soloproject

Republic Day in India fell on a Wednesday this year and I took one look at the calendar and though, "I have to get out of Mumbai." Taking two days off between the 26th would be no big deal. Vilgaile was ready to travel too. We'd been stuck in the office working some 10 hour days, 6 days a week for two weeks on a project that seemed never ending. To relate just how never-ending, I have already been in India for five months and arrived somewhere smack in the middle of the project. I didn't even meet Vilgaile in person until a month later, because she had been sent to Kenya to deal with the client personally for this project and what was supposed to be two weeks in Mombasa had turned into six, poor girl. Needless to say, she's effectively been on this project nearly a year and frankly, we were both sick of it.

We had gone to Delhi for the first time in November last year, and I have to say, it's really a lot of fun traveling with Vilgaile. She's calm under pressure, open minded about exploring and the odd-couple visual and personal aspect ensures that only crazy shit happens to us. This trip wasn't any different.

However, I didn't want to spend all the time in Delhi--I suggested with head to Varanasi, one of the oldest, holiest cities in the world, right along the banks of the Ganges river. I've been fascinated by the Ganges for as long as I can remember, since it plays such an important role in many Indian stories and mythologies. The reality of this river is that it's dark and polluted, so much that even the endangered Ganges dolphins have evolved into complete blindness. Literally, billions of cremated bodies (and non-cremated, more on that later) have been offered to Mother Ganges and the water is opaque.

And yet, hundreds of people come to the river daily to bathe, wash their clothes and do all essential things demanding water. They drink the stuff and it's considered auspicious to keep a bottle of Ganges water in your home, in case someone needs some last rites or general healing. Every few years, the Kumbh Mela happens, the largest religious gathering on the planet, where thousands of people whose only purpose is to jump into the river in order to obtain enlightenment.

We headed to Delhi after work to catch the train, the shiny Rajdhani Express to Delhi. It's a super fancy one, with food and A/C and also one of the fastest. The purpose of Delhi was to try meet some friends and catch the sights we'd missed last time. After arriving, we headed straight to Humayun's Tomb and then walked over to India Gate (not to be confused it the Gateway to India), coming down from the fever of the Republic Day parade. The vibe was great, lots of people around...sad to say though, a lot of things were closed but we found a Barista (Indian Starbucks) open, so we got our good coffee! The museum was closed, which was what we wanted to see last time so instead we headed to the Purana Qila or the fort of Humayun. The Mughal era in India is fraught with pillagine, burning, rape and general mayhem but the Mughals could build and they could PAINT like nobody's business (see: Taj Mahal).

We caught up with our friend Rouf who we'd met on Couchsurfing last time and were staying with again. He was kooky as ever, just a super fun dude to hang out with and he is unafraid to bust out some dance moves and some vodka so we spent a couple of hours winding it up and then down before bed.

The next day, we went to explore the Qutb Minar which was A+++. I was hesitant to deal with that one, since the description basically said, "tallest stone tower in the world" but up close is maddeningly gorgeous and before the crick in your neck sets in, you just have to marvel at how hands on the ingenuity of man was before we could figure it all out with computers. Every single pillar was a sculpture unto itself and not a single detail was out of place. Just wandering around was a pleasure and I left wanting to find some books on Mughals and reading about them (rec: books by historian William Dalrymple).

After Qutb Minar, we grabbed a bite to eat at the McDonald's in Khan Market and another quick coffee at Barista and headed to the National Museum of Delhi. It's part of three major National Museums, the other two being Prince of Wales in Mumbai and another in Hyderabad (a city I've been to but not to the museum, unfortunately). My favorite galleries are always the painting ones: Mughal artstyle is crazy and distinct and has an illustrative, storytelling quality, almost like a series of comic books. There's always a God, a hero or a princess or heroine; villains are demons and animals and people are frank in their displays of might and destructive in their anger. And all of it is incredibly detailed and bright.

There was some terrific stuff on the Harappan empire, which is almost always the starting point for Asian history but a lot of the other galleries were closed, too bad. After this, we headed to Connaught to shop a little and eat and make it to the train station for our train to Varanasi. We shared out sleeper section with a group of Koreans and arrive nice and early to this city by the banks of the Ganges. We found an overly friendly rickshaw driver who found us a wonderful guesthouse near Assi Ghat and from there we headed out into the city after showering and settling down and having an extremely chill breakfast of parathas and coffee.

If you someday visit Varanasi and it doesn't get you immediately, you have a heart of ice and thorns. On the surface, Varanasi is filthy and full of (literal) shit. Monkeys, cows, goats, dogs are everywhere. They warn you not to wander around after a certain time because there are hooligans everywhere and it would be easy to get to you in the maze of dark alleys. Varanasi is kind of like Venice in a sense and it does give off that vibe too: it's very artsy and brisk and people are just part of the river, very laid back. There is a lot to see and walking along the ghats is very interesting. There's an annoying tourist aspect like all places but if you have a good attitude, it won't bother you. Over the course of 2 days, Vilgaile and I wandered around, shopped, had some terrific coffee and conversations, met some great people willing to include us in their shenanigans and share their- ahem- bounty. This city is now my favorite city I've explored. The top five are now Mumbai, Varanasi, Jaipur, Udaipur and Darjeeling (although not technically a city).

