Southern India: East to West +down up down

After arriving in a city I didn't know the name of I got a good night sleep and the next morning headed to a little place called Tranquebar which was an old Danish Colony and sits right on the water. This area was heavily affected by the Tsunami, but they are working hard to restore it. It was a great little unique place to visit. Also while being here I bumped into a film crew as they were filming scenes for a movie. They all paused when they saw me and then the director wanted some footage of me standing there wondering what they hell they wanted me to do.




Next I headed west to a city called Tanjavur. It has this enormous temple in the center of the city that I visited and was pretty cool. This part of the country really doesn't get too many tourists, they are there, but only a few. This is when I started to really notice how they have these big billboards or marketing signs with completely wrong spelling; and it's not part of their marketing plan. Some examples: Footwere. Luxery. Chinies. Famoos. This is what they spent lots of bucks for and will be their campaign for some time.


After Tanjavur, I headed to Trichy which had some of the best restaurants I've eaten at (they call their restaurants hotels here). In Trichy I went and saw some more famous temples, climbed a hill to a temple that had a city view and then spent time in the Big Baazar and Chinese Baazar (there were no chinese people there) and bought some dvd's for about 40 cents each. (It turned out to cost more since only half worked or were in another language).
I then headed to Madurai which is a big city. I only had a brief time here so I decided to do a bus tour of the highlights. They picked me up first and then had to pick up 11 others which took an hour and a half. Our first stop was a palace that had construction going on throughout. we had 40 minutes to check this out. The next stop was the much awaited Ghandi museum, I had heard great things about this and it told the story of Ghandi's life along with the history of the british in India. Our bus driver said 15 minutes to visit here. I took a half an hour and I could have spent hours in this place. When I got back I asked how anyone was supposed to see it in 15 minutes and he said it was small. Granted, you could walk through it in 15 minutes if you didn't read any information. The next stop on the tour was a temple; 45 minutes.
From Madurai I caught a bus to the mountains, a place called Kokaikanal. I sat next to this kid on the ride and we talked the entire time; he was a clever little guy and I quite liked his company.
On arrival in Kodaikanal, the temperature had dropped significantly from the city, but this also meant no mosquitos. It was absolutely beautiful here. I got a room in a house that had seven other rooms that were all vacant, so I had the house to myself. I visited many different lodges, made a friend at a shop, and met a white guy who had been here for a few years getting his doctorate. He introduced me to some great locals who knew the surrounding villages and tribal villages well and one man I spent time with will definitely be part of the onelovetours team. See Vetri below with his family.
I really enjoyed my stay here and started to work with some people on getting tshirts made of for the company (anyone want to order one?)
Some of my time in Kodaikanal it was beyond foggy due to the elevation. I was actually in the clouds and couldn't see 20 ft ahead.
This is not what the t-shirts will look like, it is only what the friend from the shop did one night on his shirt with some markers while he was working.
From Kodaikanal, I headed on a 7 hour bus trip down and through the mountains to tea country, which is known as Munnar. Completely surrounded by tea plantations, this is a little city that sits in the middle of the hills, from one view point you can see a church, a temple and mosque sitting near each other on a hill near the city. I ate in a place where all the drivers eat and this is the first place in India where I see people eat meat; we have now entered the state of Kerala, the only Democratic, Communist state in the world.
I visited some heritage guest homes that sit high in the hills in the middle of the tea plantations that I can send guests to. This is where I met up with Benny (a friend from home) and his family. They were taking a day trip and picked me up to see the surrounding sites.

I then headed back to Cochin, a city on the water; no more mountains, with Benny and his sister to meet up with their mom at home. On Christmas Eve we got some carollers; these are them.
Benny, his sister Joslie and I headed out of Cochin to the backwaters to take a house boat for a day and night. After bargaining hard we got a great boat which we cruised around on, had some good food, played some cards and games, and it was a great change of pace.
The following day we went to Allepay where we strolled through the city, visited some guesthouses and then found a carved out canoe with a guy (Saboo) to take us around small alley's that I big boat can't fit into. We ended up stopping to see his home in his little village that is an island.

