bye bye

It's funny how calm and orderly mid-town traffic seems to well...I rest my case (btw - that was stuck in traffic on a "two lane" street...

I feel kinda guilty that I sort of kept the blog in the dark about what the hell happened to the end of my trip. The longer I went without writing the harder and harder it became to catch back up again. So, I'll just start with today and we'll see if you can conjure a guess as to what's happened to me from the beginning of feb till today.

Well, I walked out the door to work after slamming a few cups of coffee. (somehow I feel like this morning ritual is pretty familiar to a lot of people) Was at work till 8; then something was funky with my subway line tonight and it took twice as long to get home; where I had to make sure the apt looked passable before Lindsey got back in town tonight.

While that doesn't seem like anything out of the ordinary, I find it pretty extraordinary seeing as how I'm now going on my second month of work at a t.v. ad-sales company in New York. What else? Oh yeah...Lindsey and I are sharing a rather 'cozy' apt in the east village. Now what it took, on many people's ends, for that to happen is a whole other story. For now, I just wanted to clear the air and get blogging again.

**I'm going to see what I can do about making a reasonable effort at keeping this thing somewhat up to date. "somewhat" at this point is still a little murky...lol

More Bhutan

I love it here! The people are so nice--quicky to smile and nothing at all like they are in India. They say that instead of measuring things here by their Gross National Product...they measure things by their gross national happiness. Our guide for the day, Karma, said that the Bhutanese live by the hedonistic saying, eat, drink (and aparently they drink a lot) and be merry....it shows too.

We did a bunch of touring around today in the valley of Paro. It was so beautiful. We saw their national museum...the ONLY one in Bhutan. It was filled with Bhutanese history, culture and charm.

I have to say though, that the highlight of the day was touring a monestary. Parts of it were over 1500 years old & amazingly have NEVER been renovated. Our tour was conducted in a clockwise direction--and thinking back to the museum it dawned on me that we also toured that in a clockwise direction, which I later learned is the custom here. We walked into one of the inner sanctums to a group of monks praying. We were told that they start praying at 4 am every morning and go till past sundown, with only a few short breaks for food. I wish I could have taken pictures of both the statues and the monks inside, but that is a big no no. Just inside the courtyard is an orange tree, they refered to it as a sacred orange tree; apparently, orange tree don't grow at this altitude (we're at about 7,300 ft), nor do they blossom and grow fruit more than once a year...but this orange tree not only grows here, as it has for hunderds of years, but it also flourishes so much so that it grows fruit year round. As we were finishing up our tour we were standing in the courtyard when I heard a thump behind me and turned around to find a tiny orange sitting on the paving stone about a foot away. I looked up from the orange to a senior monk who was perched on the steps close by staring at me with wide eyes. He told me to pick it up and keep it. A bit confused I did what he asked. Karma, our guide, came over and told me that in the 150+ times he's visited this monestary he has never once seen an orange fall from the tree. He said that it's considered very good luck to whomever is standing there when it happens. :) what can I say, I'm just blessed. Since I won't be able to export the fruit out of Bhutan, or into India, I was thinking that later tonight we'll squeeze a bit of orange juice into everyone's gin &tonics to see if we can't spread the good luck around a bit.

Tomorrow we're heading out of here at 7:30 am to go to Thimpu the capital of Bhutan for their saturday market. I can't wait. Maybe I'll find some good/fun buys with my newly bestowed goodluck.

Ranthambore

Creeping along in the back of an open jeep in the Ranthambore Natinoal Tiger Reserve, the driver looks down occasionally, apparently following fresh tiger print along the dusty road. Suddenly, he stops and points off to the right side of the jeep. Through the woods about 100m off you can just make out the brilliant stripes of a female tiger bathing in the first rays of the morning light. She notices a human presence and gets up to retreat off deeper into the woods, perhaps in search of food......


Too bad I saw this on the discovery channel the night before and not on our tour the next morning in the park. The 5 of us bumped along the dusty roads that criss-crossed the park for four hours keeping a vigilant watch...but alas we didn't see a single tiger. We did however see a few tiger prints....that we later learned could have been fakes purposely put there to get out hopes up. We learned later the next day that the two top officials who oversee the park were sacked for doing just that. Also, the Indian gov't suspects that there are actually 11 fewer tigers in the reserve then they originally though. Too bad. We did see all kinds of other animals: deer, antelope, crocodiles, all kinds spectacular birds...tons of peacocks. Despite not seeing tigers it was a lot of fun!

Maybe next time I go on a tiger safari I'll actually get to see a tiger.

