Dan y Clint en el extranjero

Amsterdam

2010-02-12T15:19:00.001-08:00

On a mission to reinvigorate the travel spirit and break the bonds which keep us tied to the desks where we toil we upped anchor for a long weekend and set sail for Amsterdam with Jess in tow as carry on luggage.

The financial and cultural capital of the Netherlands, Amsterdam is “well” impressive. Of course we were there for the red-light district and the many cannabis coffee shops so the weekend was a smoked filled blur of excess - excess in art and culture that is mum...

In seriousness we took in Amsterdam’s main attractions including its historic canals – yay town planning.

The Rijksmuseum was good for a morning of arts, crafts and history and is most famous for its collection of Rembrandt paintings, especially The Night Watch and its collection of Johannes Vermeer pieces.

Likewise the Van Gogh Museum (pronounced Van Gock by the Dutch) was also a good few hours. Showcasing work through VG’s life and his various emotional ups and downs right up to his death, it's home to the largest collection of VG paintings and drawings in the world.

One afternoon was spent on bicycles as we took to the dangerous streets for a fast paced look around. Driving on the right hand side of the road with trams, cars and bicycle lanes is no easy feat and apart from the occasional mishap like Jess and Clint colliding on takeoff it was incident free – or close enough to it.

The Anne Frank House was also on the cards as we toured the home of the Jewish wartime diarist who hid from Nazi persecution with her family and four other people in hidden rooms. Grim is a pretty good description of the place which is devoid of furniture. The mystery of who tipped off the Nazi’s still remains but my money is on Johannes Kleiman. I'm yet to meet a good Kleiman, they all seem to be a bunch of cheese heads!

Random Fact: Van Gogh didn’t start painting seriously until the age of 26. This means thats for Dan and I it's not too late to quit the day jobs and take up a brush.

Highlights:

Lessons Learned

Bath

2009-10-17T12:17:00.000-07:00

Keen for a weekend away we jumped a train to Bath. Joining us on our adventure were fellow New Zealanders, Jess and Leighton and our resident Bathonian travel buddy, Holly.

Bath is steeped with ancient history. It was first established as a spa resort by the Romans in AD 43 who took full advantage of the UK's only naturally occurring hot springs.

The must see attraction in Bath is the old Roman Baths. The complex is a well-preserved Roman site for public bathing. What started off as a temple between 60-70 AD gradually built up over the next 300 years. When the Romans ruled the roost bathing was hugely social and with a hot bath, warm bath and cold bath (the frigidarium) on offer they knew what they were doing.

When the Romans left in the 5th century the things went down hill and the baths fell into disrepair and were eventually "lost" due to silting up.

Audio tours are the norm so we hired some phones and set off around the baths. Type the number on the wall into your phone and it tells you all about what you're looking at. Dan and Jess really liked the phones.

Brilliantly Bath is a World Heritage Site and the architecture is superb. All of the buildings are made out of bath stone which gives the city a unique honey colouring.

Bath has an impressive looking Abbey however there is just no pleasing some people.

By this time we were thinking Roman Baths, architecture, funky stone, arguably impressive Abby, what else can Bath conjour up? Then we discovered the canals and locks.

With the dream of owning a home in Bath beyond the reach of the average Joe, we think more people should take to the water. After the initial setup fee of buying the boat (a fraction of the price you'd pay for a house) all you have to do is pay for a mooring. The locks are easily navigated so if you don't like your neighbours you can up-anchor AND technically you're a Skipper!

No trip to Bath is complete without a staunch photo next to a canal.

Leighton is easily lost but luckily he isn't afraid to ask for directions.

Random Fact: There are large statues of pigs all over Bath. Curious, we decided to get to the bottom of Bathonians love for the swine. Legend has it that Bladud, king of the Britons contracted leprosy in Athens. When he returned home he was locked up as a result but being cunning he escaped and went into hiding. Working as a swineherd just outside of Bath he noticed his pigs would go into a moor in cold weather and return covered in black mud. Being a good swineherd he found that the mud was warm and that they did it to enjoy the heat. Bladud tried covering himself in the mud bath and found that it cured his leprosy. He was promptly restored to his position as heir-apparent to his father and founded Bath so that others might also benefit.