Back in Cochin we celebrated Christmas with lots of movies, lots of food, and good company. It is so nice to be with friends over the holidays even when it is just relaxing and not doing too much; so thank you to Benny and his family.

The day after Christmas I went to a nearby island that is quite quiet with home stays set up right on the water. I also learned how to catch prawns and fish at a prawn farm.

I know this blog lacked detail, but it has been some time since I wrote my last one and I just wanted to give a quick update with lots of pictures. Southern India is a completely different world than northern India, it is like visiting different countries. Also, in the south, each state speaks their own language and many people only know this local language.

Here they say "Happy Christmas"

A cake we ate on Christmas said "Happy Celebration"

Fair thee well until next time.

Warm, southeast, the full range of the french, beaches, and new good friends.

I had a long bus journey when I left Bangalore and headed to Chennai (can you believe a long bus ride in India) Luckily for me the bus wasn't very full and it rained a good part of the way which was actually quite pleasant as I watched the change of surroundings heading to the coastal city of Chennai. What I found out was that it had rained the previous few days in Chennai causing floods throughout the city and making it a hell for people living in the slums; destroying there foods, wetting everything in their homes and encouraging the rat population. When I arrived I heard a girl dealing with a rickshaw driver and agreeing to pay way too much. I stepped in and helped (me, helping an Indian with the bargaining of a price) She was thankful and offered to share the ride and then when we arrive at her place she would drive me on her bike around to get a hotel room which she did. A few days later I met with her for a home made lunch which was just great!!


One day I went sight seeing to get a feel for Chennai. There is a common thing that goes on in big cities where a rickshaw driver will take you on a long tour of sights for fairly cheap as long as you will go and look in a couple of shops. They are hoping that you buy something which will end up being much more for them in commission. Many people apparently have the mind set to go into the shop and just look and then spend their money. Little did he know that his chances of me buying something were not too good (this means 0, nothing, not gonna happen). But I did get to visit sights for about 3 hours including the Marina beach which is the 2nd longest in the world. It is also disgustingly filthy, nobody swims in this water. Then the visiting of temples, churches, etc...

I was curious to see a slum, so I was brought to a fishing village slum. He waited in the rickshaw and I meandered through the little alleys. I asked this man above if it was alright if I walked down one alley and he continued to take me down that alley, show me his home, his family, his neighbors and a full tour of the slum which was wonderful; the tour, not the slum, although everyone was extremely happy and nice. It is said that fishing slums have a big drinking problem towards the afternoons, I was visiting early afternoon and the man that showed me around doesn't drink or even eat meat, including fish.

This was one of the churches on tour that is one of the most famous churches in India because some high ranking person is buried under an alter. My facts on this are not with me at the moment.

This is Veera and his cousin who you will hear more about later. I met Veera briefly early on in my trip while in a restaurant in Varanasi. He told me to let him know when I would be in Chennai because that is where he lives. We met up for dinner and he took me to an unbelievable restaurant and forced me to eat until I could barely stay awake and would not let me pay for anything...ever. His cousin smiles a lot!!

Starting in Chennai to now I have been a busy little bee as far as work goes, meeting with people and seeing places, hotels, sites. I also met a woman who I will be working with, Gouthami, in Chennai who had me over to her house for a home cooked meal.

From Chennai I went south to Malaburipuram. This is when I started to realize that many places, especially in the south had two names. Some maps and signs on the street say Malamalapuram. There town is small and on the beach and is swarming with tourists. The way the locals act and talk you know they are used to dealing with laid back tourists and know the right things to say. After a full day of visiting hotels and seeing the little city I decided to do a day of nothing; this was because Veera was going to come down the following morning (his saturday off) and spend the day.

We got pool passes at a nice hotel and spent half the day relaxing by the pool, eating, drinking and swimming. That night after dinner we met up with our hotel neighbor, Sandra (a columbian yoga teacher). The three of us walked the beach and enjoyed the fire work show due to a wedding down the beach.

