Rickshaw Madam?

Back

2005-06-01T10:29:00.000Z

Well, I'm back in England - Cornwall, actually.

It's clean, cold, incredibly empty. It doesn't smell. There is no livestock on the road. It's freaking the fuck out of me, culture shock in reverse. How long will it take to readjust?

Do I really want to?

Mentally beating myself up for getting stuck in Goa, for not going up to North India as I had planned. I couldn't really help it, I was sick and there were other circumstances keeping me there, but it's a shame.

Next time :D

Might start a normal, day to day blog now - I've enjoyed keeping this one.

Sorry!

2005-05-15T18:41:00.000Z

I'm very tempted to lie and tell you that I left Goa weeks ago and I've been travelling around incredibly exotic places, living with villagers and holy men, discovering the meaning of life etc.

I'm not good at lying though.

I'm still here, it's a bizarre place to be, not entirely sure why I like it so much. I guess there are a few reasons - an important one is that compared to the rest of India, it's very easy. Shitty I know, but I was getting fed up with getting stared at, ripped off, laughed at, groped and otherwise hassled. It's horribly touristy this area, well, in the season it is, but now it's empty - nothing is open, there are no people. Village life is continuing in a landscape of abandoned charter hotels and closed irish pubs. Chloe & I have met a cool bunch of local guys who are bored now & seem to enjoy having people to entertain.

We tried to leave yesterday, failed. We got to the train station with all our bags, waitlisted ticket to Bombay in my grubby little hands... The train pulls up, and we decide that as we don't have a confirmed seat Chloe would rather fly to Bombay tomorrow than spend 12 hours standing up. I'm gonna stay for another week or so with a lovely bloke I met then head off north before I head home, if it all goes to plan (it never does). Clo's leaving me, flying back to Canada on Tuesday morning... *sniff*

I'll tell more if I do something thrilling.

Love ya.

Hey!

2005-04-25T11:07:00.000Z

Ok this is a really quick one, I have 2 mins of time left. I'm still in Goa, having loads of fun, staying in Calangute now.

Not much to say but I'll post up a bigger post when I get the chance.

x

Resisting the urge to make awful puns on the word 'Goa'.

2005-04-16T13:48:00.000Z

Still here.

Thought I would change the title to something a little less pretentious. This is more true to life anyway.

In todays thrilling news, I have a tiny little tree frog that has moved into my bathroom. He (I'm assuming he's a he) is squatting my tap. I don't mind, he's cool and I'm hoping he's also eating mosquitos. He can also climb vertically up walls. I will update you all as to his wellbeing next time I'm online, and also post a picture if possible.

Any ideas for names?

He's about the size of 2 50p pieces, is a mottled brown/green colour and doesn't seem to do very much except sit on my tap.

I've also got a few geckos but they don't stick around for so long, quite speedy little buggers in fact.

Was cajoled into going back to Paradiso last night. It really is awful, but there's no alternative.

I'm considering synchronising my return with Tribe of Munt.

Goa

2005-04-14T14:27:00.000Z

I'm in Goa now, Vagator. It's a bit pants, I wouldn't bother...

Well.

It's the end of season so it's fucking quiet, everyone who is left are the junkies and weirdos who can't cope with the real world. It's like Monday evening at Glastonbury, but less interesting. We went out to a club last night, I've been looking forward to it for ages - the attitude towards alcohol in this country, and especially towards women drinking is extremely negative. So, I thought it might be nice to get a bit pissed and dance like I haven't danced since NYE. Goa trance is not good, even worse when the only other people dancing are extremely drunk and lecherous middle aged Maharastrian (an Indian state just north of here) men.

It's quite beautiful here though, nice, relatively unpolluted beaches. Vagator is probably not the place to be for someone who is rapidly becoming very cynical - anyone reading this who knows about Goa and thinks I would be better off somewhere else, let me know. I've been told that Arambol is beautiful, and full of freaks in the best possible way, so I'll check that out soon. I'm really in the wrong season though. Just killing time before my mate flies home from Bombay - she's got a couple of weeks but we thought it would be shattering to go too far. Gokarn sounds OK. We shall see...

I forgot to post from Kochi but it was lovely and chilled, Kerala is so beautiful.

Cloud Life

2005-04-04T07:36:00.000Z

I've spent the last few days inside a cloud. It's quite nice inside, if a little damp - we would wake up every morning (or afternoon if I was feeling especially lazy), step out of our room and instead of a beautiful valley view, there would be white. In Kodaikanal there are lots of clouds, it's at 2300m!

I'm feeling a bit random today, I have a cold and a chest infection so don't expect complete coherence. Maybe todays missive will have the sinuous continuity of beat poetry. Or not - one can always dream.