Taj Mahal

I have to say that the Taj Mahal was much more impressive then I would have expected. I know, I know, it's the most famous monument in India--and now I know for good reason too. It is not only stunning from afar, but it becomes more beautiful the closer you get to it. I first saw it the day before the fam got to Agra when I toured the Red Fort. There is a side of the fort the overlooks the Yamuna river and the Taj. Then, when I checked into the Oberoi hotel in Agra I walked out onto the balcony and smack-dab infront of me was the Taj...looking even more impressive than the day before. A few hours later the family arrived from Delhi and we ran to tour the complex before they closed at sundown. First off--India loves to rip off the tourists. Most of the time I tour places and it's about Rs. 10 for Indians to get in and then usually between Rs. 150-300 for foreigners...but at the Taj it was a whopping Rs. 900!!! to get in. (My budget per day is Rs 1200) But, I guess thats what happens when you're one of the most recoginized monuntents in the world. (although, I wasn't paying either)

The whole complex is perfectly semetrical. Everything that you see on the right is repilicated on the left. The work and craftmenship is stunning! Our guide told us that the most beautiful parts of the Taj have been looted and plundered over the years. I guess, there used to be huge stores of gold and jewels adorning the inside and outside of the structure that have all been striped away through a series of 7 raids. Anyway....pictures don't really do it any justice. And I can't really bring it anymore to life with words. The only way to truly appreciate it is to see it in real life. :) Which I can say I've done.

Bhutan

Greetings from Bhutan! We had a flight early this morning from Delhi, though Khatmhandu in Nepal, to Paro, Bhutan...which happens to be the only place in the whole kingdom that has an airprot. For anyone who doesn't know, Bhntan is a small country, Kingdom actually, a bit northeast of India in the Himalaya mountains. It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!!! We're staing at the lavish Uma Paro Hotel (http://uma.como.bz/paro/default.asp).

We took off from Delhi and had a short flight to Nepal, where we stopped and picked up a few passangers, mostly Buddhist monks, then took off again....past mount everest. (I snuck a few pics from the plane) When landing in Bhutan we literally had to fly AROUND mountain peaks, as opposed to over them. It was funny to picture our huge Boeing jumbo jet having to navigate its way around these lush green mountains. The airport was in built in a traditional native Bhutanese style...and was situated next to a pristine bubbling brook. I can't get over how absolutely beautiful and clean it is here; especially coming from India.

Everyone is so nice and friendly! The hotel/resort we're staing at is beautiful! And it's funny because besides another couple here from Brazil, the 5 of us are the only people in the whole place. It's like having your own gigantic mansion resort spa with a fulltime staff to wait on you.

This has got to be a quick post because it's late here and I have any early massage appointment (rough, I know). But I just wanted to say that it is amazing here! Oh yeah, and the internet is free, so I'm hopefully going to catch up on a bit of my blogging. b/c before the Gem Palace--- I also saw the Taj Mahal in Agra, and went on a tiger safari in Ranthambore park; you'll have to stay tuned to find out if we say any tigers. Good night for now. There'll be more tomorrow.

The Gem Palace

Jaipur is known as the pink city because about 200+ years ago all of the building fronts inside the palace walls were painted with terracotta and one of the British said it was the "pink city" and the name stuck. Now they are famous, not only for being pink, but also for their traditional block fabric printing and also stones/gems.

Yesterday, we were buying tons of jewelry at the Gem Palace from a rather unassuming man (can't remember his name right now). Between Mom, Adri, Deedee Randy and I we had a few thousand dollars worth of stuff & per usual we were negotiating on the price--as you have to do with everything here. *Lets back up for one sec. Adri among her many other talents, is a jewelry designer, certified and all by the gemnological institute. She brought with her some sketches to see if there were any jewelers here to make some of her pieces. With the Gem Palace we hit the jackpot! Not only will he make her pieces, at an amazing rate!!! but he will also have someone bring them to her in London to see if they meet her approval. If so she buys, if not then the guy brings it back to Jaipur--no harm, no foul & and best of all, no charge! Totally no strings attached! It turns out the man we were dealing with is the owner of the gem palace. His family has been in the jewelry business for the last 300+ years. They were the personal jewelers to the Maharaja, in fact the still are. After we bought a few pieces he started showing off his rare collection.

He rummaged through cabinets and started pulling out box after box of the most amazing stunning necklaces and earrings I have EVER seen, and let Adri try them on. He was pulling out things that were owned by the Maharaja over a hundred years ago...This one thing he put on Adri had, by my estimates (whatever that's worth) over 90 carets of diamonds!!!!!! With matching diamond earrings...The backs of the earring were encrusted with diamonds. We were taking pics like crazy. The amazing thing was it was nothing to him. I feel like if we had been any other place in the world there would have been armed guards in fancy suits keeping a very watchful eye on us. Here in Jaipur though it seemed to be no big deal. At one point he was stacking boxes of necklaces on multi-million dollar pieces like they were costume jewelry. Most other people would gingerly handle this stuff, he would just throw it around.