I'm back in Mumbai, doing what else? WORKING! But this weekend I'm off to another adventure. There is a wine and music festival in Nashik and we're all gearing to go. I have to work on Sunday (bitches!!!) but on the other hand, the Khala Ghoda arts festival is getting ready to launch also on Saturday and will be on for the whole week. I can't wait to get in some of the shows and of course, the fair and see all the handicrafts and kooky things they will be selling. I want to buy some things for our wall at my new place because it's so dull in there.

Also this week, last Tuesday, my good friend Marzena took off for Poland and I miss her!!! I understand that it's inevitable but it's always sad to see them off.

Hyderabad

New city to add to the list: Hyderabad and with that I have successfully penetrated the state of Andra Pradesh. But if you're looking for some cultural insight from me, forget it! After Christmas, we wanted to get out of Mumbai but my company closed for Christmas and I didn't want to waste this time that doesn't count towards leaves sitting at home.

I mostly decided on H'bad because we had some friends over from there who stayed with us in Mumbai--actually, Angelica's friends but we all got friendly with them when they stayed over...cool guys, Ben and Ally and then four other girls came to stay as well: Avril, Claudia, Yasmin and Ilana.

They mentioned they wanted to charter a private ride to Goa from Hyderabad and I thought, what a good idea, let me come visit your fine city and stay with you and then we can all come together on what would ultimately be a party bus.

Big Mistake. Let's start at the beginning though.

We had our amazing Christmas dinner, courtesy of the my fine crew at Andheri West. I didn't have to work that day, so Eliabe and I went batshit at the groceries getting all the things we needed for our Christmas Dinner which my amazing Brazilian friend offered to make. Eliabe, I have learned, is a beast in the kitchen! I managed to be very productive that day: not only did I clean, do grocery and decorate the place (see previous post for results) but also managed to pick up my sari for a wedding I would attend on Sunday (26th), buy a dress for tonight, pick up beef and a Christmas ham and score some Filipino biko and ensaymada, basically local treats that my Filipino aunty here in Mumbai made for me!

Christmas day was also awesome because my friend Lisha who is "Indian Catholic", as they like to be called here, invited me over for such a great time, lunch with her family and friends and her parents are so cool and their house was so similar to my house. I felt so welcome and also, the lunch was non-veg and not only had chicken but beef AND PORK!!!

On Sunday, I went to my first Indian wedding of my coworker Archana to her husband Vishal and it was lovely because this one was a love match! As you know, many weddings in India are still arranged. The Sunday want ads are filled with matchmaking prospects, part of finding a partner here is studying their CV. In Mumbai, caste is not much of an issue any more but it definitely factors in somewhat. My friend Archana would have, 50 years ago, been considered an Untouchable! But lucky for her, that has been overcome and they had a Marathi wedding in Bombay, with all their family and friends and co-workers.

Unusual things about the wedding:
- People were sitting around talking normally while the ceremony went on. There's no intense solemnity like most wedding we're used to, just a lot of normal chatter, like in a train station or something.
- The reception was held in a hall, it was buffet style with typical big Indian thalis (large plates) and the food was delicious but most people sat on the floor! This is what people here are used to and while I didn't sit on the floor (someone found me a chair), I couldn't imagine doing that in my sari while all around me, many fine ladies managed to do exactly that, no problem.

I packed up my sari after the wedding, took a nap at my aunt's place, she made me and my uncle dinner and then I sped off to the train station to find Vasiliy and head to Hyderabad. It's an overnight trip and I like train rides in India, actually. Some people can't manage to sleep but I get some good sleep on trains and managed to read a book also. I woke up at one point because there was an orchestra of snoring around me; I put on my ipod only to realize that I didn't have any "soothing" music, mostly rock and stuff so I put on the piano tribute to MCR album which was at least wordless.

Then I had a nightmare in which I couldn't hear anything except MCR piano and I kept trying to act like I totally understood everyone even if I didn't, only to discover that I had inadvertently agreed to be married! That's when I woke up and it was like 4 AM on the train.

We arrived around noon and met up with Eliabe and Gustavo, who had arrived a little earlier and were napping. They hadn't had such a good time on their train which was on time but had mice and roaches, apparently. However, it was great to be together and the first order of business was to get some lunch.

And thus began the great Hyderabadi food trip. In the end we were in a food coma the whole time, managing to see only about half the sights on our list but spending hours trying the most delicious biryanis, tandooris and on our last day, the cheapest all-you-can-eat buffet. How can the food be so good in Hyderabad? I have had some brilliant food in Bombay but that city literally took the cake (and cake, they had, delicious cake).

Now on to The Mistake. We'd agreed to get on the party bus at 7PM which by Indian time is roughly an hour behind. So by 8PM, we'd finally manage to load the bus with people and trundle out the city only to be stopped and growled at the owner who insisted on 20K of the total 30K amount up front. It was pretty stupid but our American friend who arranged it handed the money over and finally we were off to Goa. I'd expected to sleep through the night and wake up to be leaving Karnataka state at least and be in Goa by 10AM.

