In the morning around 8 we arrived back in Jaipur. This was not according to plan. The plan was changed due to a mistake that we made by getting on a bus where our hotel got commission on. A lot of services work on commission. For example, when a Riksja driver brings you to Hotel he gets some money, when a Riksja driver brings you to a shop, he gets some money. Also our hotel booked the bus with some company where he got some commission. He must have gotten a lot I thing due to state of the bus we were in.
This bus was not going back the same road as we came. Instead he drove through all kinds of local villages on very bad roads. This made the journey take three more hours. This was a problem because of the connection that we needed to make in Jaipur. So yeah, why am I telling all this? I tell all this because we learned a lesson about Indian busses. When you go with a private bus organisation; only book it in a luxurious volvo bus with A/C and all those things. If you book a dodgy bus, you end up on local villages, which is not comfortable at all. The best way is to book government busses if the journey is not longer than 6 hours.
After arriving in Jaipur, we needed to look for an another way to Rantanbore, which is a large sanctuary where you can go on a wild safari. But because we missed our connection bus that left Jaipur at 6am (which we missed due to the wrong bus) we eneded up in a local government bus. These busses seems to able to fall apart at every moment in time. They are literally just a piece of rusty metal with bumps and damages all throughout the bus. This bus was leading to Tong. Tong is a place that is not on the way to Rantanbore but the closeted that was possible. After a journey of 3 hours we arrived in Tong where we needed a connection bus to Rantanbore.
This bus was ready and waiting. In the meantime it has been raining as well all the time though. The bus that we got in now was a complete disaster. The bus was leaking like there was no roof on it, the chairs with almost only metal with no cushion anymore.
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vrijdag 26 november 2010
Day Thirty Six 22-11-10
After waking up in our spacious room we had room service and stept on our camels again. This time I was allowed to ride the camel by myself instead of being leeched. I did this for about 3 hours until we reached out lunch point. There the pots and pans came out of a bag and we eat lunch fresh from the fire. Just as we finished the jeep came to pick us up. In the late afternoon we were of to Jaipur again.
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- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Day Thirty Five 21-10-10
We arrived in the morning in Jaisalmer were we where picked up by a 150rupees (2 pound) a night hotel guy which was very decent. The prices in Jaisalmer for sleeping where incredible cheap and for good quality. So after freshing ourselfs up we discussed with the hotel guy about going on safari. We took the option of going with a jeep into the dessert where you will be picked up by a camel, which brings you close Pakistani border were you eat and sleep. In the morning you will make an another tour on the camel where you will be picked up after lunch by the jeep.
This all went exactly as they said. It was smoking hot in the dessert with not a cloud at the sky. After we where brought to our camel pick up point, there where no camels. Liny's camel was stubborn and didn't want to come. The owner was therefore late because he needed to pull the animal the whole time. This resulted in a bleeding nose of the camel because he pulled to hard. After 3 hours walking on the camel we reached our camp spot in the dessert dunes where we could see sunset. After our guide made us dinner with some pots, pans and some fire (made of wood and three stones) he decorated our room for the night. We had a VERY spacious room with a magnificent view on the dunes and stars. During the night two wild dogs joined me at my feet with sleeping.
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This all went exactly as they said. It was smoking hot in the dessert with not a cloud at the sky. After we where brought to our camel pick up point, there where no camels. Liny's camel was stubborn and didn't want to come. The owner was therefore late because he needed to pull the animal the whole time. This resulted in a bleeding nose of the camel because he pulled to hard. After 3 hours walking on the camel we reached our camp spot in the dessert dunes where we could see sunset. After our guide made us dinner with some pots, pans and some fire (made of wood and three stones) he decorated our room for the night. We had a VERY spacious room with a magnificent view on the dunes and stars. During the night two wild dogs joined me at my feet with sleeping.
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Day Thirty Four 20-11-10
Touristic day. As I felt better, we where of with a taxi through Jaipur. Here we visited a temple, Museum, City Palace, Zoo and Amber Fort. Because I still wasn't really 100% we only looked at all the thing and didn't enquire that much information about the places. Therefore, wait for the pictures and you will see....
However in the evening we wanted to check out the busses towards Sariska as there is a wild life sanctuary over there. These busses didn't go. Therefore we went to ask at the tourist office about Camel Safaris as that was one of the things we also wanted to do in Rajastan (the state where Jaipur is located in). The tourist guy told us that the best place to do that is Jaisalmer (which is 650km from Jaipur close to the Pakistani border). It was also possible in Puskar, but then it would not be a dessert safari. After some fighting with Liny about it we went to Jaisalmer, the same evening!
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However in the evening we wanted to check out the busses towards Sariska as there is a wild life sanctuary over there. These busses didn't go. Therefore we went to ask at the tourist office about Camel Safaris as that was one of the things we also wanted to do in Rajastan (the state where Jaipur is located in). The tourist guy told us that the best place to do that is Jaisalmer (which is 650km from Jaipur close to the Pakistani border). It was also possible in Puskar, but then it would not be a dessert safari. After some fighting with Liny about it we went to Jaisalmer, the same evening!