The practicalities, an update. We left Pondy about 5 days ago, I was really sad to go though the others didn't seem to mind - I don't think they shared my love for it...One hour bus to Villapuram, 6 hour sleeper to Kodai Road, at which point I slept though the stop (It was at 5.30am, gizza break!) and we woke up in the middle of nowhere. Instead of being sensible and saying 'Lets get off at Madurai, then we can get a direct bus from there to Kodai' I said something along the lines of 'Fuck, ooops, lets get off here!'. So we were in the middle of nowhere, really nowhere, somehow managed to get a bus that took us further into the void, it was about 6am by now. Then, somehow, some guardian angel sent me a bus that took me all the way to my final destination, and granted the people who were helpfully telling me what to do in Tamil the ability to say 'Kodaikanal bus!' in English. I almost kissed the ground. 4 hours up a spaghetti-twisted mountain road later, I was less estatic. We finally got there anyway, and found the aforementioned guesthouse in a cloud.

Kodai was nice if a little bizzare - a holiday resort for rich Tamils bored of the heat, it's cold. Has a nice lake, and you can rent lovely horses to trek through the forests alone - this I did, I haven't ridden a horse for years, it was fun.

Then a 6 hour bus ride in the PISSING rain to Thekkady. Really really raining - the buses are not designed for it and I was sitting underneath a small waterfall by the window, hence the chest infection. We got here eventually though, just when I was starting to lose my mind luckily, and we are staying in a cool cottage job in a garden full of animals. Tomorrow we are gonna check out this wildlife reserve, loads of elephants and some tigers, though you ain't got much chance of seeing them apparently.

I realise I'm telling you all these places and no one except me and other people who've been to India know what the hell I'm talking about - I'm sure you're not dedicated enough to look it up. Would it be helpful if I stuck up a map or something?

Pondicherry, my cheri

2005-03-28T14:41:00.000Z

I've fallen in love...

Pondicherry is my favourite place I've been to so far. It's great, it's got the hecticness, the noise, the smell and the fun of all Indian towns and cities, a beautiful beach side perfect for ambling down with an icecream in the evenings, and the locals are very friendly and welcoming Tamils. It was a french colony til 1950something, and it really shows - as you get closer to the sea the architecture changes to be noticeably gallic, the streets are somehow noticeably cleaner and emptier, there is even less traffic! I've got a few photos, I'll upload them when I can. Ooh and also, the food is fantastic - there is a massive ex-pat community who demand decent western food, so as well as a lot of top quality Indian food, if I fancy just beer and pizza it probably won't kill me. Loads of people speak French too - I've been brushing up.

I've been here a week now though, and as much as I adore it I'm starting to get itchy feet. Well, itchy feet in the sense that the heat is starting to broil me... I'm retreating to a hill station in Tamil Nadu, Kodaikanal - we are leaving on Wednesday. I'll be sad to leave, but in some ways it'll be a relief - I've had a nice break from the rigours of travelling, now I need a nice break from the Indian summer. Here, it's 40 degrees or so at the heat of the day, and very very humid - to the extent that you take a shower and the effort of it leaves you stinking! Kodai should be somewhere in the region of 10 - 20 degrees... aaaahh! I'll let you know if it lives up to its promise on Thursday (assuming they have internet in them thar hills).

Also if anyone has a chance to email, would love some news from blighty :)

Escape from hippy hell

2005-03-22T13:56:00.000Z

So.. OK so the whole tree hugging thing didn't go as well as planned.

The plan.

The plan was to go to this commune thing, somewhere near Auroville for a week, do a little light tree planting, meet some nice hippies, I'm not really sure - we didn't think about it too hard.

We got to Auroville at 7pm or so, had a lovely dinner in the cafe, called the number and the nice sounding couple gave us the number of a taxi firm to get there. Was dark as hell by the time we got there, so they quickly showed us the (really lovely!) palm leaf hut that we were to live in, the composting toilets and the living/dining area, then went to bed (at 8.30pm). They told us that we should commit to 2 weeks there, as shorter than that you don't get a good feel for the place... We thought it was a long time, but agreed - I was really curious to see what it was all about.

The toilet was the first thing that I was a little put off by, but I could have got used to it I guess - it was a composting one, so you had to shit in one hole, then cover it in sawdust, then waddle over to another hole to wash your arse and piss. God forbid you needed to do both - you had to use an unsavoury little jobby called a piss pot to catch it then put it in the right hole - mixing faeces and urine made the compost bad & attracted flies and stuff. I started to dread going to the bog.