The next morning his cousin showed up and we visited a few of the other sites in the town that I hadn't seen including this one. I really like this photo. Then the 3 of us and Sandra headed a little north to a beach where Veera's family owns a prawn farm on the water. We spent time on the beach swimming and just relaxing (I scared some local kids by chasing them and when I caught them threatening to take them in the water). We then headed back to the building where the people who work for his family made us possibly the best meal I've had since being in India; home made fried fish with seasoning that is making my mouth water as I write, some great chicken and a rice mix that we add a onion/yogurt salad too. Veera and his cousin were beyond hospitable and just good people. I know that I will be friends with him for a long time to come.

Veera and his cousin then headed back to Chennai and Sandra and myself headed south to a place called Auroville. This place is an international city built in India. It is intended as a moneyless society. You will have to research on your own for now if you want to know more. Inside this huge area they have no public buses, you must have a motorbike which we didn't know. After walking around for quite some time we grabbed lunch which we paid someone cash to let us swipe their card (remember, moneyless). This is the monument at the center of Aroville and is the focus point for meditation.

It then started to pour. We were a long way for where we wanted to be and any rides and the rain wasn't going to let up for some time. I concentrated no a plan and then stuck my thumb out on the road. A fifties british car drove by and then hit the breaks and a big head with a british accent stuck his head out of the back door and asked where we were going and I said anywhere, so we jumped in and it turned out we weren't going where he was going. He had a meeting and then after the meeting we were still waiting for another car so he (Kenny) said to get in and he would drop us off after we stopped by his house. While waiting in the rain a guy walked by completely covered in rain gear from head to toe and had a smile like he enjoyed the rain, so I said "it looks like you are having fun in this rain". He turned to me and with a french accent said "I have never met you, why are you talking to me?"

Don't worry, for each of those there is a Kenny. We stopped at Kenny's where we met a girl who was staying there who apparently was stranded a couple days before and Kenny helped out and gave a place too. As it continued to rain outside we all sat around listening to music, singing, painting, drinking beer, and more music, more beer, more talking and better friends. We ended up crashing there and heading out the next morning. I could write a mini book about Kenny and the stories he told. In the end, he is a good guy and was a great host and has moved to this place a couple of months ago to spend the rest of his time with his own home-stay that specializes in ayurvedic treatments; someone I will work with also.

Next morning on our rainy drive into Pondicherry.

Some girls who we had met a couple days before gave us their number in case we come into Pondicherry and wanted to meet for dinner. We did, and at our table sat me, from the US. Someone from Columbia, Holland, a real nice girl from french and then we called a girl over who was sitting at a table alone who was from Spain...it was like the UN.

Below is the streets of Pondicherry inside the French quarter.

I can't believe how big the damn sea shells are in this city!!!!!!

We walked around the big markets which had tons and tons of flowers, fruits, vegetables, fish, clothing, really anything.

If any of you have listened to the comedian Mitch Hedgeberg than you will appreciate this picture below of the red bananas. If you don't know him than maybe you will still like the picture of red bananas.

We stayed in a fantastic home-stay in Pondicherry where there are only five rooms and the family that runs it is extremely nice and beyond helpful. They too lived in Paris for 30 years and were beyond nice... just that damn raingear wearing frenchie.

This homestay I will definately send people too on my tours. They are completely booked for the rest of December and January.

I headed south on my own from Pondicherry and was trying to go to one place but ended up in a nearby town where there were NO tourists around and eating in the local restaurant this was my view while I was eating; everyone looking at me like "he eats food just like us, can you believe it?"

Since then I have been to two more cities, am now in the third, drove a car, ate a free lunch, and am getting close to running out of clean shirts and underwear.

I have seen quite a bit of rain in the last 2 weeks...actually not that much, but only compared to the rest of the time I have been here. When it rains a lot in the US it is a little of an inconvenience; it is crazy to see how heavily it impacts so many's lives here, more so there livelihood that just their feel for the day.

I want to see slum dog millionaire, I have gotten a few emails about it.