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Day Thirty Three 19-11-10
Sick day. I woke up sick, stayed in bed all day. Liny went out a bit. In the evening we wanted to go to Harry Potter as I started to feel better. Turned out that Harry Potter was only available in Hindi....
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- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Day thirty two 18-11-10
Today I finally visited the Taj Mahal. We left early in the morning with a rickshaw. Once there around half 8 a couple of guides offered their services. I got one eventually for 200 rupees. He told us a lot about the tai mahal. To explain this to you, I need pictures. At the time I don't have them so you need some imagination and if you don't have that much, I advise to read later. So for all the imaginary people:
When you arrive by rickshaw, the driver can bring you quite close to the gate that leads to the taj mahal. If you are on a tour by an organisation or hotel you will arrive at a roundabout. From there bikes will bring you close to the gate. Once through the gate you arrive at the graveyard with the first grave on you're right. This is the grave of Fatehpuri Begum which is the first of the three wives that were married to Shah Jahan. The second wife (Sarhindi Begum) is buried about 100 meters from (also on the right side of the pathway) her in an exactly the same kind of grave (keep in mind that the graves are big structures, not just a stone with R.I.P. on it)
In the middle of the two graves there is a big structure on the right of the pathway. This is the royal entrance (105ft high) towards Taj Mahal where the third wife (Mumtaj Begum) was burried. This grave is better known as the Taj Mahal (previously known as Mumtaj Mahal, but the english changed it into Taj Mahal which is a bit double stupid in my opinion, why?Firtsly stupid because it s an Indian world wonder which is named by the creator Mumtaj Mahal so why change it? and secondly, the name Mumtaj Mahal means: Beautifull (Mum) Crown (Taj) Palace (Mahal). So now it is only a crown palace instead of a beautiful crown palace). The entrance structure's gate is exactly aligned with the top of the Taj Mahal and exactly in between the other graves. The entrance is build with 22 domes on top, which represents the 22 years (1631 till 1653) that it took to build the graveyard and the age that Shan Jahan got married to his third wife. As you understand by now is that the third wife was very special to Shan Jahan. Which is the reason why he build the enormous (one billion rupees, at the time) grave for her. It is build out of complete marble and decorated with precious stones (Onyx, Malakai, Jasper, Corlinion) and pure gold pinnacles on top of the domes. From a distance the colours on Taj Mahal look painted but from close by you can see that each line is made out of a different stone. At present day the gold pinnacles are not there anymore, they have been stolen by the British to decorate the Big Ben.
Now some more random numbers about Taj Mahal:
20000 workers build the Taj Mahal
It takes 22 steps to climb the Taj Mahal
There are 16 gardens completely symmetric (almost everything at the graveyard is symmetric)
53 fountains are present in front of the Taj Mahal, which is combined 1653 which is the year that Taj Mahal was finished.
74 meters high is Taj Mahal from top to botom
With the third wife Shah Jahan had 14 children where 3 died during birth.
Six architects designed the Taj Mahal (Persian, Turkish, Iranian and Indians)
There is also a possibility to see the Taj Mahal from the other side of the river on which it is on. On the area you stand then is actually the supposedly construction side of the Black Taj. This side was meant to be the place where Shaj Jahan wanted to build a copy of the Taj Mahal in black for himself as a grave. It didn't work out because his own son arrested him before that for eight years.
That is about it for the story about Taj Mahal. The pictures will tell more off-coarse but you need to wait a bit for that. After coming back to the Hotel we where off to Jaipur where we arrived in the evening.
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When you arrive by rickshaw, the driver can bring you quite close to the gate that leads to the taj mahal. If you are on a tour by an organisation or hotel you will arrive at a roundabout. From there bikes will bring you close to the gate. Once through the gate you arrive at the graveyard with the first grave on you're right. This is the grave of Fatehpuri Begum which is the first of the three wives that were married to Shah Jahan. The second wife (Sarhindi Begum) is buried about 100 meters from (also on the right side of the pathway) her in an exactly the same kind of grave (keep in mind that the graves are big structures, not just a stone with R.I.P. on it)
In the middle of the two graves there is a big structure on the right of the pathway. This is the royal entrance (105ft high) towards Taj Mahal where the third wife (Mumtaj Begum) was burried. This grave is better known as the Taj Mahal (previously known as Mumtaj Mahal, but the english changed it into Taj Mahal which is a bit double stupid in my opinion, why?Firtsly stupid because it s an Indian world wonder which is named by the creator Mumtaj Mahal so why change it? and secondly, the name Mumtaj Mahal means: Beautifull (Mum) Crown (Taj) Palace (Mahal). So now it is only a crown palace instead of a beautiful crown palace). The entrance structure's gate is exactly aligned with the top of the Taj Mahal and exactly in between the other graves. The entrance is build with 22 domes on top, which represents the 22 years (1631 till 1653) that it took to build the graveyard and the age that Shan Jahan got married to his third wife. As you understand by now is that the third wife was very special to Shan Jahan. Which is the reason why he build the enormous (one billion rupees, at the time) grave for her. It is build out of complete marble and decorated with precious stones (Onyx, Malakai, Jasper, Corlinion) and pure gold pinnacles on top of the domes. From a distance the colours on Taj Mahal look painted but from close by you can see that each line is made out of a different stone. At present day the gold pinnacles are not there anymore, they have been stolen by the British to decorate the Big Ben.