Then he took us out back and showed us his private car collection. It had one of the biggest Cadillac I've ever seen! An old school Mercedes touring car, a few old ambassadors, a Humber (never heard of that one) and some other old school cars that were crank-start engines....

THEN he took us up into his jewelry factory. There seemed to be about 75-100 employees working for him. One of the rooms he brought us into had millions of dollars of uncut stones. Uncut rubies and saphires that must have weighed over 50 lbs. There were containers of gems just piled everywhere. Men were working meticulously making jewelry by hand--doing gold enameling and inlaying...Setting stones...Stringing necklaces....Cutting and polishing stones. It was amazing! I'm so happy that mom had her video camera and captured it all on tape.

This one guy we saw was working on a very Egyptian looking piece. He told us that later next year the Met in New York is having an Egyptian show and they commissioned his shop to make the jewelry that they sell in their giftshop. So then we go back into his store and I start looking at the pics on the wall. There was a pic of his with the current Maharaja...one of his father with the Maharaja of Jaipur that died in London in the '70's while playing Polo (apparently that guy was the number 1 polo player in the world). There were pics of Jackie Kennedy at the Gem Palace...Princess Diana and Prince Charles shaking his hand after buying up half the store...the list of Celebes goes one and on.

And of coarse I couldn't leave without buying a very very very cool piece for Lindsey. Sorry hon, you'll just have to wait till I get back to see it. It's a totally fun piece, I'm sure you'll love it!

Close encounters of the barnyard kind

Cows, chickens, goats, buffalo, pigs....am I missing anything? Not too sure--

This post is about the dangerous encounters I've had thus far with seemingly docile and harmless animals...lets see, where to start.

Most recently, when I was in Goa over new years we rented scooters b/c thats the easiest, cheapest & most fun way to get from beach to beach. Nate was driving. We were buzzing along minding our own business when out of the underbrush ran (what I think was) a wild pig, who then stopped in the middle of the road and stood there as we rapidly approached. Thankfully there wasn't any other traffic on the narrow road otherwise I might have had my fist trip to an Indian hospital. Nate slammed on the brakes and we skidded & slid around the thing as it just stared (like everything else in India) right at us not seeming to care at all that it almost got hit. Oh geez, I just remembered that a few nights before that it was super early...like 7 in the morning and we were in a taxis on our way home from a marathon night--as usual the driver was going WAY WAY WAY too fast for the roads, but they never seem to mind. *I wake up some mornings with sore legs because in my terror I push against the floor of the car; one day I'll get a rusted-out old cab and probably push my feet right through the metal to the otherside. Anyway, the driver is flying along and most of us had our eyes closed, either out of fear or we were just too inebriated, when the car swerved and the driver lightly tapped his brakes as we ran right over a dog. Not really sure if it survived or not, but the driver made a very good point. He said it was better to run over a dog (because seriously, they're everywhere!) then have us run off the road...fair enough.

Then there was the time I was in Mysore walking down the road toward the market. A huge delivery truck was coming down the road behind me and a cow, with very big and pointy horns I might add, was sauntering his way up the road in my direction. Now, the truck has got some pretty good speed--remember, might is right-- so I move to the side a bit to make some extra room. This is when it quickly became apparent, either get squashed by the truck, or have an encounter with the seemingly harmless cow...I opted for the cow. He didn't seem to pleased by this choice and as the truck was passing me he lowered his head, snorted a bit, then tried to scure me with his horns. I jumped sideways just in time. The truck whizzed by inches from me as the cow landed a direct hit with my backpack sending it flying in the air. Thankfully he missed me, and all the valuables in my bag like my video camera. phew!

There have been a few other small incidents where dogs have gotten in fights very near me and I had to take shelter in a nearby store so I wouldn't get in the way.....and other things like the roosters that are sometimes around who start crowing at 5am...and usually don't stop till about 9 or 10...

Back on the road

I'm excited to really get back on the road and start sightseeing again. I'm back in Bangalore for a day then I'm off to Agra--via Delhi-- where I meet mom (no that wasn't a typo) Deedee, Adri and Randy. **Can I say that I never in my life thought I'd be saying something like, "I'm meeting up with my mother to see the Taj Mahal." But then again, I never thought I'd meet someone at 4:30 am Christmas morning at a house in Bangalore --Indian born no less-- that knows a person that both Nate and I know....it was truly a strange scene. X-mas eve night started out with a double sapphire and tonic at "sunny's," the over-the-top even for the US place, where I had that exquisite meal. Then we headed to the Opus lounge where Nate was playing sax that night with a band he had never met before. It was ridiculous! Carlton, the lead singer was on stage for 4 hours and only took one break. His enthusiasms totally made up for the way he jumped between songs when he forgot (or never knew) the words. Either way, the crowd loved it! It was Christmas eve and that was reason enough for people to have fun...Everyone was up dancing and singing along-- after grabbing a quick non-veg thali & shutting down another bar, we headed out to some houseparty WAY out in a Bangalore suburb. 7 of us crammed in some tiny Indian car and drove forever to a party that was dying...which led us to another house party a bit closer in town where Nate and I overhear the two Indian kids behind us talking about big 10 football. One of the guys goes to Madison and knows a TON of the guys Nate went to high school with in Milwaukee; some of whom I also know because Lindsey and Nate went to the same HS....