I have read since being here:

Grapes of Wrath

Five point something

Unbound India

White Tiger- Such a great read. This is a book I wouldn't want the people I send on tour to read before, it really shows the "dark side" of India.

I am now reading Sacred Games-another Indian book.

Ciao

Yogi-ville in the mountains, big baller, new friends, touching home base, friends in the south

Rishikesh is known as the place in India for Yoga; at least from a backpackers perspective. There are so many babas here. Above is what I mean when I say a baba. This guy was always outside the door where I stayed; he was the happiest I saw, always with a big smile. What a better setting than in the mountains right along the rushing waters of the Ganges River.
While here I got busy with work, meeting with people at Ashrams, Guesthouses, Hotels, resorts, and learning the area. Being up in the mountains there are a lot of places that cover a large amount of distance so it wasn't possible to see the places I wanted by foot. Hiring a taxi for the day would have cost too much, so I talked to locals and asked if someone wanted to take me around on their motorbike. Sure enough, I found someone who I hired for about 7 hours to drive through the mountains, with wonderful views, checking out the different hotels and such. It was much more enjoyable on the back of a bike than looking through a car window. I don't know how so many people do these tourist buses around the countries; it is like watching through a TV. You have to be part of the place, smell the smells, be right up close where the action which a tourist bus doesn't allow.


One place that I went to check out was "Ananda- a health spa resort". To get here we had to drive 18 km straight up the mountain to arrive at this 5 star resort that sits on 100 acres and was an old palace. They have spa packages here for 21 days that start at about $18,000. A basic room for a night; which isn't so basic, is $560. After doing a walk through here I decided this night that I would write to the corporate office requesting they give me a complimentary night; what did I have to lose. Somewhat to my surprise they agreed and said that they would compliment me 1 night only for the room. What this meant was if I wanted massages, or special therapy sessions or meals that I would pay out of my pocket. I packed my bag with water, fruit and cookies to last me my 24 hours at the Ananda. When I checked they showed me the wardrobe that everyone wears which is a white loose pants and a white comfortable top. This is to go with the whole relaxation, therapy feel.

Everything about this place was beautiful with top of the line service and an atmosphere unlike the rest of India I knew. There were about 6-7 workers for every guest. After checking in I went down to the main spa area and alternated from hot to cold small pools where you walk on rocks and it imitates acupunture. From here I went into the steam room, followed by a cold tub dunk. My body was already more relaxed than it had been since arriving in India. Afterwards I went to the gym where I trainer did a exercise on the big rubber ball class, followed by an abs class. Later I went to a lecture by a ayurvedic doctor to learn a little more about this and then had a complete tour of the whole spa facility with all the specific massage rooms. I headed back to my room, turned on my ipod, filled the large tub that overlooked the scenic valley, lit some candles in the bathroom and spent the last of my energy thinking how I went from a $4 room to a $660 room.

I fell asleep in the most comfortable bed by 8:30 only to wake up at 6:00 with the sun rising outside my window with an undescribable view of the mountains. I woke up slow and walked to the main building for my morning yoga class. After yoga I went back to the gym where I went to a stretching class. As I was the only guest that showed, the trainer helped to stretch me while doing a sort of Thai Massage in the process. I went down to the spa one last time before my 24 hours of bliss was over. I checked out at the latest time possible and went to the main gate to meet my driver on a bike (I think I was the only visitor in the history of the Ananda to be dropped off and picked up on a motorbike by a guy who spoke no english).

I then took a public bus to Haridwar where I caught the evening ceremony where people light hundreds of little baskets filled with flowers and float them down the river. (At times of the year the number of baskets is thousands and once every 12 years it is literally millions of visitors a day that do this-2010 is the next time this happens.)

I headed back to Delhi where I met friends of friends who happened to be in the India tourist industry. I stayed at there apt and we spent all the day and night talking and getting to know each other before I headed out early the next morning on a train to head back to my family in Jaipur for a short stay before my flight to the south of the country.

