Week 9: Kolkata, Varanasi, and Agra

WEEK 9: Kolkata, Varanasi and Agra

Our first week in India has been amazing. The experience has been eye opening to say the least. We left Kolkata early in the morning from a chaotic train station aboard a very calm train arriving at night to Varanasi which was an even more chaotic train station: Touts tried to get our business before we were even off of the train, cows were walking on the platform (we have no idea how they got there), and the main hall in front of the ticketing counter looked like a church lock-in, with what seemed to be a hundred of people asleep on the ground as they waited for their trains.

We awoke the next morning at 5am to take a sunrise boat trip on the Ganges. The Ganges River is holy to Hindus and is very important to the daily life of those who live in Varanasi. With that said, the water is very polluted and yet we saw people bathing in it, drinking it, doing laundry in it, and worshipping in it. Lining the Ganges is a series of Ghats, or steps to the river. Many Ghats have temples at the top of them, some have public plazas, and two of them are known as “burning ghats”. These are where people bring their loved ones after they’ve passed away to be cremated and then have their ashes spread in the river. There are several fire pits with wood stacked high and the fires can be seen burning at all hours of night and day. When the ceremony is performed, the body is first marched to the burning ghat, then placed in the river to cleanse it and then put on the wood pile to burn with family and friends watching. After the body has burned, the ashes are spread in the river and those attending the ceremony bathe in the river to cleanse themselves. We didn’t see the entire process, but parts of each step I believe.

Walking through the streets of Varanasi was just as interesting. The market area was overrun with crowds of people and shop owners begging for you to come in and look at their stuff “looking is free! Very cheap!”. Our hotel was connected to the main area of Varanasi by a 10 minute walk through a very poor neighborhood. On the walk, we had to every now and again look behind us to make sure bulls weren’t charging towards us. There were goats wandering the streets and dogs sound asleep in the middle of the road. There was an area that just had trash all over the ground that we called the “bull market” because bulls were perusing the area, looking for food, the same way people do in real markets. One night walking back on that road the power went off in the entire city. We watched the lights shut off in about 50 yard increments along the water front and soon the entire city was in darkness, the only light from hotels with generators and the glowing fires of the burning ghats. Walking down this street in the dark was fun. People went on with their daily lives with candles lit, but extra caution was made to avoid animals walking in the street so as not to spook them.

That evening around 8 PM a hindu temple one building over from our hotel started a religious service. At first Chels and I thought it was a mosque doing the “call to prayer” because the top of the building had a green light flashing as minarets sometimes do and we could’ve sworn we heard the name “Allah”. After about 10 minutes we realized it was not the call to prayer, but something much longer. The chanting over the PA was so loud we had to raise our voices to hear one another as we ate dinner outside on the Hotel’s terrace. The service went on from 8 AM until around 8 the next morning, stopping only a couple times when the power went out for anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. Sleeping through it was miserable, it was so loud you would think they were chanting in the room we were sleeping on. That night we used the last two things we had packed but not used yet: a flashlight and ear plugs. The next morning the hotel staff informed us that once a year every temple in the city has a worship service that involves broadcasting over a PA system the reciting of some religious writing. Each temple in the city does it on one night a year, and the one next to us just happened to be one of the nights we were sleeping there. It was miserable but interesting to hear. Although we had heard many things about Varanasi, it has been one of my favorite stops on the trip so far and it will be hard to top as we finish out the trip.

We left Varanasi for Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Although the landscaped pools and walkway to the mausoleum were shorter than I had imagned, the building was as beautiful as. The structure was built as a final resting place for a Shah’s second wife who died during the birth of their 14^th child. The Shah was so upset over it, his hair was said to have gone gray overnight and construction on the building started within the year. It took 8 years to complete the Taj, 15 or so more to complete the grounds and structures surrounding it. A couple of years after the completion of the entire site, the Shah was overthrown by his son and for the last 8 years of his life could only see the Taj through a window in his bedroom at the fort he was being held prisoner in. Walking to the Taj is not what I had expected. You are in an old part of town with small cramped roads that suddenly stop at the huge red sandstone wall of the outer boundary of the site. With a building of such national importance and monumentality, I guess I had expected something more of a grand road with the wall as the terminus.