But it was still quite fun, the people were nice, a very easy going Israeli couple with a sweet 4 year old daughter, and a couple of other young volunteers. Unfortunatly, there was also Jivan, a middle aged english bloke who had serious delusions of grandeur - he started getting on my tits the moment I met him. He would constantly belittle everything I did (mostly cooking - in the 3 days I was there, I had to cook 4 meals) - 'normally, we make the ragi with less jaggery' 'if you had told me before I had made it, I would have!'... The couple had gone away for a few weeks to Israel before we arrived and he had been running the place, made him incredibly self important and a complete arse.

The food... Vegan, which can be lovely. But, vegan with no sugar, no spice, no oil, nothing but vegetables and pulses - and I mean nothing but, literally - gets very boring, very fast. I come from a family and a culture that takes massive pleasure in the love of food - fresh bread, wine, cheese, decent cider ( ;) ), all this makes me very happy. Because of that I just couldn't understand the mentality of everyone there - food was simply something which you ate to stay alive, there was no pleasure at all in the making or eating of it, and any attempt to try and make it a little more interesting was met with derision. Also, we had to eat Ragi for breakfast. Have you ever tasted Ragi? Don't.

We were also 9km from the nearest shop, which created a real sense of isolation. Everyone else had mopeds, but I can't drive one, and even if I could - fuck that, have you seen the state of the roads here! I would be killed in seconds.

Anyway, I started going slightly insane, in the end I had to admit defeat. I hate giving up on stuff like that, but I really couldn't cope... Just small things, like - to have a shower, you have to fill up 3 heavy buckets from a manual pump, carry them about 1/2 km across the site, then wash in an outdoor enclosure filled with rats & spiders. Ick.

So, yes, I admit it - I'm a shit hippy. I have so much admiration for people doing this kinda thing - they were re-planting 70 acres of land that had been deforested by the British, preventing the top soil from washing away in the monsoon, very worthwhile in this area which is rapidly turning into a desert because of deforestation. They also use barely any water and energy, all the electricity is solar powered, very low impact existance. But, well, I couldn't hack it. Guess I'm an urban hippy. Ahem.

Now I'm in Pondicherry, which is SO nice - probably my favourite place I've been to so far. The food is great, the people are lovely and it's beautiful. It used to be a french colony and it really shows - a lot of people here still speak french, and the architecture is very reminicient of the Suth of France. I would post a picture or 2, but the batteries for my camera that I brought from the UK died, I bought indian ones and they lasted 2 photos (without flash!) before giving up as well. So I have no photographic evidence of the hippy place either, sorry!

You ask, you get.

2005-03-17T08:31:00.000Z

Some photos:

(these are absolutely nothing resembling order.)

This is the new lighthouse in Mamallapuram, where I am now. Pretty, innit. If you look here: http://sunray.smugmug.com/gallery/436485/3/17613922 you can see the same shot with me in it.

This was the view from the top of Daulatabad Fort, near Aurangabad, through one of the windows. You had to climb 500 steps to get to this point.

I can't remember if I wrote about Daulatabad... Well, it was very cool, this was one of the ruined buildings in the ruins of the town surrounding the fort.

A fruit seller in Crawford Market, Mumbai. The most fun I've ever had in a market, full of colour and noise, the market sellers were very friendly too.

I met this street kid near where I was staying in Colaba, Mumbai. She had a violent relationship with the monkey... Not sure if you can see, but she had deep scratches all over her face from where it had gouged her, and in return, she used to beat the crap out of it.

Carving in the Ajanta caves.

A buddhist temple with Stupa in the Ellora caves. This was all carved out of one piece of solid rock, really breathtaking architecture.

Hot nut seller, Chowpatty Beach, Mumbai.

More soon :)

x

In the wake of the tsunami

2005-03-12T14:30:00.000Z

Todays broadcast reaches you from Mamallapuram, on the East Coast of India, about 2 hours South of Chennai. And very nice it is too - touristy little village famous for its stone carvings, and the carvers who still work here. It's right on the beach, and has a beautiful beach temple overlooking the ocean. It was hit by the tsunami, destroying most of the little restaurants and guesthouses on the beach, but most of them have now been rebuilt. It's incredible to see the remnants of solid brick houses that were totally pulverised by it though.

The village is far from the epicenter, so the wave destroyed property and there was life lost, but not on the scale of some other parts of the world. It seems that the more lasting damage, here at least, is the effect of reduced tourism - many shopkeepers and people who run guesthouses that I've spoken to have decided to give up and go home altogether, or are desperatly selling off stock quickly. There isn't a huge amount that could be done now as far as volunteering for rebuilding or anything, but just being here and spending money is (as always) appreciated - so I'm buying lots of presents for friends and family back home.