It wasn't meant to be, thanks to:
- Three flat tires. Three. THREE. THREE.
- A driver who turned out not only to not speak English but didn't know where he was going and was also taking state roads and not Interstate, probably to avoid paying toll fees and pocketing the cash.

Plus everyone started to get really antsy and pissed off. I snapped at Eliabe once and he was ready to storm out of the bus and flip it over. And we were generally peeved because all day people kept calling me from Goa (the friends who went ahead) and asking where we were and I was near tears when we finally pulled into Goa around 7 PM. After that we had to find the place so we left the group and by the time we met up with everyone else at this extremely far beach, it was almost 11:30PM!

Nothing left to do but drink it up and party at the huge beach rave! Needless to say, NYE really worked out for the better. It was great to see people, see friends and hang out. The next two days were full of sun, sand, football on the beach, Philippe's sax-playing, eating delicious Goan fish curry, tanning (I'm so dark! Yay!) and hanging out with some of my favorite people...and thinking of course of what the new year will bring. I feel in my bones that 2011 will be a better year then previous. I think a lot of us had a crappy to mediocre year...I know mine started off hard...definitely towards the end, it was better because of India!

I once had a tendency to make really long winded NY resolutions. I mean, I wrote pages of them with explanations and justifications. So I'm keeping it simple this year:
1 | Be Honest
2 | Write a little bit everyday, if it's a blog entry, a story, fanfic or an article, DO IT.
3 | Draw a little more every day.
4 | Find a way to make life in India a little more comfortable.
5 | KISS -- Keep It Simple, Stupid. And I want to keep everything nice and simple, especially relationships with people.
6 | Go to all the places in India (and then the REST OF THE WORLD!!!)

Ok, so it's been a week since I came back from my epiiiiiiiiic trip to Delhi-Agra-Rajasthan and I feel like I have sufficiently recovered long enough to tell you guys all about.

BUT FIRST-- I just want to talk a little bit about India. Guys, this country is just incredible. I've never been to a country that's as intense as this. India is a country that's very black and white. It either is or it isn't and in this short trip, my traveling pal and friend Vilgaile and I met some cool people, saw some neat (and some scary) stuff and came home stinky and happy with 4 gigs of pictures.


Ice cream on the train!

Anyway, some fundamentals! For this trip, we:
- Almost missed the train! And running across town to get it, literally flinging ourselves onto the train while it was already pulling out of the station. Much whooping and screaming ensued and hysterical high-fiving, I promise.
- Mostly couchsurfed! And I do endorse this! It's perfectly alright and safe so long as you practice a usual sense of people judgment but for the most part, it really pays off.
- Almost broke. We started off poor. I had to drain my account before we left. We had to call our parents for some emergency cash. I had to grudgingly change the last of my emergency stash of USD which I had really hoped to hang on to for, you know, an actual emergency. Then our salary came two days late and we had to call the office to strongly motivate them because we literally had $5 left between the both of us, not enough to buy a bus ticket home.

About Vilgaile
I love this girl! She's actually my co-worker, the other intern aside from Bart but we've hung out a lot and gotten close. She's very classy, the kind of girl you'd love to hate but can't because she's so sweet and a bit crazy underneath and smart! She has a tendency to burst into song randomly and has her own crazy way of dancing--when she's not dancing salsa and Vilgaile (--pronounce it "VIL-GUY-LEH"-- don't ever call her V or Vil) is SALSA-OBSESSED. She's also a dream to travel with because she's always up for things and never complains and is very good with people (good for me because I'm friendly but first meetings are hard. I always need a wing man.)

I have to say kudos to her because the trip was tough for her at times because she's very tall and beautiful and blue-eyed and people can be very rude and try to take her picture with their mobile. Sometimes, Indians have never seen a European in the villages or there are some men who are just pervs and try to harrass you in this manner. And god knows what they do with these pictures!

Now for the trip! I'll try to summarize so that this won't be tooooo tl;dr.

DELHI
It was a close call after missing the train but once we settled in, it was SUCH a lovely train ride. It was long but so comfortable and the service was A+. Train travel is one of the most awesome things you can do in India. We arrived in the morning and immediately left our stuff in a cloak room and went to hit. The. City.



Everyone wants a picture with Vilgaile!

Delhi is so different from Mumbai! It's clean, roads are wide in the center, there's a shiny, functioning Metro subway...I like Mumbai more but Delhi was a bit of a shock! We hit all these awesome places: Lal Qila (Red Fort), Jama Masjid, Akshardam (gorgeous!!) and then went to meet the guy who was going to host us.


At Jama Masjid, huge Mulsim Mosque.


The main purpose of traveling on these dates was because we wanted to spend Diwali in Delhi and let me tell you, they know how to krunk it up for this holiday. There were a billion fire crackers, lights...crazy parties. The new friends we met through our CS friend were great and we tried to be home at a decent time...not that we wanted to poop on their party but we really were very tired.