We left Agra on a bus to Jaipur which was about a 5 to 6 hour ride. Chels and I got the last two seats on the bus and were excited to have the back row where the seat was an apholstered bench and not individual seats, which seemed more comfortable. It was comfortable for about 2 minutes until they brought in the other people to sit with us. In a space that was designed for 4 people we had 7 crammed in, 5 adults and 2 children. It was tight, the man next to me could have been friendlier, but then again we were getting quite a bit of attention, being the only non-indian people on the bus. We arrived in Jaipur, Rajasthan and will be here for the next week before we head to Ahmedabad and then to the south!

Pictures:

Sunrise over the Ganges, Varanasi

Worshipper, Varanasi

Flowers and garlands in the Ganges, Varanasi

Bathers/Worshippers, Varanasi

Meditation, Varanasi

Our boat guide, Varanasi

Boat ID, Varanasi

Laundry, Varanasi

Eating a flower garland floating in the Ganges, Varanasi

A Ghat, Varanasi

Bathing, Varanasi

Auto Rickshaw, Agra

We saw a lot of this, attempted visual illusions, Taj Mahal Agra

Courtesan and Penniless Sitar Player, Taj Mahal, Agra

Stone detail, Taj Mahal, Agra

Agra Fort, where the Shah was imprisoned, Agra

Week 8: Siem Reap to Bangkok to Kolkata

We made our way at the start of last week from Cambodia to Thailand. We had heard a lot of horror stories about crossing the Cambodian-Thai border, but we encountered no problems. Well, we had one. There was a tourist on our bus who got stuck with a seat in the back row. Above her were all of the backpacks for the entire bus and she was very upset because her head was resting on bags and not the backrest. While this would be annoying to anyone, the other 4 people sitting in her row did not seem to have a problem, in fact, they were all asleep until she started yelling “EXCUSE ME I NEED ANOTHER SEAT”. There were no seats available. The driver sort of ignored her, which prompted her to climb over all of the bags with her $2000 canon super SLR camera around her neck, stepping on additional travelpacks that were laying in the aisle from the back of the bus to the front. There was truly nothing that her complaining could do, the bus was already over capacity. One guy had to sit in a plastic chair placed in the aisle because there was no seat for him. After about 10 minutes of her complaining, (including a bit where the driver tried to throw her off the bus) a brave dutch girl shouted “SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP, THIS ISN’T A PALACE, IT’S CAMBODIA”. She was right after all, we were on a 10 hour bus that only cost $15 where there were plenty of other options that would have been much more comfortable. I may or may not have started to applaud which then caught on and others cheered and clapped as the woman swallowed her pride and sat down. She didn’t cause any problems after that.

Thailand was a much more developed country than I had been expecting. It definitely had a mixture of rich and poor, but Bangkok was much more modern that I had expected. For my birthday Chels and I made our way to a Karaoke Bar that Lonely Planet had said was always packed. We arrived and made our way up to the second floor where the karaoke was to find tumbleweeds and crickets chirping. Only the bartender was there, which was the best way to ring in 28 because I got to sing for just under 2 hours! My second song was “All by myself” and did so because I was singing in a room (other than chels and the bartender) all by myself. I was only interrupted twice by a guy who sang “hero” by Mariah Carey and “my heart will go on” from Titanic. He was hilarious and said his name was Rabbit and we became friends for the rest of the time at the bar.

We spent a day at Ayutthaya, an ancient city north of Bangkok. Located there are a series of religious temple ruins, buddhas and the Summer Palace of the royal family is not far off either. On the bus there I happened to sit next to a woman who lives in Hamburg-Altona, the same neighborhood as Elisabeth and Chris, my German hostparents from when I was an exchange student way back when. How small the world can be. We talked about Altona and in broken german I gave her some recommendations for hotels in Cambodia as that was where she was headed next.

I wish we had allowed more time in Thailand to have traveled outside of Bangkok, but there’s always next time to come back. We left for Kolkata on Monday. The contrast between Bangkok and Kolkata (new spelling for Calcutta) was on par with the contrast of their airports. Bangkok has just built a new airport that after passing through security is like walking down 5^th Ave in NYC with every high end shop you could imagine that you cannot afford. We landed in Kolkata, got off the plane and took a bus from the tarmac to the terminal. The health screening was more or less just a table where you handed your health card. The building was not kept up well, there were water stains on the ceiling, plaster and paint peeling, etc. There was no ATM in the international terminal, which wasn’t really a terminal but more of a small building of a few rooms with 3 baggage carousels in it. We walked out to the taxi queue to find only 3 old cabs with equally old grumpy drivers. Traffic was pretty bad and the persistent honking was a bit odd. The cars were old as were the horns, so it sounded more like the opening scene of Woody Allen’s “Manhattan” than a present day traffic jam. Bright blue buses would pass by crammed full of people seen through window bars (no glass, just bars). The buses, though old, looked beautiful, bright colored flowers and Sanskrit painted on the sides. It was also raining, making the experience even more chaotic, seeing cars drive through what was at some points deep water. After taking what seemed to be a long and circuitous drive, we had arrived.