I'm going further south in a week or so, I'll keep you updated on how things look - I know that the papers are always full of stories etc about it (or they were, at least, when I left), but it's interesting to see now how it actually effects people's day to day lives. Every local has his/her 'where-I-was-when' story, which are pretty touching, but it seems now that this community just wants to forget and get back to business.

In other news - I'm being incredibly lazy and really not doing much at all for the last 2 days as it was so nice to leave the hectic heat of Chennai (though it's hotter here, just not as busy). I had my eyebrows threaded today, which is a method of hair removal that is so clever I can't believe it doesn't exist in the UK. I have no hope of describing it well, hang on maybe google will help - http://www.hairfacts.com/methods/threading.html . Food here is great for Seafood but as I don't eat it, the rest is a bit boring and bland. Next stop, in a week, Auroville, hippytastic commune.

hai this is seena i like to make a friendship

2005-03-06T11:12:00.000Z

I thought I would use the title that the internet cafe PC popped up as a suggestion when I went to type one in.

Made it to Chennai - I've been drawing a little line in my rough guide, showing where I've been. Satisfyingly, now it goes from coast to coast. I haven't seen much of the city yet, I've been lazy today, as it's incredibly hot. There have been power cuts all day so the fans arn't working, I think I'm going to melt. My plan after this is to go south, through Tamil Nadu and into Kerala, but I think it will be unbearably hot by then - I can survive in this kind of heat, but I can't do much, or enjoy what I'm doing. I guess I'll rest from noon til 3 every day then do interesting stuff in the evening when it cools off.

I think that I'll make my titles whatever is suggested by the previous inhabitants of my booth whenever I can - sometimes they are really funny :D. I'm in a dodgy place now, little private booths for the PCs, sticky keyboards, favourites links full of hardcore porn. The men looked very shocked when I waltzed in here wanted to check my email, now I know why. Gonna have a big wash after this.

In the end, Tirupathi was a bit of a waste of time, but quite farcical. We got up early and made our way to the bus stand, where we had to buy tickets to get to Tirumala, the mountain which the temple is on the top. In the guide book there was also a little thing saying that if you want to get into the temple itself, you need a ticket for Darsan. You can either get one for free by going to one of the many booths (none of which appear to exist, and no one has ever heard of them, though of course every single person has a ticket), or you can pay rs50 and upwards to skip the free queue and get 'special' darsan. As we couldn't find the free thing despite ages of trying, we went to the rs50 stall to buy one. We were told that we had to buy it yesterday. I still don't know what Darsan is, maybe some kind of ritual or blessing? Anyway they said we should go up to the temple and we could get one there. We couldn't. We ran into some other terminally confused westerners who also had no ticket, but they had another little form which was apparently indispensible, stating that although they were not Hindu they pledged to treat the temple with respect. Confusion now reaching terminal levels, we give up for now and get on the bus, hopefully we can get some vaguely coherent answers when we get up there.

So, we got up to the mountain (which was fucking terrifying - a hour of hairpin bends up the sheer side of a mountain, with a bus crammed to the gills with people staring at us as if (to borrow a phrase) we were wearing hotpants at a funeral... I emerged very green), and I never could have expected what met me at the top. I had a vague mental image of a beautiful, ancient stone temple, silent pilgrims slowly snaking into a huge door, a stunning natural landscape, peace, an escape from the rampant commercialism that is so prevalent in this country. I was sadly disappointed. It was like spiritual Butlins. (I'm really sorry to any Hindus reading this - I know this is a sacred place, this was only my impression). It wasn't just a temple, Tirumala is a whole resort, with hotels, restaurants, parks, play areas, everything. There are buses to take people round the site. The whole place is paved and with perfect flower beds that really make it seem like an theme park. The thousands of pilgrims that we saw didn't appear to be undertaking a spiritual journey, but having a lovely day out - wandering about with their families, eating ice cream and candy floss. The only thing that wasn't entirely consistent with the theme park impression was the huge amount of men, women and children with shaved heads - this is a tonsure, where people give their hair in thanks to the gods. Tirumala is a world center for tonsure apparently, they make loads and loads of cash every year from selling all the hair.

I got dangerously close to being tonsured when I accidentally got in the wrong queue. That would have been SO SO bad.

After speaking to 10,000 officials, and 100,000 helpful pilgrims, we were no closer to knowing what to do or how to see the temple than when we started. So, with heavy hearts etc we got back on the bus-of-doom(tm) and went back down to Tirupathi to get the train. Was a bizarre day though...

Tirupathi

2005-03-04T13:41:00.000Z

This internet cafe is playing 'Barbie Girl' by Aqua on loop at full volume, so you'll be spared a full on rambling missive as I'm not gonna hang around! Arrived in Tirupathi this morning, think my luck so far with avoiding being ill has caught up with me - feel a bit rough. Well enought to get to an internet cafe though, so worry not.