At Diwali ceremony...the guy with the arms is our CS friend who invited us. (>3>;)/

Day 2 in Delhi, we went to a puja. This was actual Diwali day, Nov. 5 and another CS friend told us to come over to witness this blessing. Little did we know this guy was HOT and RICH and too cool and his whole family was on hand, welcomed us to their blessing ceremony and offerings to Lakshmi and then to their house for lunch where they had a LASAGNA WITH MEAT!!! After that he showed us his gorgeous flat (where seriously, I wished we'd accepted his offer to stay there instead of the other CS guy who lived much farther away) but more importantly, he had an espresso machine that practically an Autobot, it was that slick. We tried to visit Humanyun's Tomb but it was closed for security reasons, a.k.a. Obama's visit to Delhi. Instead, we headed to the Lotus Temple...very beautiful and peaceful.


Rouf, who hosted us on his couch in Delhi, doing his sparklers dance...not to be confused with his snake dance.

We went to a party that night which turned into like, 3 parties. But it was so much fun, the Delhi crowd is so GOOD. It was so crazy though, so much drunken disorder and dangerous handling of fireworks. We left the party at 1 and then ended up at some club and we were pretty tired so we went home and just slept until noon instead of looking at more sights and we had to take off because we planned on going to Agra from Delhi, a four hour trip. For this part, we met up with some friends from Mumbai (my roommate Gordan and Vilgaile's roommate Anelise, who had come up from Mumbai after we did. Gordan was supposed to come with us but in true Gordan style, he left home, realized he left his ticket, went back for it, missed the train altogether and then ended up paying a fortune for a plane ticket to Delhi. Sigh.)


Alibaba pants pose! Gangstajs! Or Taj MaHipsters?

We met up with another CS friend who had offered his couch in Delhi but we'd already accepted one but then offered to drive us to Agra as he himself had not seen the Taj Mahal! It was a good start to the roadtrip but it turned a little sour later on because he tried to drink some vodka while driving in order to seem "cool" and then later, extorted some cash from us for gas-- which was fair but he had originally insisted he wasn't doing it for money. I believe this was because the Agra CS guys we met up with and who took us to dinner and later to the Taj were "cool guys" and he was a little insecure. He also insisted on leaving around 8 am or so. We were there at the Taj Mahal before sunrise but Gordan and Anelise had to be back in Delhi by 2 and this guy stirred some drama and insisted he had to be back in Delhi by 12 to meet some friends. Gordan and Ane were hitching with him so they had no choice but to leave around 8AM back.


WE MADE IT!!! Dream come true.

Vilgaile and were heading to Jaipur after Agra so we had the whole day to explore the Taj and subsequently, the Agra Fort. I gotta hand it to Vilgaile though, she really had a tough time--most guys we've met have been complete gentlemen but later are so charmed by Vilgaile and fall in love with her a little and then they hound her in messages, texts, emails, you name it. (Don't worry about me, I don't often get this kind of attention from guys--plus I'm a little brown Asian, which many of them are totally uninterested in. Tall Europeans (especially blondes) seems to be India's favorite flavor.) If Vilgaile was naive and bewildered by this attention, she would be unbearable to hang out with but this girl has GAME and she knows how to play it, while staying calm and poised.

What can I say about the Taj? It is fucking MESMERIZING. I've been lucky enough in my life to confront incredible monuments, architechture, landscapes in my life but the Taj Mahal trumps it all. The building is a true symbol of devotion: it's spiritual, it's religious, and it's beautifully maintained. It practically vibrates with serenity and love. As a piece of artwork, it's stunning, the way it looks at different times of day, its symmetry...and it's also incredibly thought-provoking: the entire Quran is applied to the sides, there are trick surfaces everywhere that give off a 3D effect from far away just to live up to that "perfect symmetry" ideal and the marble is pristine. And of course, the story behind it is fascinating, even the gory ones, like the rumor that after it was built, they chopped off all the artisans hands so they could never recreate the Taj Mahal.

We got onto the bus for Jaipur around 4 PM and it was a comfortable ride that I slept through. Rajasthan will be another post because this state is INCREDIBLE. We visited what are now some of our favorite cities: Jaipir, Johdpur, Mt. Abu and Udaipur!!! I cannot wait to return to Rajasthan...one week was not enough for all these cities.

Last weekend, my friend Ricardo and I decided to go to Kolkata, a city in the state of West Bengal, India. About three weeks ago, we were just kind of hanging out at home drinking and talking about India and Ricardo suddenly went, "Oh Bunny, come to Kolkata with me." Impulsively, I said yes! I mean, what did I hope to find in this place?

- Mother Theresa's tomb
- Palace of Queen-Empress Victoria
- Home of Rabindranath Tagore
- Temple to Kali
- Howrah Bridge and epic Howrah Train Station
- Old school Britisher-era cars still functioning perfectly
- Colonial-style high tea

And although we were three days only in this area, we managed to get in a good chunk of all of this and more.

However, the main objective of this trip was to go to DARJEELING. In the course of my research for heading there, I was feeling a little dismayed. To get to Darjeeling, it's a 9-10 hour train to jumping point New Jalpaiguri, after which it is about 3 hours by shared jeep up the mountain to Darjeeling.