Now some more random numbers about Taj Mahal:
20000 workers build the Taj Mahal
It takes 22 steps to climb the Taj Mahal
There are 16 gardens completely symmetric (almost everything at the graveyard is symmetric)
53 fountains are present in front of the Taj Mahal, which is combined 1653 which is the year that Taj Mahal was finished.
74 meters high is Taj Mahal from top to botom
With the third wife Shah Jahan had 14 children where 3 died during birth.
Six architects designed the Taj Mahal (Persian, Turkish, Iranian and Indians)
There is also a possibility to see the Taj Mahal from the other side of the river on which it is on. On the area you stand then is actually the supposedly construction side of the Black Taj. This side was meant to be the place where Shaj Jahan wanted to build a copy of the Taj Mahal in black for himself as a grave. It didn't work out because his own son arrested him before that for eight years.
That is about it for the story about Taj Mahal. The pictures will tell more off-coarse but you need to wait a bit for that. After coming back to the Hotel we where off to Jaipur where we arrived in the evening.
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vrijdag 19 november 2010
Day thirty one 17-11-10
After a more than 24 hour train trip from Hyderabad (which is day thirty) to Agra we arrived early in the morning. A couple of meters before we reached the platform here and there guys where jumping on the train. These where taxi guys who hoped to get a fair. Also at our door that already was opened a guy jumped on the driving train. Once we got off he wanted to bring us to his hotel. However, we where a bit reluctant in the beginning. Therefore we where looking in my tourist book first for a hotel. We decided on the Sakura hotel. The guy said it was a rubbish hotel and could bring us there for 50 rupees with his car. The hotel turned out to be very nice!
After sleeping a bit more we where of for our touristic travels. The plan was to go to Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and then to the baby Taj. This plan needed to be alliterated a bit due to V.I.P. Visitors. They close the place then down due to security reasons. We travelled around Agra with a car and driver which was arranged by the hotel.
So we went first to baby Taj followed by Agra Fort. baby Taj was a beautiful grave from some important people where I didn't note down the name of. Agra fort was next. The fort seemed to be very famous, the queue's where long to get in and inside it was also very busy then off coarse. The fort is so popular I suppose because it says to be the most important fort of India. It was so important only because of financial reasons though, so yeah what is important... It was also important as it is the fort where Shah Jahan (the guy who built Tah Mahal) was prisoner by his own son for 8 Years to save his throne. The fort it self was very grand and was constructed with red sandstone and White marble. However, the features of the fort didn't appeal that much to me, it qanat that much different than other places if been from my point of view. Or maybe I was a bit annoyed by the tourist flood that was there or maybe because I was a bit I'll from the train journey, don't know.
Then we where of for lunch. As I have been eating a lot of rice and indian food, I thought it was time for a western meal. We ended up in a pizza hut. The food was horrible ( I thought) so not recommendable in India ( and you pay 2-3 times more). Then the driver suggested us to go to Mathura,( birthplace of lord Krishna, a Hindu god ) which is a place around 60km from Agra. However Liny wanted to go to Taj Mahal first. This was not a good plan because now the V.I.P.'s where gone, there would be twice the number of tourist. We didn't know how busy it would have been so we checked it out. It turned out that we should have listened to the driver because the queues where endless!! The ticket as it is costed me 750 rupees and Liny 20 ( bloody racists) if we wanted to jump the Que, we could bribe a guy with 1000 rupees. He would let us in straight away and would have saved us 3 hours waiting. I saw already a group of White people doing it. However once they are in it would have been a chaos of people so we decided to change our plans a bit of the next day. We where planning to leave to Jaipur in The morning which became afternoon. So instead we went to Mathura. After 20 km from Agra heaven came loose and it started raining, hard!
Once at the temple we saw the bath of Lord Krishna's wife Radha. We were not allowed to bring any electrical devices in the temple AND mosque. At this holy ground is a temple and mosque builds straight next to each-other. We needed to take our shoes of before entering. This resulted in Liny and I walking in the rain on marble floors, a bit cold. After an hour in there and buying something for my mum ( where I couldn't do bargaining for :-( ) we went back to the car. On the way back we dropped by an internet cafe but due to the rain the power was cut ( which is very common) as we where looking a guy asked us to take a look in his shop. We thought, why not it's raining out here anyway. I ended up buying two typical Indian shirts.... ( good business men huh?) when the rain was over after half an hour we walk around and found a place that had Internet. After spending 1.5 hours there we went to The comfy hotel.