Tirupathi seems pretty unexciting so far, totally influenced by the fact that I spent most of the day drifting in and out of sleep while staring at a slowly revolving ceiling fan. Tomorrow, we are going to the huge temple 15km away, which should be a lot more interesting (provided it's not a shrine to the ceiling fan. Or I might cry.)

Trains withstanding we will be heading off to Chennai tomorrow night, or early on Sunday morning - there doesn't seem to be a huge amount of point in hanging around here.

It's refreshing to be somewhere new though :)

Shanti Hampi

2005-03-02T08:59:00.000Z

Hey hey, sorry for the delay in updating, the internet here is a bit dodgy, and let's face it - I'm lazy.

So I'm in Hampi, this weird place that feels a bit like a cross between Mars and the Green Fields at Glasto - cute little cafes and hippies, in a landscape of random massive boulders, beautiful temples, ruined cities, waterfalls and other strange and exciting things (yes I know you don't have that kinda stuff on mars...).

Have met a lovely french canadian girl, confusingly with the same name as me, so Coco and us Chloes are travelling together for the next week or so. Tomorrow night we are going to Tirupati, the biggest pilgrimage site in the world, which should be pretty incredible if very hard going.

Anyway, back to Hampi. I'm staying with C&C in the back room of this little cafe and bakery, owned by the lovliest couple, ever. They treat us like their kids, it's great - the indian sense of extended family is so welcoming and inclusive, it's one of the things I really like about this country. There are lots of things about Hampi that are not so great though - it's incredibly, suffocatingly touristy, hoardes of shouty Israelis that take over cafes and guesthouses are all over the place (I know I shouldn't stereotype Israelis - I've spoken to some really nice individuals since I've been here, but it seems to be only people from that country who are so aggressive and rude to everyone around them, running round in massive packs). It's a nice break to be away from the frantic pace of Bombay for a little while, but the pace here is almost too slow, I don't want to be sucked in - I've been here 4 days now, time to leave, I've had enough of a break from India.

It's been fun exploring though. The other day we rented bikes for the day, cycled a few km to this resevoir where we could swim and jump off rocks (it's so hot here, it was bliss to plunge into the cold water). Then we went on to the Hanuman temple, which is on top of this big hill - you climb up 500 whitewashed steps to get to it, but it's worth it for the view (which made me cry - stunningly beautiful). Hanuman is the monkey god, and in keeping with this there were loads of cheeky monkeys on the way up, who lept on me, started feasting on the contents of my hair (I don't want to know...), stole my earrings, rifled through my bag, used me as a climbing frame... It was really fun, I love monkeys! I met a wonderful temple Elephant yesterday too, called Laxmi, who took a great liking to me and sprayed me with snot (after blessing me, of course).

I'm actually staying across the river from Hampi proper, in a hamlet called Vidapur Gaddi, which is even more shanti than Hampi itself. We have to get a coracle across the river to get home from the shops and ruins and things, which is kinda exciting. The other night we came across when it was dark and ran aground half way across on a semi submerged rock, most amusing.

Anyway, I'll quit rambling... Thanks for all the lovely comments and things, it's really nice to read them (& to know that anyone apart from me ever reads this). Not too sure about blog ettiquette, am I meant to respond to them on here, or email people responding, or just read them and smile? So far I've just been doing the latter. Anyway keep em coming, they make me happy :).

psst! Hash? Weed? Saffron?

2005-02-20T06:42:00.000Z

Not much to report today... Just killing a bit of time before my mate cokes turns up. She assures me that her train gets in at 2pm, even though everything I've read and everyone else I've asked is sure it gets in at 8.20. So I'm making sure I bring a couple of good books...

Early next week I'm gonna be moving on, not sure where yet - I want to go to Allepey and then to Hampi, have to work it all out with Cokes though. Will probably have very reduced internet access, so don't be offended if it takes me an age to reply to your finely crafted emails.

Also for those of you that have my indian mobile number, I'm considering ditching it when I leave Maharastra as I have to pay huge roaming fees once I'm out of the state - if you ring/text next week and can't get through, panic not!

I've become totally addicted to Falooda, this incredible drink consisting of rose syrup, slimy basil seeds, noodles, ice cream and milk. It sounds vile but is actually mind blowingly good - Gonna have to find a recipe for it so I can feed it to everyone I know when I get home. The junk food in India seems to be without equal - so, so good.

(no) More photos & too much to say

2005-02-16T06:59:00.000Z

Photobucket has been looking frantically at the size of photos I want to upload through a dial up line held together by hamsters and bits of string - I'll do my best, but don't hold your breath. To whet your appitite, I've got some of my beachy weekend in Malad, my cavey weekend in Aurangabad and other random sites from the last week.