I could either have taken a train to the south which would have taken 3 days or a 5 hour plane ride. I decided to splurge and go by air. I arrived in Bangalore, where I have been staying with good friends that I met a couple of years ago in Egypt and then stayed with in India, Kiran and Vibha. After my time in the north where I didn't eat meat and only had a drink one day, now I was in the south where I have eaten meat with every meal almost and I went out with Kiran, Vibha and their group of crazy friends for a wild night that took us until 4am and lead to a day of rest and recovery. After finally coming alive that next night and looking forward to a good night sleep, the clock turned midnight and it was time to sing happy birthday to Kiran. Followed by singing the doorbell ring and friends who decided to surprise him stopped over with a full meal, cake, bottles of liquor and other people. As I passed on drinking, this night continued to go on until 5:30am.


I am now caught up on sleep, emails, blogs, and the 3 days of terrorist action in Mumbai has come to an end. I have a bus to my next destination tomorrow at what lies ahead we will see.

When I arrived at the airport to fly south I read on the screen: "Explosives, weapons, and liquids over a certain amount are not allowed in Carry On bags" -does anyone else see the problem with this?

End of Manoj era, india healthcare, on the move again

It is so hard to not only find the time to write a blog, but what is even more time is being in the right mind set with the right amount of energy. Too much energy and it's hard to sit still. Not enough energy and the writing will turn out blah. So here I am, long overdue.
It seems a long time ago that I left Orcha and headed with Manoj to Agra (Manoj had never seen the Taj) I didn't go see it with him since I've seen it and they charge foreigners almost 40 times what they charge locals. I did however get to stay in a wonderful homestay that I didn't have to pay for. The people who ran this place were so confident in it that they wanted me to experience it first hand as opposed to just a walk through-it was great and is somewhere I would have my clients stay!! I also had a chance to meet with some other guests staying there who were extremely nice and made the stay even that much better.

We arrived home the next day where the family was happy to see us and Manoj spent hours telling the stories and how different it is traveling with a foreigner. The following day I didn't want to leave the village, I really wanted to do nothing. However, since I was heading to the mountains I went into the city to find a thick sweatshirt. Finding a sweatshirt my size in an Indian market is like finding an Indian that really wants me to only look in their shop and not buy anything. (It doesn't exist) At the shops, many would wait until I made my request and then tell me they don't have my size, while others would see me approaching and tell me the don't have my size (it didn't matter what I wanted). I headed back to the village without my extra thick sweatshirt. Coincidentally, I woke up in a sweat and felt completely awful which lead to my village hospital visit the next morning.
Once I was cleared of Dengue fever and Malaria, they gave me a shot in my butt (first one of my life here) for the joint aches. Then, the nurse rubbed a cold pack over my stomach and chest to bring down my temperature. They filled me with hydration fluid while Ganeesh (my indian brother) rubbed my head as if I was 2 years old and told me I don't listen to him when he tells me to take care of myself and this is why this happened. 3 hours in the hospital with prescriptions cost me around $14; a tad different than the bill would have been in the US.

The next few days were for recovery. Also, I went to the bathroom every hour or so. Having this problem in India reminds me mostly of soccer conditioning. Squatting so often that my legs are sore. Sweating like I've been working my body hard and when it's over each time I am absolutely wiped out. Unlike hoping for thunderstorms during soccer conditioning, all I could do was wait it out. As my stomach continued to hurt for a couple of days, the family had a village stomach guy come over. He layed me on my back, put his thumb in my belly button and pushed my stomach muscles around. As one point he pressed hard on my foot, then raised my knees and bent my leg, and after a few minutes asked me if I was alright. Not speaking Hindi, I just said "I feel the same". He not understanding english took this as something good and left on his way. He learned what he knows from his father who learned from his and so on. Apparently, many villages have this person.
I spent the next couple of days on the couch switching back and forth between 3 english movie channels. India gets our worse movies we ever have made. Most, I have never heard of. Most, as I get into it, the power in the house cuts anyway. Power cuts are common everday to India. Most of the time when this happened I found myself somewhat relieved that I couldn't watch the rest of the movie and then drifted off to sleep. I cut back on eating heavy-ish foods and ate mostly rice.