Highlights:

Lessons Learned:

St Albans

2009-08-09T08:13:00.000-07:00

We decided to end our travelling hiatus with a day trip to St Albans. Located only a short distance from London, St Albans is a hot spot for well to do professionals who don't want to live in the city.

St Albans is very old and rich in history. It was inhabited by the Celts before the Romans came and was the secondest largest city during Roman times (behind Londinium). It is alse where Magna Carta was drafted.

In religious circles, St Albans is on the pilgrim trail for its very impressive Cathedral. Measuring roughly 170 metres long, there is a lot of different bits and pieces to see.

The Cathedral is built on the spot where tradition has it that St Alban, the first British Christian martyr was beheaded (apparently before AD 324).

England turned on a beautiful summers day for the occasion and we were "well" impressed by the weather. St Albans is a market town and Saturday is market day so we took full advantage and picked up some cherries and blue cheese, amongst other things.

Random Fact: Too many facts to pick just one

Highlights
- English summer
- Market produce
- The £1 a bowl guys

Lessons Learned
- St Albans is steeped in history and one day wasn't enough. There are Roman remains we didn't explore and one of the oldest pubs in the UK.

London

2009-05-29T08:36:00.000-07:00

Arriving in London was like travelling to an alien landscape. The streets were wide, clean and empty. Not only had the locals forgotten to come and fleece us of our money, they ignored us!

It sounds like a small thing but six months of travelling has meant that we've been on guard a lot and because of the countries we've been to we've stood out along the way.

Making our way to the upmarket City of Westminster we made ourselves home at a friends apartment (thanks Luke and Sarah). We used this as our base as we found our feet and learnt to get around the city that we plan on calling home for a while.

The photo below is of us in front of the less well known clock tower Little Ben. It is across the road from Victoria Station.

We are now in temporary accommodation and the plan is to secure jobs. The jobs will pay for permanent lodgings and forays into Europe and around the UK.

Blogwise the plan is to write a post on each city or country that we visit.

We hope that you've enjoyed reading about our trip through South East Asia and India. If you plan on visiting a location we've been to you're welcome to ask us questions.

Random Fact: The park is the new beach - swim suits and general beachiness (without the water) are common place on a good day

Highlights:
- The tube. Weaned on horror stories we were expecting the worst. After India the system is amazing and people not spitting on the floor is cool as well.
- Being back where things make sense. Understanding what's going on and why is great.
- The greenness of London. The city has loads of parks and trails to explore and you can find a haven to relax in easily.

Lessons Learned:
- The weather isn't as bad as the locals make out. So far we've enjoyed plenty of beautiful sunny days and hope these continue!
- There is a big market for pre made meals here. Every supermarket has a large range of meals you can take home and heat up - watch out NZ this could be heading your way.
- Where in the world is Carmen Sandiago is still fun to play when you're an unemployed adult...

Mcleod Ganj

2009-05-21T03:21:00.000-07:00

With a flight to London in 10 days time we decided to head to the hills – well the Himalaya’s... Hidden away in the north of India is a quaint little town called Mcleod Ganj (MG). Now as you may recall all towns in India have a claim to fame and MG is of course no different however its claim is truly impressive - it is home to his holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in exile. The people of Tibet have made the town their headquarters as they fight for independence from big bad China. Photo below is of MG on a good day.

The demographics of MG are about 50% Indian and 50% Tibetan but there is a big difference, the Tibetans are so much friendlier and generally nicer than most of the Indians we have encountered! With no country you couldn’t really blame them if they were surly and cussed at you but instead they smile and give you a fair price on their wares.

The town’s at altitude and as a result is the coldest place we’ve visited. Not only did we have to wear shoes but we also had to invest in some rather snazzy looking blankets that we used as shawls. Headbands proclaiming ‘Free Tibet’ were of course mandatory for all fashion conscious travellers such as us.

MG has an abundance of training courses on offer. During your stay you can learn yoga, meditation, massage, jewellery making, wood carving and cooking. We decided to do a massage and acupressure course under the tutelage of our master Dr. Dolma. Photo below is of the young grasshopper Daniel San and Mr Miyagi - sorry, Dr. Dolma.

There are lots of walks and treks available and the scenery is really very beautiful. As we were out of season and ill equipped for anything too adventurous we stuck to self guided treks. We visited a popular waterfall as well as the sacred Dal Lake.