Frankly, I'm a little obsessed with the idea of Darjeeling, not only for tea and the fact that you can see the Himalayan range in Tibet from there, but also because of the TOY TRAIN, also a Unesco heritage icon, the tiny steam locomotive that chugs up the hill for seven hours to Darjeeling (as opposed to the 3 hour jeep ride). I wanted to ride this toy train very badly but for this trek to Darjeeling and back in three days to work, it will have to wait for next time. The next time I explore Darjeeling, I will go in the summer and head straight into Sikkim, do some icy water rafting and trekking and then into Nepal.



We arrived in Kolkata early and separately. A direct flight is about 2.5 hours and I was about .5 hours behind Ricardo but we made good time as he had already procured the pre-paid taxi into the city by the time I arrived. We went to Park St., kind of a chi-chi main street to meet up with a couple of friends of Ricardo's named Payal and Rinji, sweet ladies who fed us and brought us around to Victoria Memorial.

Kolkata is very different from Mumbai. In some areas, it's very modern and in others, it's just the worst kind of squalor you can imagine. There are poor people everywhere, amidst a lot of people still all caught up in upper-class gentry type lifestyle. Kolkata was the site of the British East India Company and also where the Bengali Renaissance began to uplift the middle-class. At first sight though, it's bit cleaner than Mumbai and a little more spread out and the buildings are a bit better maintained.




Second class coach

Anyway, after visiting the memorial, Ricardo and I had to dash away to grab a quick bite and charge to Howrah Station to catch a train at 4 PM to New Jalgaipuri. I had tried to buy the tickets online but unfortunately they were waitlisted (that means that if space doesn't clear up by ETD, then it's cancelled and you can't get on.) So we bought second class tickets--"steerage"-- and got on the train at 4 in the afternoon. 10 hours of sitting on the floor or standing in a coach packed with people, some of them sleeping in the cargo shelves! For me, it was a good experience, a genuine travel story and a real slice of local life. It didn't bother me at all, although there were very few women on the car (even a couple of babies here and there), many Indian guys are kind of repressed and will often convey shock or awe and some very blatant staring or will even try to cop a feel if they see a foreigner lady all up in their bizniz. There was definitely a moment there where what I thought was perhaps some chivalry, was definitely them trying to touch my thigh or my butt.





We arrived, creaky and exhausted, in NJP around 2 in the morning. It was a full moon and it was BEAUTIFUL. You could feel the air was cool and crisp. Unfortunately, Ricardo and I could not find a ride to Darjeeling right away. The locals blithely informed us that jeeps would only take off at 4 in the morning. We stopped to get some butter toast and chai at a "hotel" which is what people in small towns refer to what is actually just kind of a diner. Some big stations have "retiring rooms" or "dorms" but it depends on your ticket. 2nd class would definitely be much grosser than sitting in the upper class waiting room: there is less regard for the blatant strewing about of human wastes.



After a futile attempt to take an autorickshaw to town to the bus station where Lonely Planet lied and said there would be a bus to Darjeeling every half hour (what it really was, was half hour after 6 AM) that set us back 130 rupees, we headed back to the train station on a 100 rupee BICYCLE RICKSHAW, a trip that was took at twice the time it took going there on an autorickshaw. But we sucked up our pride and came to wait until 4 AM for a shared jeep to be filled--thankfully, it wasn't long and Ricardo and I passed out for almost the whole ride. We did stop at a reststop and then it was about ten hysterical minutes of watching the sunrise, the sky clear and the HIMALAYAS CAME INTO VIEW.


This picture is not photoshopped!!!


Bhutia Busty Goompa, through the trees, Himalayas in the back...beautiful.

We arrived in Darjeeling around 7AM and immediately took off in search of Gompas, or Buddhist monastaries. This one in particular, the Bhutia Busty Goompa, houses the ORIGINAL Tibetan Book of the Dead. You can't see it without official permission but the temple and surroundings are fair game. The murals and the prayer wheels are beautiful and the area is a pleasant hike and the entire thing is crowned by the view of Khangchengdzonga, 3rd highest peak of the Himalayan range.



We walked all over the hill, passing through the main roads with markets and having a snack. Then we decided to go to the zoo and see what we can find along the way. Darjeeling has many fancy old Colonial houses because it used to be the entry point for the British East India Company to Sikkim and is a hill station and was a sanatorium at one point. We stopped off at one beautiful look out where the sky was perfectly clear and we met a French guy, 63 years old or so, who'd been living in India for 20 years and in Darjeeling for the last 3. He had a lot of crazy stories and it was so great; his personal philosophy on India and his fanatical adoration of it was really interesting. I will write them all down some other time as I tried to absorb all of that I could.



Ricardo and I went to the zoo and kind of wearily stared at the red panda and some cool looking monkeys and stopped to eat momos (Tibetan or Nepali local dish, basically gyoza) and rest. Then one quick peek at SHHHHHERE KHAAAAAN, an actualfax Bengal Tiger and we left, inspired and determined to go to Tiger Hill about 10 KM from Darjeeling where you can see Mt. Everest. We paid 800 rupees for a car to bring us there because normally you have to take a share jeep or carpool at 4 am to go to Tiger Hill and when we got there, you see why: TH in the afternoon is the time when all the clouds start grazing the hill. It's the highest lookout point and after 20 miserable and cold minutes and Ricardo's intense dismay, we decided we had to go. Our day in Darjeeling was over and we had to make back to NJP to catch another 9-10 hour train back to Kolkata at 9 PM.