The next day we walked around the city, which is a strange contrast between the remainders of the British Empire and the poverty that surrounds it. The Victoria Monument to Queen Victoria which was described by Lonely Planet as a mix between the US Capitol and the Taj Mahal is quite large and grand structure sitting in the middle of a fairly well maintained park. Just across the road however, is a much larger park called “The Maidan” which is a less than cared after park with horses and cows roaming looking for grass to eat. Walking through the city to the big market we passed men pulling rickshaws, goats tied to buildings, men typing letters on typewriters outside of the post office for people, people sleeping in the middle of the sidewalks, etc. It was truly a place like no other that I’ve experienced. With that said, the city seemed relatively hassle free for us, there was hardly any begging and generally people did not approach us. It was definitely an eye-opening good start for our month in India as we make our way to Varanasi, a Hindu pilgrimage city that has been described by friends and things I’ve read as “a city that takes no prisoners”, “hell on earth”, “magnificent”, “mystical”, and “real India”.

01 Reclining Buddha, Wat Phrom, Bangkok

02 Monks chanting, Bangkok

03 Dog and cone, Ayutthaya

04 Buddha offering, Ayutthaya

05 Reclining Buddha (500 years older than the one above), Ayutthaya

06 Buddha in a Tree, Ayutthaya

07 Plant elephants, Summer Palace, Bang Pa-In

Week 7: Ho Chi Minh, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap

Week 7: Ho Chi Minh, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap

We arrived to Ho Chi Minh City at night and sped through the city again dodging motorbikes and the like as we made our way to our Hotel. I said before that Hanoi was a city full of crazy moped drivers, but this place was even worse. One of our guides said it was a city of 8 million people with 4 million mopeds. We were only there for a day, and most of that was consumed by our visit to the Cu Chi Tunnels, just outside of the city. The tunnels were instrumental during the war for the Viet Cong’s defeat of the American forces in the area. We got to crawl through one part of the tunnels which was really intense. It is dark, you have to crawl, ventilation is obviously poor, and there are crossroads within the tunnels. If you aren’t sure where the person in front of you went, it gets really scary. I can’t imagine how they did it back then, I only crawled through about 60 meters and that was enough for me! There were videos covering the war in this area and they even highlighted a Vietnamese war hero who received three honors, among them was the poorly translated “killing many Americans honor”. Sitting there, feeling somewhat uncomfortable, watching the European and Canadian tourists laugh at lines like that only make me wonder how we’ll be perceived in Iraq 30 years from now.

We left Ho Chi Minh for Phnom Penh on a bus that seemed to be smuggling in duty free items to sell in Cambodia. Every seat on our bus had baby clothes in plastic bags shoved underneath it. The bathroom wasn’t available for use until after we crossed the Cambodian border and the bus crew unloaded all of the exports. The countryside was beautiful, the houses were all on stilts once we crossed into Cambodia. Some have roofs made of dried leaves, others of corrugated metal, which I’m sure would be delightful during a rainstorm for the occasional tourist, but would probably get old during the intense rainy season. The fields were a very vibrant shade of green as the rainy season has just ended. We got to the capital city, Phnom Penh around dusk. We stayed for 3 nights. Phnom Penh is many things: it is home to more NGO’s and expats than we’ve seen anywhere else on the trip, the Royal Palace for the King of Cambodia, and apparently the place that the Lexus RX300 SUV goes to die: the late 90’s model dominated the roads of the capital city but strangely the newer model was not seen.

We visited Choeung Ek and Tuol Sleng while in Phnom Penh. Choeng Ek was one of dozens of sites in Cambodia that were known as a “Killing Fields” from 1975 to 1978 under the Khmer Rouge reign. Urbanites and intellectuals from Phnom Penh, perceived as a threat to the newly formed “Democratic Kampuchea” were forced out of the city or imprisoned at Tuol Sleng and then taken to be killed at Choeung Ek.