After sleeping a bit more we where of for our touristic travels. The plan was to go to Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and then to the baby Taj. This plan needed to be alliterated a bit due to V.I.P. Visitors. They close the place then down due to security reasons. We travelled around Agra with a car and driver which was arranged by the hotel.
So we went first to baby Taj followed by Agra Fort. baby Taj was a beautiful grave from some important people where I didn't note down the name of. Agra fort was next. The fort seemed to be very famous, the queue's where long to get in and inside it was also very busy then off coarse. The fort is so popular I suppose because it says to be the most important fort of India. It was so important only because of financial reasons though, so yeah what is important... It was also important as it is the fort where Shah Jahan (the guy who built Tah Mahal) was prisoner by his own son for 8 Years to save his throne. The fort it self was very grand and was constructed with red sandstone and White marble. However, the features of the fort didn't appeal that much to me, it qanat that much different than other places if been from my point of view. Or maybe I was a bit annoyed by the tourist flood that was there or maybe because I was a bit I'll from the train journey, don't know.
Then we where of for lunch. As I have been eating a lot of rice and indian food, I thought it was time for a western meal. We ended up in a pizza hut. The food was horrible ( I thought) so not recommendable in India ( and you pay 2-3 times more). Then the driver suggested us to go to Mathura,( birthplace of lord Krishna, a Hindu god ) which is a place around 60km from Agra. However Liny wanted to go to Taj Mahal first. This was not a good plan because now the V.I.P.'s where gone, there would be twice the number of tourist. We didn't know how busy it would have been so we checked it out. It turned out that we should have listened to the driver because the queues where endless!! The ticket as it is costed me 750 rupees and Liny 20 ( bloody racists) if we wanted to jump the Que, we could bribe a guy with 1000 rupees. He would let us in straight away and would have saved us 3 hours waiting. I saw already a group of White people doing it. However once they are in it would have been a chaos of people so we decided to change our plans a bit of the next day. We where planning to leave to Jaipur in The morning which became afternoon. So instead we went to Mathura. After 20 km from Agra heaven came loose and it started raining, hard!
Once at the temple we saw the bath of Lord Krishna's wife Radha. We were not allowed to bring any electrical devices in the temple AND mosque. At this holy ground is a temple and mosque builds straight next to each-other. We needed to take our shoes of before entering. This resulted in Liny and I walking in the rain on marble floors, a bit cold. After an hour in there and buying something for my mum ( where I couldn't do bargaining for :-( ) we went back to the car. On the way back we dropped by an internet cafe but due to the rain the power was cut ( which is very common) as we where looking a guy asked us to take a look in his shop. We thought, why not it's raining out here anyway. I ended up buying two typical Indian shirts.... ( good business men huh?) when the rain was over after half an hour we walk around and found a place that had Internet. After spending 1.5 hours there we went to The comfy hotel.
woensdag 17 november 2010
Day Twenty Nine 15-11-10
A day of tourism again. For the day we rented a car with driver. He brought us to the following places:
- Salarjung Museum
- Seven tombs
- Fort Golconda
we also planned to go to the zoo, but unfortunately that one was closed on mondays.
From the museum I wasn't really impressed. It seems to me that most of the museums here offer the same ind of things. That is sculptures out of stone, marble, ivory, brass and other precious materials and some paintings which are not really concerverd. However, the museum had something interesting. The whole collection what was exposed in the museum, belonged to one collector called Salar Jung. There where as well some saris that has been made with golden threads and his bed together with other furniture.
After two hours in there we went to the zoo what turned out to be closed. Instead we went to the seven tombs. This is basically a graveyard, for important people. The designer of Charminar and rest of the city (Quli Qutub Shah)
We went there as well on an illegal stair to the top of one of the mosques that was also there.
I also learned something about indian culture again. Namely, when people put up a sign, the Indians do the opposite. So as well with a water well. The sign said that it is dangerous to swim in the well and we found 5 lads swimming in it. The same happens with parking by the way. When it says no parking, you always find a couple doing it. Same counts for spitting (Indian men tent to spit a lot due to the Bettle leaf, some kind of leave that taste nice in the beginning and then goes horrible, for me) because of the aftertaste they probably want to spit or something.
Finally we went to Fort Golconda. There I was being bugged by 4 different guides who wanted to show me around. I was not interested at that at the time because my mind was already full of all the other impressions that I had in other places. I just wanted to walk around a bit and enjoy the Fort. The guys kept on bugging me or a long time. Once I finally got rid of them i was a bit annoyed about the fact that does guys don't back down. However I didn't have much time to be grumpy because a bunch of Indian guys wanted to take a picture with me. For some reason a lot of Indian people want to go with me on the photo. Because they are so incredibly friendly all the time, it cheers me up. So after some shots and some talking, we went climbing up to the fort which was a long way (you will see in the pics) Once up, the view was amazing and we could see the complete city of Hyderabad. After sunset we headed back down and back to the hotel.