Cloud-covered Tiger Hill

We tried to get a jeep from Ghoom but it was too hard so we went back to Darjeeling (and the driver was too nice to us, I guess he felt our disappointment). We found a jeep to NJP on the road and got on and it was a twisty, miserable ride down the mountain. We were hungry, exhausted and carsick but we got there at 7:30 to Siliguri and was at the station at 8 PM.


Neither the first nor last of creative names in Darjeeling, let alone India.

Unfortunately, we had waitlisted tickets again and the line was too horrible to navigate so at the last minute, we just decided to jump the train when it left at 9 PM, again in the second class coach. Ricardo was really worried but I was determined to make it back and was about 90% sure that no one ever checks tickets in second class. And I was right. The ride back was easier than the ride going simply because there were less people. I managed to get a seat and slept for most of this ride-- not comfortably but I apparently have this talent for just sleeping wherever. I was more or less rested when we came but it would kick me in the gut much later.





We arrived in Kolkata around 7 AM and booked it out of Sealdah station so fast. Ricardo was insistent on finding a lodge or something that would let us shower, as we had not for nearly three days. But since it wasn't going to happen, we used the waiting rooms and I just quickly washed my face, changed out of my stinky train clothes and went to get a snack and brush my teeth.



Ricardo and I then headed to the Motherhouse, the home of the Sisters of Charity, where the tomb of Mother Theresa is located. It's a pocket of silence in the middle of the city and you can see her personal effects and her room in all its simplicity. Also interesting are the politics surrounding Mother Theresa...locals insist she's well beloved but there is of course, some struggle with the fact that she is a beloved Catholic figure in a predominantly Hindu place, even one as diverse as Kolkata.



We then headed towards Park St. to find something to eat (at a KFC, LOL) and then to a cab to Mullik Ghat Flower Market, kind of an intense sensory experience-- imagine being trapped in an alley with every rotting organic corpse just barely masked by the most intense flower smells, tons of them. Then we walked across Howrah Bridge to take pictures of the station (a really cool looking station) and look at the ghat, a set of stairs leading into the river where people bathe, pray and basically do everything that requires water.



We wandered right into Barabazaar and the old Chinatown. There's a new one that's across town but the old one is kind of a humbling experience because it's packed with people selling tons of China-made stuff in bulk (really the reason why it's called Chinatown, the Chinese already all moved away) and people burrowing into the garbage piles to make little homes for themselves. We wanted to find some Bengali food but eventually kind of gave up and headed back to Park St. to have one last (still Indian) meal and then take a cab to the airport to catch our 6 PM flight back to Bombay. Tired, stinky and hungry, we slept for most of the four hour flight (because it landed in Nagpur before Bombay) and got home around 10 PM.



And the story continues: work the next day!

Don't worry, it doesn't end there because I am going to Pune on Saturday, just a day trip and then on November 3, I am going to DELHI-AGRA-RAJASTAN!!! Taj Mahal, here I come!

I did something pretty unusual and fun! My friend and co-worker Vilgaile from Lithuania is an avid and very good salsa dancer so she invited me to a Salsa night at a club called Blue Frog! There was no live band, just these DJs but they were pretty good. They played a mix of salsa, hip-hop, reggae and reggaeton and it was really fun to watch. I danced a little but I don't really know how to salsa being more of a drop it like it's hot type dancer. Now I would like to learn though!

I tried to take some pictures but most of them came out terribly. I think a few came out alright though!






SalsaMuffin Sound System with Sergent Garcia and Supa Bassie

I'm going to Goa this weekend...it's a beach and it's going to be a lot of fun for sure. Lots of people will be going because we were all in cahoots on this one and October is a nice time to go I hear. I can't wait to catch some sun, some dancing and some shopping.

It's Sunday, another dead-ass day at the office. I have work on weekdays but on this fine Sunday, I have to work and worse, Monday is my supposed day off and I have to work---because this weekend I am going to the beach!!! YAAAAAAAAAAY

I have been gasping to get out of Mumbai. I've explored so much of it already and I really, really want to get out of here and go look at other things and other places. It's ironic because if someone paid me to stay in Mumbai, I would probably do it because there is already so much to do here. But I didn't come here to not travel and if I don't, I'm going to go crazy.

What happened this week? I watched this movie called Anjaana Anjaani this weekend with my ultimate crush couple, Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanaka Chopra. How are they so hot?? And trendy??? And the movie wasn't half bad. I don't understand Hindi but the plots of Bollywood are not that hard to understand, normally. This one was a mix of Bucket List, Serendipity and The Girl on the Bridge, this French movie.