With our departure date quickly creeping up on us it was time to make our way back to every tourist’s favourite destination – Delhi. An over-priced overnight bus is practically the only option available for tourists so we booked seats and settled in for what would be a sleepless night. With zigzagging roads in need of repair and a driver auditioning for a spot as a race driver we did well to make it to Delhi in one piece where we set about making our final departure arrangements.

Before heading for the airport we decided to take the locals up on one of the shaves that we’d grown fond of. As if India could sense we were about to leave her she had one last attempt at extorting money from us. What was supposed to be a $0.80 NZD shave turned into a ridiculously expensive shave, facial and head massage combo. Near the end of our tethers terse words were spoken and later shouted as we settled the dispute and escaped to the international departure lounge.

Random Fact: The Dalai Lama has a big following. Richard Gere, Steven Segal and Sharon Stone are just some of the celebrities who are crazy about the Dalai Lama.

Highlights:
- Being in a cool climate
- Tibetan people and Tibetan cuisine – a welcome change
- Thunder and sheet lightning storms and power outages sending you back to the stone age
- Getting our strength back. Regular amounts of trekking and mutton started us on the road to recovery and gave us a lot more energy than we’d previously been having

Lessons Learned:
- Giving things away is ridiculously easy in India, we’d successfully done so before we’d left our hotel room!
- It’s going to take a truck load of ‘Free Tibet’ head bands to actually free Tibet...
- The Tibetans are more onto it than the Indians and won’t lower their prices (we suspect price fixing) and undercut each other - much to our chagrin
- A bit of baksheesh in the hand of the right walla gets results

Amritsar

2009-04-17T03:41:00.001-07:00

During our travels we've been on some long hauls but everything paled in comparison to the 35 hour (1845 km's) trip from Mumbai to Amritsar. Two consecutive nights on a sleeper class train left us feeling pretty sorry for ourselves but in a cooler climate.

Amritsar is home to the Golden Temple, the spiritual and cultural center of the Sikh religion. If you're unsure what a Sikh looks like they normally sport turbans. The two most famous Sikhs we can think of are Harbhajan Singh and Monty Panesar - cricketers. We had heard you could stay with the Sikhs at the temple so off we went.

We found beds in the foreigners dorm and went to check out the temple. Normally we have to pay 30-40 times the locals rate to see anything in India so it was great that everyone can enter the temple for free. Note that all visitors must cover their hair and that the sun was blinding us!

Staying with the Sikhs blew us away. Each day thousands of people arrive stacked on the back of trucks like battery hens. Everyone is given shelter and access to washing facilities and the free canteen runs 24 hours a day. The entire system is funded by donations and manned by volunteers, talk about making things accessible to the people.

Keen to chow down with our fellow pilgrims we went and lined up at the canteen where we were given trays and mugs. Entering the dining hall the first thing that struck us was the lack of tables and chairs.

Everyone sits in rows and volunteers walk around with buckets of food which they dish up to the masses. Fascinated by the entire situation we wondered how they cleaned up spillages until we saw the man below.

The temple at night time is beautiful. It's not as hot and there are less people around making it the perfect time to go inside.

Amritsar is also very close to Wagah the only road border crossing between Pakistan and India. Sometimes called the Berlin wall of Asia every evening it plays host to the most ridiculous border closing ceremony you are likely to see. On one side hundreds of screaming Pakistani's chant "PAKISTAN" only to be met by a chorus of "HINDUSTAN" from the Indian contingent.

Described as chauvinism at its most camp and a display of carefully choreographed contempt words can't really describe it so its a good thing there is a video. The one below is well worth the four minutes it takes to watch it.

Random Fact: Every year the Golden Temple attracts more visitors than the better known Taj Mahal.

