i am writing this post because sarasa bugged me to update my blog- i can't say i have a lot of interesting news or things to say, but i will make a genuine attempt! so the past couple of weeks have been a little crazy and strange. i'm working on the project with a delhi-based ngo, which has been somewhat frustrating because the government of this state is so ridiculous, but i am hopeful that things will work out in the end. i will be less vague about that when stuff finally comes together!
india is getting super hot, which is good and bad. good, because the heat means that mangoes will soon be available in the markets, which is SO exciting. but, it's also hot, so that's not quite as exciting. i might be shifting houses, because my place doesn't have AC, and i actually managed to give myself sun stroke (aka heat stroke).
other good things- i've learned how to cook okra one way. i've discovered kesar pista milkshakes (saffron and pistachio flavors). i had my first webcam/skype conversation the other night with frank. i bought a pink sari. i'm going to amritsar next weekend to see the golden temple. i'm trying to plan a trip to the mountains in 2 weeks if i can convince some poor soul to accompany me.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Friday, April 6, 2007
Trek to South India and back
My sister was nice enough to come all the way to India to hang out with me for 2 weeks, so I took it as a chance to travel a bit. We went from Delhi to Goa to Kerala to Delhi to Lucknow and then back to Delhi again. It was so fun! I thought I would include some pics and stories for my loyal fans! jk jk!
So, Goa... not as pretty as we had expected. It's a super popular tourist spot, and I imagine it's really fun on New Year's Eve or during spring break, but it's just not that pretty! The water was pretty dirty in north and south Goa, and the food wasn't that good since it wasn't veggie friendly. on a positive note, I got to drink lots of lime sodas, which is my favorite drink in India! It's like carbonated water with fresh lime juice, salt and pepper. Sounds gross, but it's really good! The other great thing about Goa is that we went to this really fancy hotel to eat, and I got to eat Thai food for the first time in months, and we got brownie sundaes for dessert! I was in heaven!
Ok, moving along in the journey, we took a train to Kerala which was so annoying because the travel agent who had booked our tickets had mistakenly written my sister's gender as male. now, normally that wouldn't be a big deal, but seeing as this is india, and everything ends up being a pain in the ass when you really just want to take a nap, i had to fight with the train conductor, buy the ticket again and pay a fine. either way, we made it to kochi in one piece. then we met our driver. he spoke no english. no hindi. only malayalam. oy. that was a HUGE problem. anyway, we went to mu
nnar first, which has all these lovely tea plantations and spice plantations. it smelled like tea and cardamom for 2 days, which i was so happy about!
So this is a snapshot of a part of the tea plantation. I was pretty amazed by how extensive the fields were, and I believe they are primarily owned by the TATA company. We also had the most incredible dosa, uttapam, and chutneys in munnar. if anyone has recipes for that amazing mint chutney, coconut chutney, and tomato chutney that is used in south indian cooking, please send them my way! The other entertaining thing we realized while we were in M
unnar is the cult of Lonely Planet. Now, I've never realized this before, because I haven't traveled abroad prior to this, expect for family vacations to India when I was a kid. But now that I've been traveling a bit, I'm starting to realize that this book has such a cult following- it's crazy! We kept seeing/meeting all these non-Indians in Goa and Kerala who were carrying these huge backpacks and holding their LP book grasped to their chest like their travel Bible. And though I understand that the book gives a good rough description of lots of different places and gives people ideas on where to go which can be a difficult task for foreigners to a country, it is still super entertaining to see these people who only stay in LP recommended places and only eat at LP mentioned restaurants. In honor of the LPers, I've included the picture of a birkenstock footprint, which we saw everywhere! Does anyone else remember that NYTimes article about birkenstock company and how much they enjoyed and appreciated that hippie-dippie, tree-hugging association with their shoes? These LPers are never ending free advertisements for them!
After Munnar, we drove to Thekkedy, which was, well, kinda lame to be honest. We wanted to see a spice plantation, but we ended up in this place which we thought looked like someone's personal garden, and then they tried to sell us massage oil. Very strange...
After that, we went to Alleppy, which was soooooooo pretty and lovely. Alleppy is known for its backwaters, which is basically a series of canals and waterways that are lined with coconut trees and lotus flowers and villages. amazingly beautiful. we were lucky enough to take a boat ride around sunset, and there was a brief thunderstorm while we were on the water which made the scene even more picturesque! Not to sound super touristy and like one of those damn lonely planet types that my sister and i despise, but it is pretty amazing to see people using canoes as their mode of transportation and the
canal water as their bathing water. there was just something about our being on a motorized boat watching people canoe past us with wood and leaves to build their houses that made the whole experience seem very unreal. We also stayed at this cute little place in the middle of a lake. We went paddle boating one morning, and ate lovely keralan cuisine, which I loved. I should have been born in kerala.
After Alleppy, we went to Kovalam, which had such pretty beaches. Now, I know people say these beaches are commercial and touristy, but I say, ignore them, because they were so beautiful. clear water, white sand, so pretty. It was such a relief to see this pretty beach area after seeing the ugliness of Goa! The waves were also super big and kinda scary because they had such a strong pull. Needless to say, my sister and I were super wimpy and stayed along the coast since neither of us is a super great swimmer (sarasa i need more swimming lessons!) I included a pictur
e of the beach and a shot of the outdoor restaurant where we had dinner the night we were in Kovalam. I got to eat bok choy in India on the beach on a full moon night with my sister! Does life get any better than that?