Bollywood is a funny thing. On the one hand, it's pure, unadulterated escapism: the plots are so outrageous, eveyone overacts and India is so clean and shiny and beautiful. But on the other hand, it's India, plain and simple. It's such a blatantly clear image of an idealized India with all the best things people love about it, getting shot straight into your brain like LSD, full color and surround sound. My goal before the end of the year is to be an extra in a Bollywood movie (maybe with Ranbir Kapoor! HE'S SO HOT.)

A bigger group of us watched Eat Pray Love on the Friday night before and I have to say, it wasn't half bad. Julia Roberts is so charming that I can't ever hate her in everything and she looked great. My friends and I were like, oh god, her kurtas and her sari were so beautiful! I thought it was beautifully cast but not especially interesting overall. The scene where she takes a cab to the Ashram was so hysterical--watching it in an Indian cinema was half the fun because everyone watched the scene with a critical eye. When she drinks the Thums Up (which is Indian Coca-Cola) everyone just broke into hysterics.

The main problem with the movie, though, was that it was SO LONG. For a second I thought, is it going to be like one hour per country that she visits? At least it was engaging enough to stay interesting. And like all movies in Indian cinemas, there was an interval in the middle.

Before the movie started, just like in the Philippines, the national anthem played. In my experience there are two versions: one with all these classic and loved singers of India and the other one featuring the army standing in the snowy mountains with the flag, tanks and looking very serious in their brand new snow outfits and guns. While it was playing, two of my friends were whispering to each other and giggling and then this Indian lady just...exploded behind them going, "if you aren't going to respect the anthem, why are you even here in India? Go home! Nobody invited you!" --I was so completely shocked and pissed off by such a reaction that I was ready to get all hackled up and be like bitch, please!

I would be pretty peeved if some foreigners were disrespecting my anthem but honestly, they could just be a little unaware or ignorant about it. It's not their anthem, so the benefit of the doubt goes to them. But to say, "why are you here, no one invited you!" is really mean and in bad taste.

Saturday was both good and bad. I'm cutting the roommate drama so you don't have to read the tl;dr. ( Because you will seriously be annoyed. )

The best part of Saturday though was that we went to this theme park called ESSELWORLD. To get there, you take the train to Borivali, just a few stops from where I live, take a rickshaw to Gorai Beach and then take a ferry to an ISLAND and this is where the Esselworld is located, alongside a water themepark creatively called Water Kingdom!

It wasn't a peak day, I guess, although there were enough people there--we didn't have to wait very long to get on rides and they had some good ones. I did well on the Tilt-a-Whirl and Roller coaster but horribly on this thing called Thunder, which is one of those rides shaped like a hammer or a boat that swings back and forth and then up and over and upside down. I was just SICK to my stomach, oh my god. I couldn't even think about food after that and it was boiling hot too.

Another thing that was pretty weird was that the low tide season was on and the ferry had to stop between 4pm-9pm, so basically we were trapped on the island with no choice but to play. We killed some time at a coffee shop as well, playing a very interesting strategy game called Mafia, one of these mindfuck games where people try to figure out who plays what role by deductive reasoning and observation, like a boardless version of Clue.

We got home pretty late and stayed up pretty late as well and now I am at work. BOOOO!

Time for another weekly update and this one is going to be good! Last Saturday, we finally decided it was time to do the noble and touristy thing so..we went to the museum! The museum in town is called Chattrapati Shivaji Museum but formerly known as the Prince of Wales Museum. It was interesting because it had lots of statues of the gods and anyone as interest in Indian mythology as I, know that it's full of badassery and fighting and action. There was a hall of Indian painting that I LOVED because of the funky graphic style and bright colors and then there was this:



The mummified baby elephant. Ssssssooo cute and so creepy! You aren't allowed to take pictures without getting an expensive camera pass but I snuck in a few, shhh. ;D


Monday was Bart's and my odd-day off. I went with him and Adam to the Thai embassy where they did this weird thing where they had to photocopy money. How they didn't figure to just duplicate the money all on one page, I don't know. But there you go. Then we went shopping and then we went back to his flat where I made him a Dalek henna tatt with the promise of food.



And then I watched the most BADASS MOVIE I HAVE EVER SEEN--- Dabangg!!! It was extremely action-packed and by that I mean, major fight scenes, wire work, gratuitous shooting of bullets and, I kid you not, actual shirt ripping WITH THE FIERY PASSION OF RAGE but!!! In other words, my kind of movie. It was all in Hindi though but it was totally cool and the music was awesome. They ripped off fight scenes from Jackie Chan movies and the RDJ Sherlock Holmes slow motion scene near the beginning when he was fighting in the pits. I want to cut that scene out and splice it with the scene in Dabangg because it was hilaaaaarious.


WITH DANCING!!!

( trailer of Dabangg under the cut. )

Today, a lot of the interns in my network have been told to stay home because today is the verdict of this case that's been the center of some drama for some sixty years between Hindus and Muslims in India. Everyone is worried that there will be riots and it will unsafe to go home so my company decides to hey, anyway, they'll be indoors the whole day and so everyone in my company is at work today. To top it off, the next three days (Th-Sat) are dry days so I can't even drink away the pain!

And Bart's bye-bye party is on Saturday night and we are not going to be sober for that one for sure. PARTY, POLISH, PILIPINO and PISSED all start with the letter P.

