We knew this would be an interesting trip before it happened for several reasons. First, we'd be in Goa. For those of you who don't know, Goa is the west basically. Tourist hotspot, beaches everywhere, its like India's Vegas. Second, we were going to be traveling with "the Jersey guys". These are four guys, Mike, Dave, Andy and Josh, all best friends from New Jersey, who took separate programs and met up in India. These guys are some of the craziest I've ever met, but really really fun. Third, although we were going in one big group, we were taking mini travel groups on the way home. We started with twelve, then after about 5 days three people went home, Joey and I were the next group to come back after about 10 days, tomorrow about 3-4 more people should get back, and finally in about a week the Jersey guys are coming back. So we'd all be together but separate also. Another twist for Joey and me was that we didn't exactly have a for sure way back by the time we'd left. We were missing a leg of the trip which we were hoping we could figure out while there. So there's the background for this whole trip.
On Thursday, we took off on an AC 2-tier train, which is a lot nicer than sleeper class. Got to Hubli, which is in Karnataka. For being such a tourist attraction, Goa only has direct routes to like 5-6 cities, Hubli being one. We bussed from Hubli to Panaji, the capital of Goa, on an express bus, which is the crappiest kind they offer. No AC, 5 seats to a row, and it rained on us even with the windows shut. Six and a half hours later we found ourselves in Panaji and rickshawed to Calengute beach. Calengute is one of the most popular beaches in Goa and there were tons of people there, lots of shops and food and all sorts of activity. We literally stayed in a shack on the beach for Rps. 120 each a night. It was so beautiful. We were there for two nights, relaxing, playing in the ocean, eating at this tiny open-air shack restaurant, shopping and all that good stuff. After 2 days we shifted over to Anjuna beach, which is much smaller and relatively unknown. There, again, we stayed on the beach. The undertoe here was a lot stronger and a lot more fun. In Anjuna there was an adorable bazaar and market that stretched the walk to the beach that had some great stuff too. Here, the winning restaurant was called Shore Bar and had some of the best western food I've had in all of India. It was run by a British bartender and his dad and man could they cook. They had avacados, which I haven't seen since I've been here, and salads that were safe to eat, and, of course, triple shots of whiskey for rps. 50 ($1). They also had a pack of about 9 dogs that loved people. One thing about Goa is you're basically safe petting any of the dogs and cats because they're used to westerners not knowing to not pet them and have instead learned to enjoy the attention. Goa was like another world entirely separate from this Earth. The state of absolute bliss I was in the entire time can't even be described.
Then there was the trip from Goa to Kerala. We took another express bus to Mangalore from Panaji, and the roads were so bad that I was literally airborne at least 30 times that night. I slept a total of twenty minutes. We got into Mangalore really early, before anything was open. Immediately I knew I hated that city. We walked through it, but there was absolutely nothing to do. We just had to kill 12 hours there before our train to Kerala. We eventually stumbled upon a mall with a cinema and food and coffee in it where we spent the majority of the day. We did wander out onto the school campus there and saw a really cool church that narrated the bible on its walls in pictures and quotes, and there was an entire banyan tree park. There was this one beggar, though, who actually followed us all the way across the city, he followed us from about 20 ft back but when we'd stop to buy something or stop in a store he's creep up and start begging again or wait for us outside the store. I tried going off on him in hindi but he apparently only knew Kannada (state language of Karnataka). I decided that day that not only was Mangalore my least favorite city in India, but so far my least favorite city in the world. And I had to stop through there again on my way home. Ouch. Joey and I did, however, find a bus that went directly to Hyderabad, on an AC Volvo sleeper bus (nicest ones they make). We were pretty excited and bought our tickets for that and cancelled our train tickets that would have taken us from Hubli back to Hyderabad. We finally had a way home!
We got on the train from Mangalore to Kerala at about 6pm. Our tickets were to a station called IJK (Irinjalakudda). We got into that station at about 2 am, stepped on the platform and realized immediately that we were in the middle of nowhere. There was no civilization for miles. It was 2 am, we had to get to Allepy, and the next train that left for Allepy was at about 8am. There were literally 9 of us sleeping on the floor of a train station for about 6 hours. We were homeless, and looking back it was really really funny.