Highlights:
- Being off the train
- Sikh hospitality and organisation skills. If all of India was run with Sikh efficiency India would be a much easier place
- Watching how excited the other pilgrims are to be at the temple. For some it is a trip of a lifetime so everyone is in a good mood

Lessons Learned:
- If you are foreigner wanting to stay in the temple you absolutely must stay in the dedicated foreigner room. No if's, mights or maybes, this is a must.
- Showers are communal and some of the Indians (men) show an unsettling amount of interesting in you cleaning yourself...
- Arrive in Wagah well before dusk to ensure you get a good spot to view the closing

Mumbai

2009-04-17T03:06:00.000-07:00

Sporting summer tans and sand in all the hard to reach places it was time to see what Mumbai (formerly Bombay) is all about. The city is heralded as the economic Powerhouse of India and rightly so as it is responsible for producing 40% of the country’s GDP (according to our guide book). If you understand how a city of only 16 million people in a country that is 1.2 billion strong is capable of doing this then you’ve passed India 101.

Colaba is the tourist area in Mumbai and that’s where we based ourselves. It also happens to be a very nice location, clean wide nicely sealed streets, green trees, no rickshaws (they are banned from central city areas) and no general disgusting-ness which too often typifies large collections of Indian dwellings.

With only a short time to look around we battled the intense heat for the umpteenth time and in the process ran the risk of being potential terror targets by spending the day taking in the main sights. The Gateway of India was particularly cool as you can see below.

The India Gate was built by the English and as their last platoon left India in 1948. They marched through the gate whilst possibly singing ‘God Save The Queen’ into their awaiting ship where they may have casually sipped tea and nibbled on club sandwiches and scones as they sailed off into the sunset eagerly anticipating a Sunday Roast back in the motherland.

In many ways Mumbai is leading the way for the other Indian cities to follow. One example of this is the recent horn honking ban that was imposed in the central city. During the ban 36,000 motorists were fined for unnecessary honking. An amazing statistic, but if you’ve spent some time in India you’ll know all about the locals love of the horn.

Down an alleyway we spied something almost as unnatural as cows living on beaches. We saw three cats feeding on only Rajjy knows what whilst two impossibly large rats hovered about like hyenas. Who would have thought that natural enemies such as Tom and Jerry could co-exist seemingly peacefully, only in India

Desperate for more tourist activities we decided to scrape the barrel by dining at Leopold’s. Leopold’s is a long standing icon in Mumbai but it’s been tarnished for us by reading the book Shantaram – as it should have also done for any others that have taken the time to read the book.

Random Fact: Bollywood is based in Mumbai. Any foreigner wondering the streets will likely be asked to be an extra in a movie - great idea if you've got a day to kill

Highlights:
- McDonalds at the train station. Running late to our train and starving from no dinner the golden arches were like an oasis in a greasy, spicy, curry filled desert.
- Possibly discovering where Indian television commercials are filmed. For months now we’ve wondered where the clean, wide, modern and well sealed streets are that they used in commercials. We now know that Mumbai is a possibility but our money is still on them being filmed abroad.
- Cut throat shaves for $0.80 NZD. These guys are all around India but before you expose your throat to a stranger you must evaluate his skill with the blade- Dan went first… Mumbai had the goods and left us as smooth as a hard training Teddybear

Lessons Learned:
- Every city has its unique junk that people try to sell to you. Mumbai has large balloons shaped like bowling pins. If you buy one, blow it up to make sure it is in fact a large one
- Following the terror attacks guards are now positioned in key strategic points. Every single one of these guys looked they were ready to lay their life on the line… for some more sleep…
- Don’t watch the movie ‘The Watchers’. It is absolutely terrible.

Goa

2009-04-10T04:42:00.001-07:00

We made it. From the Bay of Bengal on the east coast of India to the Arabian Sea on the west. The prime real-estate on the west coast is in the tiny state of Goa (smallest state in India). We headed to the very north of Goa to a small town called Arambol where the first thing we did was swim.

Goa gets compared to Thailand and we could see why. The locals are very relaxed and it’s a haven from the frustrations you can face whilst travelling India. The best way to see the sights is on a scooter so we hired one and headed to the Anjuna Market.

This market sells everything. From food to fake football merchandise, hookah pipes, tattoos, drums and spices it’s all here for you to browse and haggle over as you melt in the relentless heat.

Goa has the reputation of being the Indian party capital so we had to go out one night for a look around. Hiring a driver (who slept in the van until we were ready to go home) we headed to Baga and were immediately disappointed. We walked into a meat market where the clientele consisted of drunk Englishmen (no surprise there) and greasy Indian men. Still it was an interesting experience and the beer was cold.