So yeah, Aurangabad, that was fun. Got the sleeper there on friday night with my friends Purvi and Julia, arrived in the early hours of saturday and collapsed into sleep in a hotel. When we had woken up and had some tea, we set off to go to the Ellora caves, about a 2 hour bus drive from Aurangabad. Really worth going - they are incredible. No photo will do them justice, I can't describe them properly, you'll have to go. There are 32 caves carved by hand out of a rock face - I say caves but they arn't really, these are temples, houses, hostels, an entire community of monks that lived in this series of caves. The biggest and most stunning is a Hindu temple called the Kaliash temple, the largest monolithic sculpture in the world. It's incredible, over 3 stories, really detailed and elaborate carving. All the caves are really old (that would sound more authoritative if I could remember how old... but REALLY old, trust me), and there's 3 sets - Jain, Hindu and Buddhist, all side by side. Was a really magical day out, was so shattered by the end of it.

We went to get the bus back to be told we had missed the last one, so jumped in a shared jeep going back to Aurangabad. Soon became apparant that the young indian woman in there with her family was on the verge of giving birth - she was having contractions and looked like she was in a massive amount of pain, had tears streaming down her face and kept almost fainting. There was nothing we could do, we just tried to keep out of her way really and not disturb her - her family was there trying to comfort her. The jeep kept breaking down in shit hole villages, stopping to pick up and drop off passengers. It was heartbreaking, really affected me to see this girl who was the same age as me in such a totally different situation, unable even to express her pain fully because it is seen as so taboo. There is so much here like that, that it's difficult to think too much - at the moment there is nothing I can do in any real sense to help people that I wish I could, and that is such a hard lesson to learn.

I'm running out of time so the rest of the weekend will be on fast forward. Got back to Aurangabad, ate, drank, slept, woke up, got the bus to the Ajanta caves which are further and have ancient tempura paintings on the walls as well as sculpture. They are entirely Buddhist and almost more beautiful than Ellora. At this point I was a bit caved out, and we had to get the train that night, so we headed back to town in the back of a truck (I have a very cool video of this, but the chances of me being able to upload it before I get back to the west are infinitely small). Ate and drank some more, then hopped on the sleeper and woke up at 8.30am in Mumbai, ready to go to work. It was a hectic and really fun weekend, I want more weekends away!

At the moment I'm waiting for my mate to turn up, we should be heading out of the city and down to Kerala at the end of the week. I can't wait.

PS. Photos STILL havent uploaded in the time it's taken me to write this, so I give up. I'll try again another day.

Did you miss me?

2005-02-06T06:51:00.000Z

Well, I'm back from Malad, had a fantastic time. To get there, we had to take a train (in rush hour - eek!), then a bus, a ferry, a rickshaw and finally a moonlit walk across a beach to this little beach house. It was beautiful, in a catholic village north of Mumbai that had a completely different atmosphere to everywhere else I've been here. The music blasting out of the houses wasn't Hindi pop, but sounded like mariachi music - the entire village had a very spanish feel to it.

I wish I'd taken a decent photo of the houses to show you but I totally forgot, sorry! They were all pastel coloured, with carved doors and balconies, and inspiring catholic phrases painted onto their walls. I have got some good-ish photos of things but this computer is so decrepit I don't trust it - I'll stick some up when I get to somewhere a little more reliable.

The locals were also very friendly, showed us some of the local food (none of which I can remember the name of), explained the music to us and showed us where we could buy fresh coconuts to drink.

Was a really nice escape from the frantic pace of this place, if only for a day or so. Next weekend I'm going with a couple of other people to Aurangabad, to see the Ellora and Ajanta caves, which should also be a much needed escape.

Off to Malad tomorrow

2005-02-03T06:42:00.000Z

I've been invited to go to a party type thing, in Malad, tomorrow night & saturday day. Sounds fun :) This girl I met has rented out a farmhouse for the night & we are all gonna go, eat, drink and be merry. I'm so glad that I've met some nice people.

Have made friends with some nice boys from Goa too, who are here at Uni. They've been finding me nice places to eat, showing me cool bits of the city and generally just being nice people to hang around with. One of them, Ravi/Martin, gets lots of travellers parts as extras in Bollywood films, which I'm definitly gonna do! You get transport, food and drink and rs.500-1000 for the day, and plus you get to be in your very own Bollywood film. Not something to be missed, I reckon.

I'm in limbo at the moment, between hotels, all my bags stacked up against my PC in the internet caff. Embarassingly, they know me here now as I come in pretty much every day... Even considering having 2 local caffs so I can alternate them and not seem quite so geeky!

