Most random question yet

Before I get to the most random question I've been asked so far on this trip, I'll sum up my "taj experience.

The first time I saw the Taj was on the train. As it crossed the bridge entering Agra, I was able to look out the window and see the Taj in the distance. Even from there, it looked quite majestic.

I ended up staying at a budget hotel called Sai Palace. I highly recommend it. For 250 rupees (little over 6 USD) I had a large room, equally as large bathroom, and a small view of the Taj. I could walk right out of my room to improve my view, and if I walked up a few stairs, I had an unblocked view of the the Taj. Not bad at all.

Ended up going in around 4:30 PM. Even at that time of day, it was pretty hot. You have to take your shoes off and go bare-feet on the white marble. Thankfully they lay a carpet-like thing (not quite soft enough to be a carpet) for you to walk on. Anyway, I'll just say it is as impressive as everyone says it is, and is worth the 750 rupees (about 19 bucks) to get into the place.

If I were to do it over again, I'd go earlier and just hang out wherever there was shade. Part of the enjoyment of the Taj was just sitting around with middle class Indians, soaking up the surroundings. Oh, and Agra isn't so bad. The touts are pretty tame. Luxor, Egypt and Fez, Morocco still hold the #1 slot of most annoying touts in the world.

So let's move on to the most random question I've been asked. Yesterday I took a 14 hr train ride from Agra to Amristar, where I am now. As I'm sure you'd guess, a large number of people came and went during my ride. The last group was these 4 sikhs (pictured above). After asking where I was from, one of them asked, "What's the price of almonds in California?"

Now had he asked me the price of any other nut, I would have had to say, "umm I have no clue." Alas, I have been buying almonds from Berkeley Bowl for the past couple years. I know my almond prices. I remembered paying around 7 bucks/lb and so I told him, "Close to 15 dollars/kilo" but then I remembered that was the highest I paid. Sometimes I paid about 5 bucks/lb so I clarified: "Actually it ranges between 10 and 15 dollars/kilo." They seemed satisfied with my answer.

Why did they ask? They were sellers of dry foods.

And now I'm in amritsar. I have yet to see the Golden Temple. That shall be for tomorrow. I haven't really gotten a good read of the the city yet; I arrived late, slept a bit late, and walked around for 45 minutes this afternoon before I decided I better get out of the heat, so I took a nap. Nap turned out to be a couple hours longer than planned. So it goes.

My future plans

I suppose this is not too interesting, but just in case you're wondering, here is what I'm planning to do in the next few days.

June 24 (today): kill a few hours. Hop on train to Agra at 6 pm. I know you're jealous.
June 25: Arrive at agra fort station at 6 am. Find hotel. Go to Taj Mahal. Take pictures to document my visit there. restrain myself from killing touts.
June 26: 8:38 AM train to Amristar. Riding high class: a/c baby, a/c! This will be my first train a/c experience in India. Better be good since i'm paying about 2x what I would be in 2nd class sleeper. arrive in amritsar around 10:30 PM.
June 27: Visit the golden temple. I can stay there for free too.

After that, it is up in the air. I know I'm going to go to Manali but I am not sure yet what day. I might also go to Leh, but it takes two days to go there from Manali. do i have the time? i don't know yet.

An elaboration and final days in Varanasi

Ok, so here is the reason I was dredding Varanasi:

A couple people in Kolkata were telling me some rather unpleasant things about the place. One woman from NYC (there were 4 new yorkers in the hotel I was staying at, a little bizarre) told me men would come up, do this little ceremony on her then say, "I just blessed you, 10/20 rupees please." She'd tell them off and they wouldn't be too aggressive, but that still sounded quite annoying.

A guy from Hawaii (but grew up in Chicago) said Varanasi was the dirtiest, smelliest place he has ever visited. Considering he had been all over Latin America, southeast asia, as well as some big cities here in India, that did not sound very good.

Well I can tell you I have been to dirtier places that make Varanasi look half-decent. Fez, Morocco wins the price for the biggest dump I've been to. Marrakesh is only a little better. Parts of Cairo are most definitly worse than the old city of Varanasi. Yes, there is piles of cow excrement here and there. Flies love some areas too, but at no point did the smells make me ill. Can't say the same about Fez.

As far as the "blessers" go, the only people who approached me were those trying to get me to visit shops and/or buy drugs. Overall, it was not that bad.

That being said, all I did yesterday was hang out with a French guy. We first found a shady spot along the river and chilled out there for a couple hours. At one point, an Israeli man joined us and I became an English-English translator. Frequently the French man couldn't understand the Israeli and vice versa. They were both speaking decent English but I suppose in different ways. Consequently I had to rephrase what one was saying so the other would understand. So it goes.