After a few days I decided to get going and went into Jaipur to meet another friend Balveer. The meeting place was McDonalds. Now, I haven't eaten Mcd's in almost 4-5 years. I don't like the idea of them. This day was different. I craved french fries and a coke. This McD's I loved. It may have been the food, it may have been a taste of home surrounded by white people, it may have been that I got to go and sit on Ronalds throne. I think when I went into the bathroom and got comfortable, this is when every male in the restaurant decided that they too needed to use the bathroom. I heard the lock tested many times and for those who weren't sure in their ability to open doors gave a yell to see if someone was really in there.

I left that night on another train ride with Balveer and his parents to his village. We had general class tickets. This means that when the train stops you get your ass in there and get a seat or you will be standing. It is a fight at the door with pushing, shoving and sometimes punching. As the train neared I saw the mass of people pile up to the door when I then saw out of the corner of my eye Balveer jump through a window after throwing his bag through. I then handed him the other bags and we had our seats secured.

It was a nice, relaxing stay at Balveers house with his family.

Side Notes:
1. Manoj and I found another double banana.
2. I got my hair cut in the village on my day of rest. At home I find it difficult to explain to a barber how I want my hair cut. Not speaking the language and using my hands I find it doesn't differ too much, it always comes out fine, but not what I had in mind.
3. Lots of people in public transportation put their hands on my knee, always guys. I don't know why and usually I don't bother doing anything as it's usually crowded and I'm too tired to deal with it. I think this might be the lighter feel of prison where someone claims you and then everyone thinks you are with them.
4. I am attempting to find places to practice yoga for people I send to India. What westerners think of Yoga is in general what Indians think of as normal everyday life. Positions that would take me years to be able to do, everyone from little kids to grandparents do it. It is their normal ways while eating, walking, sitting, and even going to the toilet. Being calm is necessary here just for public transportation: everyone just sort of meditates while on a busy bus or train.

This photo was from Manoj and I arrived back to Jaipur and it was the start of wedding season so they were preparing all the flowers to sell in the markets. I think it's funny "wedding season"
It makes me think of hunting season where they take people out and then they are married.


With that, the toilet is calling and I have had a full day of looking at hotels.
Thanks for being patient with me, and next time you are stuck in traffic, think of me between five people on a bumpy, dirty bus with at least one hand on my knee and just calm down.

Wildlife, wild temples, wild bus rides make for tired Steve

Hmmmm. First off-- Happy Birthday to my brother Mark.
After Varanasi we our goal was to get to Bandhavgarn National Park. We took an overnight train ride to Katni where we thought we had about an hour bus ride. The public bus turned out to take over 5 hours with many stops and with many people and goods on board. Before we move ahead, I met a man and his wife on the train who were very friendly and he kept asking me if he comes to get America if I can get him a visa. I explained to him that I am powerless and he has to get his own visa. By the fourth time he asked me the same question I just said that if I was able to get someone a visa, it definately wouldn't be him (I figured it didn't matter what I said because he clearly wasn't listening to me). As the sun came up when we awoke on the train I saw him smiling and looking at me. He pointed to the sun and said how beautiful it was. He told me that the sun rises in the east, and I wish I was kidding, but I'm not; he asked me if it rises in the east in America too; poor chap.

After our painfully long bus ride we arrived to a little one street town of Tala where we got a room and then went in search of white people. For the national park there is a steep fee for foreigners in a jeep as opposed to Indian tourists, so if I were to to share a jeep with Indians I would pay about 6 times more than they taking on the majority of the cost. However, after a couple of hours of walking back and forth I was unable to find any sun burned faces. I was saddened and went back to the room with Manoj. We put on some music and started reading when there was a knock at our door...white people. They wanted to share a ride out of this place the next day which we also wanted to do. So with a little luck we had a shared ride to our next destination; at least something. They left, I sat down and five minutes later there was a knock on the door. More white people. They were in search of someone to share the safari with the following morning; perfect. This is how small this town is. They went a step further than I had and asked a couple people if they knew where a foreigner was. Apparently people watch me and where I go.