I'll stick up some more photos when I get the chance. My mate Cokes is coming down to join me soon from Delhi, so I'll be able to have some with me in! You lucky, lucky people...

Edit: Just had a panicked phone call from my Dad, so I thought I should clarify. When I said "I'm in limbo at the moment, between hotels" I did not mean I have nowhere to live or am out on the street or anything, I literally meant that I was on my way from my old hotel to my new one. You can all breathe a sigh of relief, safe in the knowledge that I have a roof over my head.

and now for some photos

2005-02-01T07:08:00.000Z

Well, not that much new to report I'm afraid- I've started my Hindi lessons and they are great, hopefully will be able to speak enough to bargain soon :D Staring men are turning me into an angry feminist, but apart from that I'm really enjoying myself. So I thought I'd stick up some of my photos, as some of you have been moaning about the lack of them so far.

Hope this works!

This is Flora Fountain, or just fountain now I think, right beside the modern 'Martyrs Memorial' that you can see in the background. It's a 5 minute walk from where I'm staying, and the center of the universe.

I guess it's another Raj throwback, but I find it funny how all the suburban rail stations have the same logo as the Tube.

This is Marine Drive, where Bombay pretends to be Miami. Full of crumbling hotels and attempted glamour, I find it quite souless. Nice view though.

I found about 100,000 boys playing cricket here on Sunday. Very surreal :D.

Anyway hope you like the photos. I'll stick some more up soon if you do, probably some more interesting ones. I'm very shy about taking photos actually, hate taking them of people especially, it makes me feel very intrusive. But there are some amazing things out there that I'd love to have a record of...

Must stop, I'm starving!

Curiouser and curiouser

2005-01-29T09:29:00.001Z

The last 24 hours has been very surreal. Unfortunatly I can't say too much as this keyboard is very fucked up and annoying to use, I'm getting finger cramp already.

So I finished what is apparently an internship at this charity last night at 7ish, got a taxi back with Aditi, and she invited me out to meet some friends of hers at a bar in Colaba, later that evening. Put a little X on my A - Z where I had to be and agreed to meet her there at 9.30. 'Wear western clothes', she advised (I've only got 2 sets of clothes with me - a ratty old T shirt with ripped jeans and a Salwar Kameez).

I turned up at quarter to ten & she wasn't there, but I assumed that the only group that was there were the people she was meeting - I was right. So to cut a long story short, I spent the evening in this insanely posh bar, where drinks cost more than average English price, with a load of loaded Europeans and Bombay Parsis, as well as lots of types with high flying jobs etc. All this pretty much feet away from the crushing poverty that seems to characterise this city. At the end of the night, one of the Alpha males of the group paid for all the drinks of the 25 or so people that were there, for the whole night. One of their drivers dropped me off at my budget guesthouse - they looked horrified! So so so surreal - the last thing I expected in my cliched view of 'The India Experience (tm)' was to be hobnobbing with the rich & powerful in snooty bars!

Umm, and in other news - I'm gonna learn Hindi! Feel I might as well, as I'm here for a month. Have a tutor called Bobby who I'm meeting up with at 6.30 tonight.

Also I have to leave the lovely Hotel Lawrence on Thursday, because they have another booking for my room. I was kinda upset about this yesterday, spent the morning wandering round trying to find and book a hotel for next week, with not particularly impressive results. Most places that I saw were about double what I'm paying now, more unfriendly and stuffier, and the rooms had no windows! At all... It would send me insane. I love the airy little room I have now. Today was different though. I wandered down Walton Road, a nice backstreet off Colaba Causeway, just exploring, when I came across this huge green colonial mansion block, all stained glass windows and crumbling plasterwork. A sign outside tells me that this is the Hotel Aga Bheg.

What have I got to lose, might as well see what stupid price they are charging for another windowless cell, right? Go in and ask the man to show me one of the single rooms - they are lovely! Tiny, but with gorgeous stained glass windows that open up, and beautiful view, filled with light and air! And it's cheaper than where I'm staying now. So, on Thursday I'm moving in - it's really friendly, people seem to live there long term and everyone knows each other, all sipping Chai in each other's rooms. I was attempting to negotiate with the man how long I could have the room for - I need it for 3 weeks or so, and he was getting increasingly confused, not understanding why I would want to sort that out now. Finally he said 'No! This will be your room, you can stay 1 night, 2 month, 3 year if you want, no one will make you leave, this will be your home if you want.'

Yay! :)

I have a friend!

2005-01-27T21:10:00.000Z

Today I went to the charity that I'm working for, SPARC. Got horribly lot on the way, embarassingly had to have a 10 year old child lead me from his school to the place I needed to be. It's right in the middle of the red light district - on my way out this evening I could see loads of very young looking girls looking for work. Really, really depressing.