The objective of the Khmer Rouge’s “Democratic Kampuchea” was to create a modern agricultural economy that would make Kampuchea independent from the west, globalization, etc (although ironically their plan relied heavily on the export of rice). The Khmer Rouge saw intellectuals as a major threat to their utopian society, even though Pol Pot and the other leaders themselves were from wealthy families and were educated at university in France. School was outlawed, it was believed that children should work Iin the fields for the common good. Doctors, perceived as part of the oppression were put in prison and/or killed, and replaced primarily with peasant women that had been given only 3 months of training to run the hospitals. They were mostly illiterate and unable to understand medical documents. Western pharmaceuticals weren’t used, instead pills that were a combination of human gall bladders and plants, were manufactured. They used these for most kinds of illness, and usually made people more sick. The amount of rice production demanded by the government to be produced was impossible to be cultivated with the tools that farmers were given. As a result, farmers would send what was required by the government to not get in trouble and get by with less for themselves, which led to starvation. Money was abolished, forcing people to work in exchange for food.

Tuol Sleng was the prison in Phnom Penh, formerly Phnom Penh High School. It was converted in 1975 and was the site where prisoners were tortured, did hard labor and were housed prior to being taken to Cheong Ek where they were executed. The regime lasted until 1978 when the Vietnamese Army came in and pushed them out. It was a devastating time, and yet many of the criminals have only recently been put on trial, if even that. There have been complications with the recognition of the crimes by the UN, which make the situation muddy for some reason or another that I still don’t fully understand.

A total contrast to the brutality and devastation seen at those sites was the visit to Siem Reap province, and more specifically the magnificent temples of Angkor. The seat of what was once the Khmer (pronounced Ca-mai) Empire, over 1,000 temples built between approximately 800 and 1400 AD are located here. The capital of the empire, Angkor Thom at its peak was a city of nearly 1,000,000 people, compared to London which was only 50,000 at the same time. All buildings were constructed of wood with the exception of the Temples which were stone. They are all that remains today within a jungle that has grown over many of the sites, which were more or less abandoned from the 15^th to the 19^th centuries when the Khmer people migrated towards Phnom Penh. The temples show the progression of the architecture from the beginning to the end of the Khmer Empire, and feature amazing bas relief carvings depicting everything from everyday life to the circus to great battles of the time. The temples underwent several conversions back and forth from Hinduism to Buddhism and in many places the sculpture and carvings were modified to reflect whichever religion was being worshipped at the time. The Khmer Rouge, after they abolished religion, cut the heads off of many of the statues and buddhas and sold on the black market.

We explored the temples for the last two days and have one day left to visit tomorrow. Next week we’re off to Bangkok and then starting the final month in India after that!

Photos:

01: Farmland, Outside Phnom Penh

02: Farmland, Outside Phnom Penh

03: Choeung Ek Mass Graves: Approximately 8,000 were killed and buried at this site. OutsidePhnom Penh

04: Tuol Sleng Prison, Formerly Phnom Penh High School, Phnom Penh

05: Truck with Bananas, En route to Siem Reap

06: Farmland, En route to Siem Reap

07: Bayon Temple, Angkor Thom

08: Stones, Bayon Temple, Angkor Thom

09: Sunrise, Angkor Wat

10: Bas Relief, there are approximately 800m of it at this temple alone, Angkor Wat

11: Tree growing over wall. In the late 19^th century, the French decided to leave this temple in its “natural” state as it had been overgrown by the jungle. The trees and stone support one another, if the tree dies, the wall will collapse as well, Ta Prohm

12: More ruin, Ta Prohm

13: This tower was separating, so they’re keeping it together with rope, Banteay Kdel

Special Edition: Halfway Report from halfway around the world

As I write this en route from Saigon to Phnom Penh in a bus through the Cambodian country side, I am at the exact mid point of my trip. I thought it would be interesting to tabulate a few things to share other aspects of my experience that my weekly postings don't really cover:

WAYS TO SAY HELLO

Guten Tag (Germany)

Hello (UK)

Ni Hao (China)

Tashi Delek (Tibet)

Xin Chao (Vietnam)

Choum Reap Sour (Cambodia)

NUMBER OF

Hours spent on long distance buses: 16

Hours spent on a trains: 129

Flights: 7

Dollars spent on Skype: $10 (it is soooo cheap)

Pictures taken: 2,333

Video taken: about 4 hours

Times we’ve heard Toni Braxton's "Unbreak my heart": 3!!!!!!!

