus
Buses do not really care about their passengers. When the drivers are ready to leave, they do regardless of who is on board or not. If you are lucky, they may honk to let you know. Case in pt. – more than once we had to jump back on a moving bus that was leaving without us.

(6)Never pay extra for A/C
Although tour companies offer an AC and non AC option, more often than not everyone ends up boarding the same bus. I am thinking AC in Hindi may translate to “every second window opening 2-3 inches”

(7) Avoid sleeping the night prior to departure
The more exhausted you are the better. Comfort is never part of the price you pay for – thankfully the roofs are padded in most cases. On the bright side, one can compare the rocking of the bus to perhaps a babies craddle but instead of lullabies, you hear Hindi rock music.

(8) If traveling alone, always make sure you have a single sleeper
A single sleeper may translate to you bunking very intimitaly with another foreigner or Indian tourist in a double sleeper – conveniently because there was a mix up of seats. In which case, you just hope your buddy speaks english and doesn’t smell too bad!

Last but most importantly…

(9) Never ask too many questions (this is of course India)…
More questions will lead to more vague answers which will ultimately cause more anxiety. Who is the driver? How long is the trip? When is the next stop? What is that smell? Why are all these locals boarding the bus at random points? Why are there more people than seats? What is that thing tickling my leg?

In general, as a rule of thumb, you should never ride the bus if you are: fat, clausterphobic, shy, prone to motion sickness, impatient, tall, a hot women, inflexible…the list can go on but I will spare you.

- Master T (w/minor assistance from “not so funny” J)