Alas we made it to Allepy. Allepy is the main port for the backwaters. I'm still not exactly sure what kind of body of water the backwaters are considered, but they seemed a lot like a lake to me. They were actually like a series of canals that would connect in big open areas. It's exactly as I've always pictured Venice except not in modern, western Europe but rather in the middle of a jungle. Here we got a houseboat for 3 days. Listen to this dealio: 3 days, 3 meals a day plus tea and snacks cooked for us by an awesome Keralan chef, 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, a dining room, a sundeck on the second floor (yeah, second floor!) and tour of the backwaters for 32,000 rupees total. Since I was there for two nights only I paid 2500 rupees (~$50) for 2 nights, seven full meals, two tea and snacks, and the houseboat (you gotta see the picture of it). I was in heaven. So literally for two days straight all 9 of us sat on the sun deck and just stared at the glory of where we were and didn't move unless it was for a meal. The food was amazing, I actually ate fish and liked some of it. We also got to try toddy, which is a really interesting drink. It's made from the palm tree, not the coconuts, and if you drink it before sunrise its a super health drink. As soon as it hits sunrise, though, it ferments into a wine-like alcoholic drink that continues to ferment throughout the day. By sunset it's basically toxic. We got some for lunch and it was really really tasty. The second morning the chef made pancakes stuffed with pineapple and banana. The most stressed I was in those two days was trying to come up with ways I could use words to depict Kerala that would do it justice and I finally realized it's just impossible. All I know for sure is during this trip I easily discovered both the best and worst places on earth. I would even put Kerala over Hawaii, although it breaks my heart to steal any light away from Hawaii. But you get the idea.
It's the trip home that's the real adventure. To begin with, the houseboat never took us back to the port as promised. Instead, they sent us on these bus boats. Literally, since there aren't any roads in the backwaters, public transportation is boats instead of busses. Joey and I took a bus boat back to the main port. Rickshawed to the station. Trained to Ernakulam junction, which is one of the main cities in Kerala. From there we discovered that our train to Mangalore starts in Ernakulam, so instead of training to IJK to get our Mangalore train we just hopped on at Ernakulam (didn't make the conductor so happy though). That night I actually slept, thankfully. We got to Mangalore (again) and had to kill 6 hours until our AC Volvo sleeper to Hyderabad at 4. We did another movie and just killed as much time as possible. We got to the bus station with time to spare and waited for our luxury bus to pull up. But it didn't. I guess while we were in lalaland there was a massive flood in southern Andhra and eastern Karnataka that literally formed a blockade that nobody could get through. So our bus got cancelled. We were stranded in Mangalore of all places. We went to the train station to try to get out of there. Fail. We went to a travel agency to see if they could get us to Hyderabad. Fail. We went to an internet cafe to check flights and trains. Flights were over $200 and all trains were wait listed 200-300 people. Fail. We went back to the bus station and decided Bangalore was a better bet for getting home than Mangalore, and I'd much rather spend the night either on a bus to Bangalore or in Bangalore than in Mangalore. So we hopped on yet another express bus to Bangalore. Yet another sleepless night flying in the air and covered in grime from the outside. To better everything, around 8am we got a flat tire. We finally got into Bangalore around 10-11am after about a 16 hour journey which should have taken less than 12 (not all that was due to the flat, a lot was bad roads from the monsoon). Bangalore was a city unlike any I'd seen in India so far. There are several things you can tell about an Indian city right off the bat. First, how strong its police force is. If you look around and a majority of the people on motorcycles are wearing helmets and you don't ever see more than 3 people packed into a 3-in-all rickshaw, you know there are a lot of cops. Second, a general rule of thumb is you can tell how developed a city is based on how much English and Hindi vs. regional language you see on signs and hear people speak. This is what baffled me about Bangalore though. It seems to me that Bangalore has developed so rapidly these last few years that society hasn't caught up yet. Most people I talked to didn't speak English and most signs were English/Kannada not English/Hindi. The traffic was insane. We ended up finding another AWESOME mall there where we were actually pressed for time to get everything done there that we wanted before our 7pm bus. I liked Bangalore a lot. Our 7pm bus was on an AC Volvo recliner, not sleeper, but was still really nice. But it didn't show up until about 9:30 pm. I passed out immediately on that bus and woke up only about 3-4 times which was a relief. Generally the bus from Bangalore to Hyderabad is about 12 hours, so I woke up at about 8 thinking we were within hours of reaching home. But I guess because of the flood we had to take a 200 km detour and didn't end up getting back until 5pm! And yes, we got another flat tire on that bus too. It was a brutal trip back.
So lets recount. On this trip, I travelled on: AC 2-tier train, express bus, rickshaw, taxi, sleeper train, general class train, houseboat, government bus boat, canoe and AC Volvo recliner. Props to me. I travelled everything barring domestic flight and AC Volvo sleeper!
There was so much more to this trip than I can even say, but moral of the story is that India is definitely a great place to vacation. I'm sure if you get a chance to actually talk to me about it sometime instead of me narrating it you'll hear a lot more. Also, sorry in advance for the pathetic amount of pictures. I was so caught up in the moment and knew deep in my heart that pictures wouldn't do any of my trip justice that taking pictures would have just ended up a waste of time, so there aren't nearly as many as there could/should/would be. I'll try to get those up soon.
Photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=162975&id=642705832&l=cecb9d0a04
No comments:
Post a Comment