But anway, I'm way off coarse. I talking about things I never thought I'd be saying like meeting my mother at the Taj Mahal-- From Agra we'll be heading to Jaipur, but with an overnight stopover in Ranthambor (?) tiger reserve; where we'll hopefully get to spot a tiger or two. Then after a few days in Jaipur, the 'pink city,' we're flying to Bhutan to...well, i'm not really sure what we're going to be doing there. lol. Marvel at the Himalayas. :) I've been told my mission, which I gladly accepted, was to meet them in Agra on the 12'th....and well, thats what I'm doing. This should be a lot of fun. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that everyone can handle India. It's definately not for everyone. You just sort of have to accept it for what it is--which I'm not really sure what that is-- because if you try to fight it you will lose.

I've posted a bunch of new pictures. They're not really in any kind of order because of the piecemeal way I've uploaded them so far--

howdy

Wow! This last week has been an insane amount of fun thanks to Nate, Winnie, Laura and Scot. Thats part of the reason why it's been so long since I've had time to make an entry. Both Christmas and New Years was wonderful.

I had xmas in Bangalore where we stuffed ourselves full in a posh over-the-top restaurant where I had a 6 course meal and a bottle of Moet--and the bill was under $70...so delicious! Then for new years we went to Goa and partied like rockstars! I've never been with so many people to bring in the new year. I was on a beach with probably 20,000 other people. It was massive, loud and booze-filled event...I took a bunch of pics and posted them on photobucket...so check 'em out.

I've gotta run for now and go eat dinner. But I'll try to sort my way through the last couple of days in a little bit.

bye for now

The staring thing

Being from the west I guess Im a bit of a celebrity. Sorry if I've written about this already, but it's becoming a recurring theme....

First incident. I was waiting for my bus from Bombay to Goa--I was sitting there quietly reading and I could feel people's eyes on me. Out of the corner of my eye I see 5 teenage boys crowded together peering over my way. I went on reading ignoring them when one of them came up to me with a camera and asked to take a picture. I thought they wanted me to take a picture OF them...it turns out they really wanted me to take a picture WITH them. These guys were from a smaller town about 150Km northeast of Bombay...I asked why they wanted a pic with me --actually each one of the individually sat down and posed with me-- and they quite honestly replied, "because you are from the west."

Later- I was climbing to the top of the hilltop fort in Aurungabad...some 600+ steps up to the top & it's HOT! I'm all sweaty and grimy and these kids come up again with a camera and pose for pictures...then an older couple....then an entire grade school class --those kids ended up 'escorting' me back down the mountain buzzing around like flies the whole time-- and almost every tourist place I've been I've posed for pictures with total strangers. I usually try to talk to them for a bit, which gets a little old after a while; especially when it's the end of the day or there is more than just 1 or 2 people...but i try not to be rude...

People are just plain old curious! They want to know who I am. What my name is. What country I'm from. Why I'm in India. How long I'm in India. What my profession is (or alternately if I'm a student). If I'm married. Not married, do you have a girlfriend. Those are sort of the general everyday questions I get...oh, and how old are u? is another big one.

The picture thing isn't that bad. I find it funny mostly. I really wish I could go back and find out what happened to those pics. People want pics b/c they don't come in contact with all that many westerners.

The thing that gets really annoying is all the staring. First of all it isn't considered rude like it is in the west. For instance, my train ride the other day from Mysore to Hassan was about 2 hours. For those 2 hours there was a kid peering over the back of the seat in front of me...the whole time. And it's like that everywhere...well, not everywhere, but it's worse the farther outside of large cities u are. I'm kind of getting used to it now...living life under a microscope. I guess it's sort of how celebrities feel--their every move is being watched. It really makes you hypersensitive to every move u make because it's being examined so closely. Any time I make a move heads turn to see what I'm doing...and it increases exponentially if I have any sort of electronics out, like my iPod. The worst though is eating because I still don't know what I'm doing. That sounds strange...but there are SO many options...and certain stuff is supposed to go with other stuff (descriptive, i know)...and I don't know what anything is, or how you're supposed to eat it. I don't know when to scoop things up with bread, versus using your fingers to eat. I don't know what sauce goes with what food. And people are ALWAYS watching...I'm learning though. I try something new every day. To be honest it all looks virtually the same.

K the cafe is closing so I gotta go. Tomorrow I'm heading to Bangalore so see my friend Nate. YEA for English!