It was a good day though. The woman who is looking after me/my boss, Aditi, is very cool. She's going to take me under her wing, take me to films and show me the nightlife, and hopefully teach me a little Hindi (a little goes a long way in these parts!). She also lives right near to me, which is nice. So now I've got a mate here! Travellers have proved quite unfriendly so far, so I'm really glad.

I'm really starting to get used to the city now - the feel of the place is coming through despite all the unknowns to me, for example the extreme poverty, aggressive begging and massive slums. The hustle and bustle of the big city and the crowds are more familiar and reassuring to me now.

Looking forward to exploring more of it!

Slightly shell shocked

2005-01-26T08:56:00.000Z

So, I made it... The journey here went suprisingly smoothly, even though the poor taxi bloke waiting for me here had to wait 2 hours or so, as my plane was delayed. Finally checked in at 4am, got 2 hours sleep, then had to go find another hotel.

I'm sleep deprived, really fucking dirty, feeling really overwhelmed by the constant hassling here - I'd been warned, but I didn't realise how totally exausting it is. I made the mistake of walking down to the Gate of India (which is breathtakingly beautiful) and being lept on by what felt like hundreds of beggars, scammers and 'holy men', all getting money off me... I feel really stupid actually, as if I've got a giant neon sign screaming 'MUG' floating above my head. Got to learn to say no & not get heartbroken when I see these tiny fragile looking beggar children.

Worryingly I can't get in touch with the charity I'm meant to be working for, they arn't answering the phone. I'll try turn up on their doorstep tomorrow, if that fails I'm not too bothered though - I'll escape somewhere a little more peaceful I think.

Apart from the culture shock, it's all pretty good. Bombay is very beautiful I think, in a faded glory kind of way. I'm staying in a lovely little guesthouse, in a back street, the top floor of an ancient tenament block - you climb up these tiny dark wooden stairs that creak at you, and then at the top are these lovely, high ceilinged whitewashed rooms. It's not too hot yet either, the weather is lovely. Haven't spoken to anyone yet, am feeling a bit lonely but also shy from being stared at so intently by Indian men - as if I literally just decended from the moon. I'm sure I will meet some people though, I've spotted some interesting types wandering around.

Missing all you fools loads though :).

I'm ready, dammit

2005-01-23T23:01:00.000Z

Ok, so I've spent the last 2 days saying goodbye to pretty much everyone I know... I think I might have overdone it slightly, I've ended up saying goodbye to some people 3 times!

So ready to go now, the waiting and the excitement is killing me.

It begins....

2005-01-19T03:40:00.000Z

Today felt like the start of it all...

I've been planning this trip to India for months and months, and only today did it finally hit me that it's really going to happen - I went to the High Commission in London to get my visa and got what feels like my first taste of the place.

Get up this morning, look at the website - 'The High Commission accepts visa applications between 8.30am and 12pm'. So, I think to myself, I'll get there at 9ish, hopefully be done soon. I turn up at this massive place off the strand, and there is a huge, huge queue. Right down one side of the building, then as I wander round, right down the other side too - worried feeling in my stomach as it seems to carry on forever. I guess there were probably 300 people waiting in front of my by that point, and it was fucking freezing outside. Anyway, thankfully once it started moving it did so pretty quickly.

So you get to this little booth thing at the end of the queue, and a grumpy looking man hands you a little ticket saying 'Indian High Commission, you are number 332, you will be served between 11am and 11.30am', and an application form. Then you are ushered into this boiling basement room, filled to bursting with every type of person imaginable - wizened Sikh gentlemen stepping on the toes of elderly Sloanes, getting in the way of corpulent Indian businessmen, treading on the saris of serene women, all intermingled with the ubiquitous travellers.

The room seems to be used for most things in the High Commission - as well as visas, people are waiting there for passport applications and renewals, immigration and a whole host of other things. No one knew what was going on - the queues didn't go anywhere, or were all mixed together. Funny to watch, less funny to actually be in (probably - though no one seemed to mind).

I watch a large LCD screen tick up from number 85 to 332, when I have to leap up and give in my passport, photos, visa fee and filled out form. The woman gives me a little slip of paper and keeps my passport, looking irritated when I don't leap out of the way for the next person - 'What do I do with this?' 'Go to number seven in half an hour!' 'Seven?' 'YES. Move along!'

Turns out seven is a tiny little window at the end of the counter with a woman peering out shouting numbers through a megaphone, apparently at random - 29! 197! 281! 146!. A thong of people hang around it, leaping forward to get their passports when their number is called, jabbing their little bit of paper through the hole. Finally you get your passport back with a lovely, colourful visa pasted in.

Now, I'm excited. 6 days to go!