Tomorrow at 6am we will be in the train to Agra where we will visit the Taj Mahal.
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- Salarjung Museum
- Seven tombs
- Fort Golconda
we also planned to go to the zoo, but unfortunately that one was closed on mondays.
From the museum I wasn't really impressed. It seems to me that most of the museums here offer the same ind of things. That is sculptures out of stone, marble, ivory, brass and other precious materials and some paintings which are not really concerverd. However, the museum had something interesting. The whole collection what was exposed in the museum, belonged to one collector called Salar Jung. There where as well some saris that has been made with golden threads and his bed together with other furniture.
After two hours in there we went to the zoo what turned out to be closed. Instead we went to the seven tombs. This is basically a graveyard, for important people. The designer of Charminar and rest of the city (Quli Qutub Shah)
We went there as well on an illegal stair to the top of one of the mosques that was also there.
I also learned something about indian culture again. Namely, when people put up a sign, the Indians do the opposite. So as well with a water well. The sign said that it is dangerous to swim in the well and we found 5 lads swimming in it. The same happens with parking by the way. When it says no parking, you always find a couple doing it. Same counts for spitting (Indian men tent to spit a lot due to the Bettle leaf, some kind of leave that taste nice in the beginning and then goes horrible, for me) because of the aftertaste they probably want to spit or something.
Finally we went to Fort Golconda. There I was being bugged by 4 different guides who wanted to show me around. I was not interested at that at the time because my mind was already full of all the other impressions that I had in other places. I just wanted to walk around a bit and enjoy the Fort. The guys kept on bugging me or a long time. Once I finally got rid of them i was a bit annoyed about the fact that does guys don't back down. However I didn't have much time to be grumpy because a bunch of Indian guys wanted to take a picture with me. For some reason a lot of Indian people want to go with me on the photo. Because they are so incredibly friendly all the time, it cheers me up. So after some shots and some talking, we went climbing up to the fort which was a long way (you will see in the pics) Once up, the view was amazing and we could see the complete city of Hyderabad. After sunset we headed back down and back to the hotel.
Tomorrow at 6am we will be in the train to Agra where we will visit the Taj Mahal.
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Day Twenty Eight 14-11-10
A touristic day today. We went of to see the famous 419 year old Charminar. Charminar means literally four pillars and is build by the king Mohammed Quli qutab shah who ruled in 1591. I got to know all the information what I am about to tell you and I just told from a tourist guide that we hired. Because I am a white tourist I am allowed to do Que jumping. However, because of that, I also need to pay 100 rupees entrance fee and Indians only 5. But it made my visit all quite more interesting. The guide started telling us something about Charminar whereafter we did que jumping for the stairs up. Up there he pushed everyone away to give us a good view and did his story whereafter we also did que jumping for the way down. We all get some stinky faces some, but it was at the same time quite funny that it was allowed and that the guy pushed everyone away for us.
So what did he tell us:
On the ground floor, he told us that the building is a three storey building with a 149 stairs to the top.He told us that 15ft underneath Charminar, a secret tunnel starts towards the fort that is 13 kilometres away from Charminar. On the first floor you will find the Madrassa (Muslim Children School). On the second day you will find the Mosque. On the thirh floor there are extensions of the four pillars which each you can go to. Today, it is only possible to visit the first floor because people tent to jump of the third one.
After that we did walked around at some shopping places. Hyderabad is famous of its pearls and Jewellery. Liny never saw these kinds of shops anywhere else in India
Because it was extremely hot that day we went to the cinema to cool down a bit. We went to see the social network which I though was a decent movie. The movie is about how Facebook became big. They show how big money can be made out of such a simple concept. This movie is actually a success of a success story. Facebook barely exists 6 years, a case is filed against them and straight after that they use that story to use it in their benefit to make more money by putting it on screen. However the highlight of the movie for me was that Holland defeats Harvard in the rowing game... ;-)
After that it was a bit cooler so we went to see a temple (Birla Mandir) completely made from marble. To get in you should lose you're cell phone and all other camera equipment (and off-coarse you're shoes as in every temple).
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Day Twenty Seven 13-11-10
Today we leave to Hyderabad. We left the house at 4:45am so we are not to late in Hydrabad and we could take a detour to a nice dam. The road towards the dam was amazingly beautiful! We went through a Tiger reservoir to get to the dam. The place reservoir was very hilly what give very nice views. On the way we stopped a viewpoint where also a temple is build. On top of the temple a Sigaram (statue of Nandi, a god) is places where people look through when they place their thumb and index finger on both the ears of the statue. The believe of the Hindus is that when they see a Trisulam (weapon of lord Shiva, Satan has a similar fork) through their fingers, they ill go straight to heaven once they die.