After our touristy trek through Kerala, we returned to Delhi, a place which my sister and I both love! We ate lots of food at Haldiram's, shopped, and went to see my sister's first Bollywood film in India this trip. We saw Namastey London, which I had already seen, and was dying to see again. It is such a terrible movie that it is actually good. SO good. It's got all these Indian patriotism undertones which would have annoyed me had I been in the states, but since I'm in India and the crowd was cheering and hooting- it just seemed so right and so fabulous!
Now that I'm back from my lovely vacation through Western South India, I am ready to work on my project and hopefully find a way to make myself useful- more work related posts to come soon (i hope!)
So, Goa... not as pretty as we had expected. It's a super popular tourist spot, and I imagine it's really fun on New Year's Eve or during spring break, but it's just not that pretty! The water was pretty dirty in north and south Goa, and the food wasn't that good since it wasn't veggie friendly. on a positive note, I got to drink lots of lime sodas, which is my favorite drink in India! It's like carbonated water with fresh lime juice, salt and pepper. Sounds gross, but it's really good! The other great thing about Goa is that we went to this really fancy hotel to eat, and I got to eat Thai food for the first time in months, and we got brownie sundaes for dessert! I was in heaven!
Ok, moving along in the journey, we took a train to Kerala which was so annoying because the travel agent who had booked our tickets had mistakenly written my sister's gender as male. now, normally that wouldn't be a big deal, but seeing as this is india, and everything ends up being a pain in the ass when you really just want to take a nap, i had to fight with the train conductor, buy the ticket again and pay a fine. either way, we made it to kochi in one piece. then we met our driver. he spoke no english. no hindi. only malayalam. oy. that was a HUGE problem. anyway, we went to mu
nnar first, which has all these lovely tea plantations and spice plantations. it smelled like tea and cardamom for 2 days, which i was so happy about!So this is a snapshot of a part of the tea plantation. I was pretty amazed by how extensive the fields were, and I believe they are primarily owned by the TATA company. We also had the most incredible dosa, uttapam, and chutneys in munnar. if anyone has recipes for that amazing mint chutney, coconut chutney, and tomato chutney that is used in south indian cooking, please send them my way! The other entertaining thing we realized while we were in M
unnar is the cult of Lonely Planet. Now, I've never realized this before, because I haven't traveled abroad prior to this, expect for family vacations to India when I was a kid. But now that I've been traveling a bit, I'm starting to realize that this book has such a cult following- it's crazy! We kept seeing/meeting all these non-Indians in Goa and Kerala who were carrying these huge backpacks and holding their LP book grasped to their chest like their travel Bible. And though I understand that the book gives a good rough description of lots of different places and gives people ideas on where to go which can be a difficult task for foreigners to a country, it is still super entertaining to see these people who only stay in LP recommended places and only eat at LP mentioned restaurants. In honor of the LPers, I've included the picture of a birkenstock footprint, which we saw everywhere! Does anyone else remember that NYTimes article about birkenstock company and how much they enjoyed and appreciated that hippie-dippie, tree-hugging association with their shoes? These LPers are never ending free advertisements for them!After Munnar, we drove to Thekkedy, which was, well, kinda lame to be honest. We wanted to see a spice plantation, but we ended up in this place which we thought looked like someone's personal garden, and then they tried to sell us massage oil. Very strange...
After that, we went to Alleppy, which was soooooooo pretty and lovely. Alleppy is known for its backwaters, which is basically a series of canals and waterways that are lined with coconut trees and lotus flowers and villages. amazingly beautiful. we were lucky enough to take a boat ride around sunset, and there was a brief thunderstorm while we were on the water which made the scene even more picturesque! Not to sound super touristy and like one of those damn lonely planet types that my sister and i despise, but it is pretty amazing to see people using canoes as their mode of transportation and the
canal water as their bathing water. there was just something about our being on a motorized boat watching people canoe past us with wood and leaves to build their houses that made the whole experience seem very unreal. We also stayed at this cute little place in the middle of a lake. We went paddle boating one morning, and ate lovely keralan cuisine, which I loved. I should have been born in kerala.
After Alleppy, we went to Kovalam, which had such pretty beaches. Now, I know people say these beaches are commercial and touristy, but I say, ignore them, because they were so beautiful. clear water, white sand, so pretty. It was such a relief to see this pretty beach area after seeing the ugliness of Goa! The waves were also super big and kinda scary because they had such a strong pull. Needless to say, my sister and I were super wimpy and stayed along the coast since neither of us is a super great swimmer (sarasa i need more swimming lessons!) I included a pictur
e of the beach and a shot of the outdoor restaurant where we had dinner the night we were in Kovalam. I got to eat bok choy in India on the beach on a full moon night with my sister! Does life get any better than that?After our touristy trek through Kerala, we returned to Delhi, a place which my sister and I both love! We ate lots of food at Haldiram's, shopped, and went to see my sister's first Bollywood film in India this trip. We saw Namastey London, which I had already seen, and was dying to see again. It is such a terrible movie that it is actually good. SO good. It's got all these Indian patriotism undertones which would have annoyed me had I been in the states, but since I'm in India and the crowd was cheering and hooting- it just seemed so right and so fabulous!
Now that I'm back from my lovely vacation through Western South India, I am ready to work on my project and hopefully find a way to make myself useful- more work related posts to come soon (i hope!)
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