After hanging out at the river, we went to the roof-top of our hotel, the Puja Guesthouse. The view is quite stunning, and you can see the entire riverside. The wind is quite brisk too, so it keeps you relatively cool. Up there, we met a Brit and a Canadian.

Eventually we went to the train station. The french man was off to Nepal and I was going to try to get a ticket to Agra. Well all tickets for yesterday were booked, but there was something available for 6 pm today. Another day in varanasi- yay! Actually I did not mind so much. I got a nice hotel room close to the train station and am able to bum around on the internet for a couple hours, so things could be worse.

Trip to Varanasi

So on June 20th I left Kolkata for Varanasi. Due to some information I heard at the hotel I was staying, I decided I should play it safe and leave signficantly earlier than my train departure of 7:10 PM. I was able to say good-bye to various people that I had met in my few days there. Two people that I clicked with the most was an American couple (previously mentioned in at least one entry below). One of them, Boris, said on that last day how he seemed to click with Americans the most out of various nationalities. At first I thought, "That sucks. I certainly don't" but then thought of who I had hit it off with best on this trip. I have to say it has been Americans. Quite a contrast to my trip through the Middle East. That being said, the person who drove me nuts the most was an American (but don't tell her that, she thinks she's Jamacian even though she's been in NYC since age 11). And that's the USA for you.

Anyway, i left my hotel and walked out to the main road. I found a perfect spot to flag down a taxi cab. First few either refused or asked for 100 rupees. I knew a pre-paid taxi would cost 80 from Howrah (the train station) to my hotel, so no way in hell I was going to pay 100 rupees.

Well I found one that was finally interested. He initially said 100, I started to walk away. He asked me how much. I said 50. He countered with 80. I said 70. He wouldn't budge, and another taxi pulled up behind me so I started walking away again. Of course he accepted. I felt good for negoiating a price, even though I knew he was still getting a good price. Better than 100 right?

After a couple minutes and at the first stop light, the car died. Yessss... We needed to be rear ended by the taxi behind us to get going again. I thought, "had I known this was going to happen, I would have stuck with 50 rupees." Thankfully that was the last of the drama en route to the train station.

I was stupidly blown away by the # of people at the train station. I say stupidly because well, duh, this is India, and Kolkata itself has millions of people. It was around 6 pm too, so what should have I expected? Anyway, traffic was not nearly as bad as reported by others, so I had a bit of time to kill at the train station. Around 20 minutes before the train was supposed to leave, I made way for my seat.

This might also sound stupid but I was also blown away by the length of the train. It had car after car, and seemed to never end. I was in sleeper car 7, which was packed with people when I boarded.

The train ride wasn't so bad. Unlike Thai trains, they actually allow you to turn out the lights in the sleeper cars. I was in a non a/c car, which isn't that bad since the windows are open and there is always a breeze due to the train moving or fans working from the ceiling above. I had the same type of conversations that I had in Bangladesh.

As we approached Varanasi, I was quite nervous. I had heard many things about how the touts would drive you crazy, how much excrement was in the old city, how much it stank, etc. Well I learned two lessons: a) locals don't know best b) don't believe the hype.

a) I became friendly with the father of the family sitting across from me on the train. They were from Varanasi. As we got off the train, he told me to hold on, and he'd help me out. Well some dude immediatly got on me and asked me where I was going. I said "Puja Guest House" and he said, "rickshaw 20 rupees." I knew he was full of shit because 20 rupees was 1/2 the price I would get after bargining hard with a rickshaw driver. I ignored him and followed the family.

Well the dude wasn't totally stupid. He started chatting it up with the father (named Utthman). When we got to the front of the station, Utthman said, "auto-rickshaw ok?" I said yes. He told me that the dude would be ok. Now my gut was saying, "no, this guy is going to try to pull something" but I went along with him.

I knew he wanted a commison from the hotel and it would come out of my pocket. I figured he'd park the rickshaw far from the hotel, walk me through the old city so I couldn't figure things out, then walk in with me into the hotel. Surprise surprise, that's what he tried to do.

What stopped him? signs, glorious signs. Thankfully Puja Guesthouse has signs near it directing people to it. As soon as I saw the signs, I handed him the money, said "thank you very much, I can take it from here." Of course he didnt like it and then said, "oh, well i thought you meant buddha hotel, which is much closer to hotel." I'm like yeah, uh huh. "So how much do you want?" I asked. "60 rupees, Indian price" he said. well i knew that 50 was the pre-paid fare, but hey, 60 to get rid of him? no problem. "Ok, 60. Got change for 100?" I asked him. He didn't- of course. So I went to the hotel, got change.