At the dam we took some pictures, where you have to wait for a couple of weeks.
I also saw some real tigers!!! Only they where not alive anymore at the moment I looked at them. They where stuffed up. However, it was very impressive to see the animal from so close.
Once at Hyderabad we crashed in the Hotel and freshen ourselves up. THe total travel took about 13 hours. Around 8:30 we went of to see a statue on a big lake in the centre of Hyderabad. The statue was in the middle of the lake, so we needed to take a boat. At the island we took some snaps. Whili i was doing that, a guy came up to me asking why his camera wasn't working. I don't know why he asked me (maybe because I'm white or that i was carrying a tripod with big camera) but I looked at it and the batteries that he was using where rubbish. He looked as a nice guy to me so I suggested him to use my small camera with his SD card. He went completely happy and before I knew it I was taking pictures of the whole family (14 or 15 persons) in front of the statue. After 15 snaps of them also my camera's battery died. The guy was so enthusiastic that he took his phone out so he could take a picture with me. Before I knew it, the whole family was around me and Liny took some snaps of that.
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At the dam we took some pictures, where you have to wait for a couple of weeks.
I also saw some real tigers!!! Only they where not alive anymore at the moment I looked at them. They where stuffed up. However, it was very impressive to see the animal from so close.
Once at Hyderabad we crashed in the Hotel and freshen ourselves up. THe total travel took about 13 hours. Around 8:30 we went of to see a statue on a big lake in the centre of Hyderabad. The statue was in the middle of the lake, so we needed to take a boat. At the island we took some snaps. Whili i was doing that, a guy came up to me asking why his camera wasn't working. I don't know why he asked me (maybe because I'm white or that i was carrying a tripod with big camera) but I looked at it and the batteries that he was using where rubbish. He looked as a nice guy to me so I suggested him to use my small camera with his SD card. He went completely happy and before I knew it I was taking pictures of the whole family (14 or 15 persons) in front of the statue. After 15 snaps of them also my camera's battery died. The guy was so enthusiastic that he took his phone out so he could take a picture with me. Before I knew it, the whole family was around me and Liny took some snaps of that.
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Day Twenty Six 12-11-10
Today we went in the morning to the sea. There I took a nice dive! The sea was much more clearer than on the GOA side and also gave me less irritation. Because Ongole is not a touristic place people where already looking at me a bit more than in other places so also at the beach. As soon as I entered the water, three guys came up to me and started talking to me. A minute later they picked up their cell phone, came back in the sea so they could take a picture with a white boy.
After the swimming we drunk some tender coconut water and headed back to Ongole.
In the evening we went out for dinner where I was also a good dinner for the mosquitos.
During my stay in Ongole we had lazy morning each day because of the good breakfast that I got from the maid of Joe. Because Shea is in GOA and Joe comes back late so she cooks and looks after the house during the day, every day.
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After the swimming we drunk some tender coconut water and headed back to Ongole.
In the evening we went out for dinner where I was also a good dinner for the mosquitos.
During my stay in Ongole we had lazy morning each day because of the good breakfast that I got from the maid of Joe. Because Shea is in GOA and Joe comes back late so she cooks and looks after the house during the day, every day.
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Day Twenty Five 11-11-10
In the morning Shea and Francis arrived from GOA. Shea was in Ongole for some business and Francis was there to accompany her during the journey.
Later that day we went to Joe's (Liny's dad) office to acquire some details about what he is actually doing. Basically he is running a SNIRD (Society for National Integration through Rural Development) which can be summarised as a social work organisation which can be compared with Oxfam. With money they get from sponsors, the over 200 personal counting organisation is initiating programmes for local communities with regard to for example rainwater harvesting. They also give classes to inform people about HIV Aids and Child Labour or how you build solid houses or how can you protect you're house in case of a tsunami. All the projects they do are being executed by men labour and not with machines. Once a programme is planned, people from the organisation are going to the development area to find labours. The labours are selected on their status within their society. This means that the poorest people get jobs first.
After the visit we went out for a drive with Shea. On the way I went driving in a car for the first time in India. What means, no seatbelt, no signalling, shifting lanes constantly and continuously pressing the horn! On the way I crossed a herd of goats who blocked the road. The destination of our journey was a dam.
In the evening Renny came home and had some cake, because it was his BIRTHDAY.
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Later that day we went to Joe's (Liny's dad) office to acquire some details about what he is actually doing. Basically he is running a SNIRD (Society for National Integration through Rural Development) which can be summarised as a social work organisation which can be compared with Oxfam. With money they get from sponsors, the over 200 personal counting organisation is initiating programmes for local communities with regard to for example rainwater harvesting. They also give classes to inform people about HIV Aids and Child Labour or how you build solid houses or how can you protect you're house in case of a tsunami. All the projects they do are being executed by men labour and not with machines. Once a programme is planned, people from the organisation are going to the development area to find labours. The labours are selected on their status within their society. This means that the poorest people get jobs first.