The next morning we were up early on our way to the national park in hopes of spotting a tiger. Soon after we entered the park our driver pointed out footprints in the sand. All I could think was that it was suspicious and I could imagine someone walking in the morning with a foot on a stick pushing footprints in the sand (I still half think this is what they do). This was the closest we came to a tiger. It was a scenic safari trip none the less and a good change of pace.



Soon after we were off on our shared ride to Satna, more or less a stopping point. We ate some good food, got a good night sleep and had some good chats with our fellow passengers.

The next morning we left for Khajaraho, famous for it's erotic temples built over 1,000 years ago. If not for these temples there wouldn't be one visitor here. They push sales like I haven't seen, but we got a place off the main road where it was a bit quieter. We found Hariom, a 12 year old boy who claims to be 15. (again, many have no knowledge of their age, it is as trivial as what they ate 2 weeks previous) He had learned english only from talking with tourists. He was happy and very clever. I hired some bikes, sat him on the back of mine and we were off to visit half of the group of temples for the first evening.

The following morning Manoj and I went to see the more famous of the temples; the western temples. Some beautiful carvings with many of them being Kama Sutra poses. They were as horny a bunch back in the day as ever.
On this one temple there are hundreds of elephants looking straight ahead like you see on the left. However, there is this one elephant looking to the side, his face obviously laughing while looking at the two next to it enjoying themselves.



Our next destination was Orcha/Jhansi. We were told that the bus ride would take at most 4.5 hours. This story is why http://www.onelovetours.net/ will work out well. I am traveling for 6 months so I have days that I can waste, sort of. For those people who come for 2-3 weeks and try to do public transportation, without a doubt they will lose at least 1 day a week dealing with it or having something happen in the middle of it.
After arguing about the high ticket cost for being a foreigner, we agreed on a price, his big selling point that it is a luxury deluxe bus. I have to say that since I was only medium crammed in, it was a luxury bus. After about a half hour drive we heard a loud noice which sounded very unnatural. For some reason this didn't bother anyone except me. Less than 10 minutes later we were on the side of the road with a flat tire.

They told us it would take half an hour to fix which meant at least half the day. After almost two hours they put us in another passing bus which definately wasn't deluxe luxury. We did get a seat on this bus that had about 45 seats but ended up carrying about 85 people. It turned into about an 8 hour ride since for some reason we would stop every hour and a half for 30 minutes.

I am complaining a little, but while it happens for some reason, it doesn't bother me that much. It isn't that a flat tire happened, it isn't that they say the wrong times, or people don't care about personal space. It can only be classified as "India happened". This is why I am starting the travel company for travel in India, to eliminate all of these things that would drive people crazy or waste half of a trip away. They sometimes make for good stories though.
We arrived in Orcha which is a bit like an island between two rivers. It is very small with the main attraction being old forts/palaces that were built about 600 years ago and untouched since. They really are incredible. Beautiful buildings that sit high above the city with views of the rivers, the palace walls and the city below. We hired a guide to tell us the history of it and spent a good part of today exploring this place. There is a small part of the for that was turned into a hotel. We went an checked out the rooms (8 all together) and they were really clean and in a unique setting. These are the kinds of places that I am shooting for to make as part of my tour. There are tons of basic hotels, but to be able to stay in the fort, part of history, is something special.


I have been helping Manoj with english and he has been helping me with Hindi. For some reason he thinks that my pronunciation is really funny, I think I'm his first student.
Instead of always saying "I go toilet" I explained to him that I say "I have to go pee" or "I have to take a shit"
Then when we were walking I told him not to step in the cow shit. He was thrown off that this is also called "shit"
He said "For us it's shit"
Me: "Yes"
"For cows it's shit"
Me: "Yes"
and for dogs?
Me: "shit"
Me: "when it comes out of that place from any animal, it is shit"
Manoj: (hysterically laughing)

At least we are covering the basics.