When I returned, he started to talk again. I stopped him short: "You said 60. Here's 60. Bye!" I said with a smile. He didn't reply.

Anyway, had I followed my gut and done my own thing, Varanasi would have been a real breeze. Want pain in the ass touts and people bothering you EVERYWHERE? Go to Luxor Egypt. Want to feel like spewing due to the smells? Go to Fez Morocco. This place isn't bad at all in those two areas.

Actually I'm glad I heard all that negative stuff. It got me hyped up and ready to deal with the hells of the tourist world. When it turned out it wasn't so bad, it was a relief. So it goes.

24 more hours in Kolkata

Ventured out of my hotel around 10 am with the goal of buying a train ticket to Varanasi tomorrow. The good news is I got the ticket, and it was not a hassle doing so. Unfortunately it took me over an hour to find the office due to the poor map in Rough Guide. Yeah, I thought I should have gone with Lonely Planet's guide, but cheap me had to save a few bucks and get the RG instead. So it goes..

It honestly wouldn't have been so bad had the temp not been over 90 degrees (high today around 35 celcius) and very sunny. Walking around in that weather ain't exactly heaven. Throw in the fact that my sinuses are acting like I'm being attacked by the other of all colds/flus/whatever, and you've got yourself one hell of a time. When I returned to my hotel, I drank about two liters of water and took an hour long nap.


Yeah, pretty dull times here, I know. I'm hoping getting out of Kolkata will help my health, but Varanasi is most likely even hotter and even more dusty. Yay. After that, my ass is heading for the mountains- enough of this flat land stuff.

Gotta love power outages

Yesterday I finally began the epic bangladesh summary. After an hour of writing, the computer shut off and I lost it all. Ah yes, the joys of the developing world. Maybe it was supposed to be a reminder that I should use gmail and not yahoo mail. I'm not feeling that inspired to write it all out again, but I have some time to kill in the next couple days so maybe I'll get around to it.

But enough about that... I had dinner with two americans last night, a couple from Brooklyn. The man mentioned how other travelers love to rant about Bush and the US gov't as soon as he tells them he's from the States. He then said how he didn't think highly of Bush but he didn't consider him a bad man. That got the ball rolling.. Iraq came up and we had somewhat of a heated discussion about it. I personally thought he was too forgiving of Bush. He kept on saying, "we all make mistakes." Umm yes, but how many of us CONTINUE to make those same mistakes? No one successful I'd wager.

Anyway, after dinner, we got beer, my first alcohol since May 12th. Kingfisher beer, don't really recommend it, but it was $1.25 for a big bottle (650 ml) so I really can't complain can I?

Highlight of yesterday: chilling with 3 guys in the middle of Elliot Park. I was walking through it to go see Victoria Memorial and they waved me over. I figured why not, and ended up hanging out with them for about an hour. Memories of Bangladesh came back, although they weren't Muslims. They also bought me tea, so my streak of free tea continued. I thought it was going to end yesterday, but they kept it alive. That being said, I'm pretty sure today it will come to an end. Oh well...

And today I am walking around in shorts. I feel naked in doing so. I wore pants the whole time I was in Bangladesh (minus a day at Cox's Bazaar) and it feels weird wandering around in shorts. My reasoning is I'm sick of wearing the same pants day-in,day-out and I already stand out enough, what are shorts going to do? Oh, and most other travelers wear shorts too, so crap, I might as well "fit in" with one group around here right?

Kolkata day 2

Checked out of my "expensive" hotel today and moved to cheap one. Part of the reason I moved to the latter was to meet other travelers. It would be nice to have a travel companion here in India.

So I checked into the Paragon Guest House. I found the cheapest room to be nicer than the slightly more expensive rooms. Yay. Anyway, w/in 5 minutes of sitting down at a table in the courtyard, someone walked by me then said, "Sean?" Bangladesh all over again! Except it wasn't a local this time. No, it was Marie, who I had met back in Bangkok. Last time I saw her it was April. Small world.

Anyway, after updating my journal (i hadn't written in it since June 7th, yikes), I headed out. You know I really do not have anything planned here, just like Bangladesh. I have some vague ideas but nothing concrete. I just end up doing things that are related to those vague ideas.