After the visit we went out for a drive with Shea. On the way I went driving in a car for the first time in India. What means, no seatbelt, no signalling, shifting lanes constantly and continuously pressing the horn! On the way I crossed a herd of goats who blocked the road. The destination of our journey was a dam.
In the evening Renny came home and had some cake, because it was his BIRTHDAY.
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Day Twenty Two and Three 8-11-10 and 9-11-10
I crop these two days into one blog because these days where not that much of interest. These days Liny and I where both not 100% well and both days we went shopping.
On day twenty two Renny took us to a place for Lunch where we saw something interesting. For some reason there was an invasion of hawks! I was able to record what was happening there.
After lunch we where of to buy me some shoes, socks and a new suitcase. In the evening we went to the Hard Rock Cafe of Bangalore. I had my first proper western meal there since more than three weeks. I had some Hawaii marinaded chicken with mashed potatoes, veg, French Fries and Garlic bread.
On day twenty three I took some more pics and movies of the traffic around there.
We did some more shopping, this time for Laura and Liny, and left the hotel around 6pm to take the bus of 7pm. The drive to the bus stop is around one kilometre, but due to the traffic you need to calculate around 30-45 minutes for that.
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On day twenty two Renny took us to a place for Lunch where we saw something interesting. For some reason there was an invasion of hawks! I was able to record what was happening there.
After lunch we where of to buy me some shoes, socks and a new suitcase. In the evening we went to the Hard Rock Cafe of Bangalore. I had my first proper western meal there since more than three weeks. I had some Hawaii marinaded chicken with mashed potatoes, veg, French Fries and Garlic bread.
On day twenty three I took some more pics and movies of the traffic around there.
We did some more shopping, this time for Laura and Liny, and left the hotel around 6pm to take the bus of 7pm. The drive to the bus stop is around one kilometre, but due to the traffic you need to calculate around 30-45 minutes for that.
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Day Twenty Four 10-11-10
We arrived around 5am in Ongole where we were being picked up by Liny's dad and driver who where up from 3am in the morning ( Liny's dad lost track of time and thought at 3am that it was 5am, so he called the driver to pick him up after they found out it was 3am)
After some more sleep we were of to a school that is owned by Liny's dad and where they teach to 120 students Hindi, English, Mathematics, Science, Social and Telugu (state language).
The rest of the afternoon and evening we were in the house and I visited a internet shop.
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After some more sleep we were of to a school that is owned by Liny's dad and where they teach to 120 students Hindi, English, Mathematics, Science, Social and Telugu (state language).
The rest of the afternoon and evening we were in the house and I visited a internet shop.
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woensdag 10 november 2010
Day Twenty One 7-11-10
We arrived in Bangalore at 6am and checked into the hotel at 6:30am. Around 7:30 we had a nock on the door from Renny (Liny’s cousin that I already had met in Chennai) he came to accompany us. After trying to get some food into my tummy (still tummy upset) we went of to the shopping malls.
Shopping day, the reason we come to Bangalore was not because it’s culture heritage because it hasn’t that much. Liny brought me here because the shopping facilities are “awesome”. And indeed, all the products you can think of, you can buy. However, the reason why I was interested in shopping in India is because it tents to be cheaper. This doesn’t count for the western brands like Samsonite, Tommy Hilfiger, Apple or any other branded product, they are even more expensive. So we went looking at other places.
Liny thought initially that I just wanted to spent some money in India on clothes, this was wrong, I wanted to gain some benefit in buying in India. So after saying that, Renny took us to some big bazaar instead of the big “high street”shopping malls. In there the quality went a bit down, but it still all looked very descent.
For people who know me, I am always looking for the best bargain when it comes to price-quality and I don’t buy unless I got that. So yeah, Big bazaar, reasonable quality, good prices, not where I was looking for.
A thing that I knew what was good a price quality was the Levi’s and Converse (all star shoes) store. The reason that Levi’s is cheaper is due to the fact that the Levi’s Factory is in Chennai.
On the way to the Levi’s shop I made a pit stop at Mc Donalds. This was my first time at Mc since my stay in India and was therefore a bit exited (because I worked there for three years). On the menu I could only find two burgers that where the same. That was the Mc Chicken and the Fish Filled. They replaced the Bigmac for something that looks the same but then with chicken patties that are a bit spiced, so I had that. I also had a Mc Chicken what tasted the same. The Fanta is not that great, it is very orange instead of the yellow one we have. The fries are the same. I also went to a shop that is called “Denizen”. This is jeans shop which is a daughter company of Levi’s. The jeans where a third or forth of the price of Levi’s denim (799-1200 rupees, 15-20 euro’s) so I tried a couple and ended up buying two which turned out to be very nice and comfy once.