Countries we’ve heard Toni Braxton's "Unbreak my heart”: 2

Days without internet: probably only 15

Boxes sent home thus far: 2

Magnets found for Chippie: 7

Temples visited: 17

Amount over budget currently: $800 (it’s okay, I have a huuuge contingency and the majority of that was from a new suit and camera I bought)

Weight of baggage: Probably around 25 or 26 kg

MOST/LEAST BEST/WORST

Most expensive meal: DON’T KNOW HOW MUCH IT COST, THANKS WINNIECHENG!!!!

Least expensive meal: noodle bowl: 42 cents

Best bargain: Magnet in Tibet: the woman wanted 70 yuan ($10), I got her down to 12 yuan (less than $2).

Worst Rip Off: Cab ride from Ho Chih Minh Airport to Pham Ngu Lao.

Best deal: 3 days in Halong Bay, All food, transportation to and from Hanoi and accommodation (and 2 hours of free karaoke!!!) $58 total

Softest Bed: Golden Gate Hotel: Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Hardest Bed: Box Spring (no mattress!!), Guilin, China

Best Shower: Winnie’s apartment, Hong Kong

Worst Shower: Vinh Danh Hotel on Cat Ba Island

Best Cultural Experience: Tibetan Night Club

Worst Cultural Experience: 2^nd Class Train Toilet: Beijing to Pingyao

Best sense of place: Chongqing or our Hutong in Beijing

Worst sense of place: Lhasa, Tibet

THINGS WE GET EXCITED ABOUT HERE THAT WE’D NEVER THINK ABOUT AT HOME:

Fast-drying laundry

Menus in English or with pictures

Bathrooms that have toilet paper

Bathrooms that have western toilets

FRIENDS MET:

Jens and Tomas from Sweden who we spent 2 days exploring Pingyao with. We actually were in Hong Kong at the same time as well but didn’t find out until after they had already left for the Philippines.

Mike (Minneapolis) Matt and Gerson (LA) who we met at lunch one day and experienced the Tibetan night club with the next evening. Mike quit his job and is traveling for a year through Asia.

Simon from New Zealand who we spent 7 hours in the dining car with on the train from Tibet with and explored the city of Chongqing with the next day.

Jose the French Canadian from Montreal who we hiked the trails of Sapa with, had an interesting experience with karaoke in Lao Cai and who Chels and I had to share a bed with in Hanoi for a couple hours after arriving at 4AM with no rooms available at our hotel.

Tracey from Portland Oregon who we ventured Sapa with as well, and saved my life by giving me her extra tube of sunblock!!! Hopefully we will be able to meet up with her in Cambodia.

Ryan from Ireland who lives in NYC who we hung out with in Sapa and then ran into again on Cat Ba Island and hiked with him in the national park. He quit his job at the law firm he worked at and is traveling around the world for a year.

Mike from Oregon who we explored the caves of Halong Bay, sang a whopping 2 hours of Karaoke. He is an engineer who quit his job and is traveling for a year through Central America (6 months) and Asia (6 months)

Jono from Australia who stayed at our hostel in Pingyao, China and then we ran into a month laser at a sidewalk café in Cat Ba, Vietnam. He biked to Vietnam from Kunming until his brakes wore through the rim and he had to toss the bike off a cliff in Sapa.

Apart from those statistics, I have thoroughly enjoyed the fact that I can never remember the day of the week it is (although I’m still good with the actual date), I haven’t had to cook at all, and I have only read the Huffington Post once since I left (sadly it was yesterday morning to see that Maine Prop 1 marriage equality failed and equal rights have been denied yet again.) Other than that all is good and I’m looking forward to the second half of the trip and sharing many more of the experiences with you when I get back!

Photos this time: i'm big on patterns/textures/text so I thought i'd post some of those, enjoy!

Wall, Beijing

Masonry Pattern, Pingyao, China

Paint on Column, Forbidden City, Beijing

Temple Booklets, Pingyao, China

Wall Graffiti, Hanoi, Vietnam

I think these were tiles? Sapa, Vietnam

Masonry Unit, Sapa, Vietnam

Traditional red painted Mud and Straw: Tibet

Mailboxes, Hong Kong

Wall, Tsedang, Tibet