Today is a perfect example. I broke my glasses for a 2nd time on my last day in Dhaka. I thought, "oh, i will just get them fixed in India and maybe buy some new frames and/or lenses since they'll be much cheaper than back in the usa." Well I was walking down Park St and I came across a optical store. I walked in, asked them to fix my glasses. "You can see through these things?" the lady asked. Eh well, somewhat. I asked how much lenses cost. "1200 rupees [30 dollars] for the best ones" she said. Well hell, I might as well buy them. So I did. I then thought, "why not frames too?" I ended up getting an eye exam (free) plus one pair of frames and two sets of lenses, one for my old pair, one for my new pair. Cost? About $120. Not cheap, but at least 1/5 of what I'd pay in the USA.

Consequently, I might be here in Kolkata until Tuesday evening. They are trying to get the lenses today but they are not certain they can. If they do not, I'll have to wait a bit since tomorrow is sunday (and they are closed). Oh well... I only have 4 other places I plan on going and I have a little more than 3 weeks, so it isn't so bad. I'll get to know Kolkata well, that's for sure.

Oh, first meal in India: McDonald's... Yes, I'm sad I know. My excuse is I went over a month eating JUST bengali food (and fried chicken 3 times in local restaurants) so I deserve some kind of break from indian food. It wasn't very filling, so I "redeemed" myself a little by buying a paneer wrap further down the street afterwards.

McDonald's in India is a little different from back home (not to rip off Pulp Fiction or anything). Obviously there are no hamburgers for cultural reasons. There is a veggie burger available, as well as a tika chicken burger. They play music LOUDLY. When a Backstreet boys remix came on, I knew that was my time to leave.

Anyway, that's all for now. Just praying my glasses will be ready by the end of today.

One picture for you

All my pictures (about 430 right now) are still on my memory card. I have yet to do anything about it. Here is a pic of Shaffiullah, his wife, and one of his daughters from a couple years ago.

Kolkata

I used to have a personal term called the "Yemen effect." What is the yemen effect? It is when you goto such a bad place, that the next place you visit, no matter how bad it is, seems like shangri-la.

For example, I am probably one of the first foreigners to have landed in Cairo and thought, "wow, this place is very nice!" while driving from the airport to downtown. No likely it was due to the fact that I was in Yemen for the previous 5 months prior to that. Cairo is very nice compared to cities in Yemen. Over time. I came to realize that Cairo really wasn't that pleasant and that my perception had been distorted due to my time in Yemen.

Why do I bring this up? I believe the same thing is happening to me here in Kolkata. It has a reputation of poverty and being very dirty. Well I know this much: driving through the rich parts of Kolkata is a lot nicer thang driving through the high-class areas of Dhaka. The central business district of the former has decent sidewalks, stop lights, and a sense of order. Dhaka's main business district? A disaster zone for the most part.

This morning I was walking through Kolkata and thinking, "wow, this place is divine. I hear English being spoken, many signs are in English, yay. Where is all that bad stuff I heard about? Where are all the beggars? Where are the sites that make me sick to my stomach? BRING IT ON INDIA!" I had to remind myself that I will no doubt have my hands full of all of that elsewhere in the country.

It is also a little strange for me here. The local language is the same as in Bangladesh (bangla/Bengali) and a lot of the signs are in bangla script. The food is the same. The differences are the aforementioned English, the lack of rickshaws, the large # of cars (compared to Bangladesh), and the neatness of the place. It is a bit like going to a disneyfied version of Bangladesh.

I will end this entry with this: if you want a "easy" way to be introduced to India, Kolkata isn't a bad choice. The center of the city isn't that bad, the traffic isn't total chaos, and there is nothing to make you ill (well maybe the food, but so far so good). But remember, I came from Bangladesh and therefore the "yemen effect" is in full force right now, so perhaps my opinion is a little biased.

Tomorrow, if all goes well, I shall be finally composing my mass summary of Bangladesh.

Cheers.

Bye-bye Bangladesh, hello india!

Yesterday I got up at 5:30 am to catch a bus to India from Dhaka. For the gigantic price of about 11 dollars, I took a 12 hour ride in an a/c bus (well two buses actually). Now you would think in the span of 12 hours, one would go a looong way. Well I will put it this way: it would have taken less than 2 hours to fly between the two cities (closer to 90 minutes) and it took 2.5 hours to go about 75 KM here in India. Long live the developing world!

Anyway, I had a farewell party of four: Rizvi, his older brother, Shaffiullah, and Shafiullah's shop assistant. I stayed at Rizvi's place the last night since he lives 5 minutes away from where I caught the bus. Shafiullah and his assistant met us at the bus office. When I arrived, Shaffiullah was on the phone and handed it to me. Someone else wanted to say good-bye. After that brief convo, we went off to get breakfast. I couldn't eat a thing. I felt sick and I was getting teary eyed. They thought i was scared about going to India and was upset about that. Umm no fellas, I was just overwhelmed by the hospitality you all showed me. I have never had that kind of good-bye from any other country, that is for sure.