Oh my god, I am currently so tired right now. I feel exhausted to the bone because there is so much stuff to do here. And I wish I had the energy to do them all, I really do! However, I am only one person and as they say here in the PH, mahina ang kalaban (the enemy is weak). Every day, I will try to fight.

So tons of stuff happened and I feel like I start every entry with "tons of shit happened"--I continue to update my India blog, http://closetregime.tumblr.com/ <-- I changed the name because the other one wasn't rolling off as well as I wanted and the credit to this totally goes to my girl Julie starsfell (I miss you!) But you've been busy like a bee.

I don't like feeling like I've fallen off the radar of Livejournal. There has been so much in my life that only LJ and fandoms' gotten me through. Still no internet at home though, which sucks because I want to get back to chatting with more people and posting art and other essential geek crap that I need so I can come down from living in this house with so many people and also all this none essential going out.

♥ STUFF
- Ganpati Bappa Morya! End of the Ganesh festival when they bring the idols to the beach and push them into the water before jumping in to pray. It's so auspicious...I'm not too religious but there is something about having a birthday, moving to India and having this festival all the same time that just thrills me to no end. Because Ganesh is the remover of obstacles and that is especially welcome!

- You know when you're harboring a crush you didn't know you harbored? Yeah, that's all I'm saying on that matter. There's no point thinking about it anymore due to extenuating circumstance and no point dwelling on it. It is contributing to the exhaustion though and my body and mind is threatening to go into a funk.

- There is someone at work who is absolutely pissing me off. Not even directly but more of a case in which I ask myself, fuck is he retarded or something? When I first came to work, he was very friendly and helpful and now he is cold and announces things like "I don't make friends easily" and "I don't like having friends" and it is so completely unprofessional and stupid and the thought of having to go to the office and deal with this immature shit is really dejecting. ( Some tl;dr about Indian guys. )


I have to admit, my favorite flavor of Ray is Aviators!Ray and grungy small Frank is always a favorite.

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO THOSE WHO SENT ME NICE BDAY GREETINGS!

So yesterday, I managed to finally do some really, really classic tourist stuff. My roomies and I went to Gateway to India and I had already been but not up close, more like just across the street while walking around Colaba Causeway.

Although everyone gets along, six people in the house is a challenge to get used to. Everyone is really different and some are much less willing to give in than others on certain points and I've somehow been maneuvered into the leadership position, a.k.a. "flat mom". Now, I have to admit this is a flattering role to be in, and I know I tend to seem like dependable and reliable but it kind of makes you feel dowdy and homely and like I have to babysit people all the time.

We went to a club yesterday and I danced off some of those feelings though. And my roommate Gustavo from Brazil was like, "I want to see hot Bunny," in that way of his where he can't quite express what he means exactly and the club was really fun and I was Hot Bunny for a while and then naturally I was back to Flat Mom almost immediately and now I am at "work" on a Sunday with nothing to do and this whole day was a complete waste of time.

This brings me to my office policy. Although works going alright, I kind of feel like I've been a little misled about what exactly I am supposed to do for the company. I get all my tasks but....so far, I've done next to nothing. I hope I get paid soon, so I can feel like this has all somehow paid off but so far, I've done so little work and mostly sit around surfing and waiting for documents that need to be reviewed for grammatical errors, etc. I also do not understand why I have days off on Saturday and Monday which means I (ok, I don't get hungover often but I COULD) come to work after hard partying on little sleep on Sunday and don't get to go out with my friends and then on Monday, my friends go out to their jobs and I am left alone to explore. Most of the time, I'm pretty happy to have the time to explore without people dogging my feet but it's fun going out with friends too!

Tuesday is my birthday and I don't have any plans or any expectations...I have to work (naturally) but I would like to speak to my parents and tell them how great it is here but that I also miss them...I would like to get back into fandoms, I would like to have the internet and the gas up and running at home and I would like some hugs and some good job, Bunnys. :)

And I also just want everyone to know that yes, I did see that MCR trailer and YES, THERE WAS SOME HYSTERICAL SHAKING AND CRYING AND THAT I SPEND MY WORK COMMUTE READING FIC ON MY NOOK AND MISSING EVERYONE.

Hey, I know my LJ activity has been slow but I can feel it picking up soon. I understand if there are people who want to de-friend me because we don't have mutual fandoms or whatever, no hard feelings. I'm still in all those fandoms but they are on hold because I'm still trying to adjust to life here and we don't have internet hooked up at our place yet!

Slow day at work today and I am sleepy as hell and very tired. I'm looking forward to the weekend because I feel a little trapped in the office when all this fun stuff is going on outside, you know?

I'm still trying to figure out my blogging style here. I've been updating LJ through DW to cover all the people who've shifted, although I myself don't follow DW, unless through RSS feeds or something. I have a twitter, FB and two tumblrs, one for geeky things and the other for India, which mostly consists of pictures. But on LJ, I will post longer stories and commentary and things that tumblr doesn't have the attention span for and sometimes just link back from there, perhaps.

I kind of honestly wish that someone existed who could tell me how to manage all these thought processes of mine but for now I think this will work. :D