Once at the Levi’s shop I ended up buying four jeans and a shirt as well. This pilled up my jeans shopping up to 7 now. I have to buy one more for Laura, that makes a total of 8.
Tomorrow we are going to look for some convers and socks because Liny started to feel sick. Even I still felt a bit down, but I think that Mc Donalds was a good cure for now. We will see how it all unfolds tomorrow as we are now stuck at our hotel room due to a sick Liny and a heavy rainstorm outside (monsoon rain).
Day twenty 5-11-10
Diwali is it today and it is a day of celebration. At 2am in the night, Hindus burn a home made doll of around 2 meters high which is suppose to be Rawana (the evil god). It seems that this god still has some influence on the process. It is very peculiar that every year during the same time (2 days before Diwali) it rains! You can think that the evil god don’t want the people to burn their statue of him, so he makes it rain. It is even so peculiar that the two days before Diwali it rains this year (see previous blogs) what it the time in where the people make the doll (the water spoils the papers and hew where the doll is made from) and then on the day before Diwali it was dry but at 1am on Diwali it started raining what made the people not able to build their creation. All a bit suspicious when you think of it from my point of view.
Liny and I also wanted to look at the burning of the statue so we planned to set the alarm at 1:30am, but for some reason we didn’t wake up. You can say that Rawana don’t like tourist to take pictures of him being burned.
Once I woke up I had tummy upset. This continued throughout the day unfortunately. So it was overall a slow day. We went roaming around a bit en ended up at the beach.
Because the season was started now there where an uncountable army of sellers on the beach who would like to sell you some dodgy necklets. On after the other popped by and set down next to us.
At a time we where surrounded by four of those women for more than 45 minutes. They where just talking in their language (Konkani) and we where talking a bit about them. The sea breeze made me feel a bit better but still not ok so we went off again. We ended up at “Sea Rock” which is one of Liny’s mum favorite places in GOA. There was life music
so we sit there for around 4 to 5 hours after I couldn’t sit there as well not anymore. So we went home where I brought the evening through being pathetic.
donderdag 4 november 2010
Day Nineteen 04-11-10
Today we planned a trip to Arvalem waterfalls, which is a trip of around 35 kilometers. On the way we got a bit lost therefore we ended up on a ferry to bet back on course. This turned out to be quite a nice trip
Here we saw on the lake that we crossed an old method of dredging, where Boskalis (Dutch dredging company) has big ships that consume thousands and thousands of litres of fuel per hour, is this way of dredging more sustainable but less sufficient. The technique is as follow: as a dredger company you do some acquisition to find some people who can swim, you put these guys on a boat, give them a long stick with a bucket at the end and a boat. and let them scrape the sand from the bottom in the bucket into the ship. On the other side of the canal we were surprised by a shower. we found some shelter in a local bus stop.
Once it was almost dry, we continued to the waterfall which we couldn’t find initially but after an hour search. We found it finally
So after more than 4 hours on the moped ( including 1 hour in the bus stop) we found the waterfall
It was a nice view!! so worth all the hassle to come there. On the way back we were surprised by another storm. so we arrived just like yesterday soaked!
The reason why I think it was raining all the time, is because of the certain god that will be burned tonight!! It is about a evil god called “Ravana”. Ravan being the demon god who was killed by the god Rama, so to celebrate this the effigy (dummy) of Ravana is burnt on the night before Diwali – the festival of lights, calling it the Narakachaturthi. ( See : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali for more info about Diwali)
Day Eighteen 03-11-10
Flea Market Day:
The day where Liny’s mom is trialling her shop for the second time and the day that we have been washed away by the rain.
The day started off very promising with not too hot not too cold weather, it was the day of the famous Flea market at the Anjuna. It happens every Wednesday during the season time (November- March) where you can buy trinkets to second hand motorbikes 
The Flea market was supposed to be from the morning till 7:00 PM. However everyone was gone at around 2:00 PM
After the food, we went also back to get some more money in the hope to buy the things that I wanted. On the way we soaked by the rain unfortunately, once back at the flea market most sellers were gone. Lucky enough sellers were I wanted to buy my stuff from were slow in leaving, so in the end I was able to buy my stuff I wanted.
Around 3’o clock the rain stopped, so Liny and I went roaming around on the moped again. We ended up in some kind of big super market, where I only bought a bar of Cadbury chocolate made in Mumbai. However it had the Brummy name Cadbury on it, it tasted like some chocolate gum. On the way back, we saw some football
and dropped by subway to get a sandwich and landed at a place where they had some live music with power from a generator. Namely, it is very common when it rains that there are electricity cuts. Lucky enough for some reason our place was the only place which had partly electricity (Liny’s mum s house, all the pubs around the place no electricity. We had only two of the four light switches working).
So yeah, not a very interesting day but quite full.
dinsdag 2 november 2010
Day seventeen 02-11-10
waking up, going to work (painting), roaming around such a nice day!!!! and a nice life of Goa.
here are some shots of the day
that’s it
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