Normal for Bangladesh: the man sitting next to me struck up a conversation with me. He spoke very good English (not normal) and worked for the Japanese Embassy, helping process visas. He was returning to his family home in the city of Jessore, which is very close the Indian border.

Abnormal: He did not give me any food or buy me any tea. He had his opportunities. In his defense, he said he wish he could but in the interest of my health, he didn't want to give me food bought from the "road" so to speak. Had I not been feeling queasy (due to nerves primarily) I would have politely informed him that I had survived a month in his country thank you very much, and only had two bouts of stomach problems. He was probably the richest Bangladeshi I met in my travels. I do not regret not spending times in the posh areas of Dhaka. But anyway, let's get back to the trip.

Had no problems exiting Bangladesh.The crossing was about as dirty and bleak as other border crossings I have seen. Just something about them that makes them that way I suppose. Perhaps all the trucks and buses are the cause.

Welcome to India: Walked through a little gate and I was in india. As I was walking to the immigration building, there was a group of men just sitting around. One had a bunch of immigration forms, and I took one. Another asked me, "Do you have a bus ticket?" I said yes. "May I see it?"
I handed it to him.
"Do you have indian rupees?"
"Yes" I replied.
"85 rupees please" he requested.

Yeah dude, I'm just going to hand you 85 rupees and assume you'll give me a ticket here in the middle of this courtyard. Do I look that stupid? Instead of saying all that I said, "Uh yeah, can I have my ticket back? I want to get my passport stamped first." He handed it back and I walked away.

And so I entered the immigration building. As some of you know, my hand writing is messy. That being said, I put some effort into writing things out clearly on the form. Well apparently I did not write them out clearly enough. The immigration officer tore up my form and decided to fill out a new form himself. Doh. What is it with me and immigration people on this trip? At least they are amusing me and not creating problems for me.

After that, a bus employee (who actually had a badge) showed me the way to the bus office, and soon after that, we were off to Kolkata.

I'm still alive people

Due to a) the serious lack of internet facilities here in Bangladesh b) the fact I am almost never alone, I have not been able to be on the internet much. This is the first time I've been online in over a week. In the past month, I have been online 3 times, one of which was for about 15 minutes.

About 20 minutes ago, I bought my bus ticket to Kolkata. I am leaving the morning of June 14th. I could have left tomorrow (13th) but due to the whole 13 aspect, and the total opposite of June 14th (the day I graduated from HRS, friend's b-day, and last but not least flag day!)I thought the 14th would be better.

Originally I was planning to leave today since I left the USA on april 12, Malaysia on may 12th (and arrived in bangladesh the same day), and going home on July 12. Alas, the Bangladeshi people have "forced" me to stay here an extra couple days.

When I returned to dhaka 2 days ago, I thought I would just need 2 days to say good-bye to everyone. Alas, that was half the time I needed. In fact, I have had to be rude just to be able to leave here on the 14th. I will end this entry with the following story that I think sums up my experience well:

I am on the bus with my friend Shafiullah and a friend of his that I met 15 minutes ago. The friend has invited us to his house in the suburb of Mirpur. While on the bus, they are talking and I am sending text messages to friends (I will elaborate on my cellphone usage at a later date) while periodically Shafiullah points out a site. We come to a place I've been before.
Shafiullah: That is the national museum
me: yes, I know. I visited it last week
Shafiullah: Alone?
Me: Alone? Is one ever alone here in Bangladesh?

He laughed. And of course I wasn't alone; I had a companion who showed me around dhaka for 3 days. I will have been here in Bangladesh for a little over a month.
The number of days where I've been alone for the majority of the day: 3.

Number of meals I've eaten alone: 4 or 5 I think. Today is the first day in over 2 weeks where I've been alone for more than an hour (excluding one evening of sleeping).

# of houses I've visited: I'm guessing close to 50. Definitly more than 30. yesterday I was at 5 homes (although 3 of them I had previously visited).

# of houses I've slept in: 4

# of home cooked meals I've had: no idea

# of cups of tea I've had: probably averaged 3 a day. Yesterday I had 6 in a span of about 4 hours. Total # yesterday was at least 10. How many have I paid for during my month here? None.

OK, I have to go. I am going to meet Shafiullah and go with him to pick up his older daughter from school. I will be sending out a mass e-mail summarizing my experience here. I figure the # of readers has gone from 5/day to .5/day due to my lack of writing. Inshallah, I will be writing more frequently in India.