We’d heard you could surf in Goa so we combed the beaches looking for breaks. Whilst at Candolim we chanced upon a state disaster called ‘River Princess’. A beached shipping boat that his since been abandoned for the last 9 years.

Random Fact: In the west men have cool accessories, it could be a watch, sunglasses, or jewelry but everyone usually has something pretty neat. Indian men also have cool accessories but one is far and away more popular than the rest – the moustache! Curious to see exactly how popular the mo is we conducted two random surveys. The first returned the result of 64% of men wear a mo and in the second a whopping 78% of men were seen sporting a mo (note the margin of error is quite wide). In total 99 unwitting Indian men took part.

Highlights:
- Lazing on the beach and soaking up the sun
- Catching up with mates from Rajastan. Normal people are hard to find over here so its great to meet up again!
-Scooters and cruising around

Lessons Learned:
- If you give a young boy a small toy to play with you’re a real sad guy if you ask for it back
- Goa was originally a Portuguese colony and you could be forgiven for thinking that it is now Russian such is the popularity with our friends from the eastern bloc.
- If a policeman catches you without a helmet or with a drivers license that he doesn't think is of international standard, elect to keep your passport and pay "the instant fine" instead of the fine at the court house next week.

Hampi

2009-04-06T08:54:00.000-07:00

As our last post advised we have decided to traverse from the east coast to the west coast of India. After Bangalore we set sail (not literally) for Hampi. Set in the surreal landscape of golden-brown granite boulders, leafy banana fields and rice paddies Hampi is ridiculously small but it is a must see on the Indian travelers itinerary for two reasons; ruins and rock climbing.

At the moment summer is fast approaching and it gets incredibly hot in Hampi (37°C to 27°C, note that its not a moist heat, its dry and fierce). Risking sunburn, heat stroke, dehydration and worse we hired bicycles and set off to explore the ruins.

The ruins are of Vijayanagara. For the ignorant this was of course the former capital of the Vijayanagara empire. The name translates as 'City of Victory' and in its day it was the prosperous capital of the largest and most powerful kingdom of its time in all of India. Nowadays its a neat little circuit covering a few km's which you can mission around in a few hours on a bike.

As alluded to earlier Hampi is famous for its rock climbing or more specifically its bouldering. Littered everywhere are massive granite boulders just asking to be climbed and judging by the chalk marks a lot of them have been. Scrounging some free shoes and crash pads from our accommodation (Goan Corner) we found some experienced climbers to show us the ropes or holds as the case may be. The photo below is of Dan using a strong right hand mantle to glide up the face.

Technically the climbing was very difficult with mostly tiny holds so our initial idea of powerhousing our way to the top didn't pay dividends. Instead we had to shred our fingers on the sharp granite in order to get to the top.

Deciding to cool off we hired a rickshaw and headed to a nearby reservoir for a dip.

Hampi is a great little town and when you're not too busy staring at the rocks and trying to find a way to climb them you can take in sights like the one below.

Random Fact: Mahatma Gandhi appears on all the rupee bills 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000.

Highlights:
- Hanging out with other travelers who aren't hippy weirdo's
- Bouldering. Physical, challenging and rewarding.
- Having a routine. Get up early and climb stuff. Hide from the heat. Climb stuff. Sleep. Repeat.
- Climbing lingo.

Lessons Learned:
- Indian men can be perverts. Whilst at the watering hole we observed plenty of non-swimming Indian men hanging around the western girls and not so secretly taking photo's with their mobiles.
- Shredded fingers are called Hampi hands. At the time you know its not worth it but pride does funny things to people.
- Train before coming to Hampi so you can hit the rocks climbing. Lots of people come every other year for 2-3 weeks.
- Some countries need to tighten up their passport qualifications. Whilst climbing we ran into a young Israeli guy wearing only underpants, socks, climbing shoes and a cap. Being terrible at the climbing he reverted to cracking yoga poses on small boulders. We thought that his "guru" would be particularly proud of the photo below.

Bangalore

2009-04-01T01:40:00.001-07:00

We decided to traverse from the east coast to the west coast of India. This is a very long way so we're breaking it up by spending time in the middle, first up is Bangalore.

Bangalore (or Bangers as we've been calling it) has been coined as the silicon valley of India as it is the IT hub of the sub continent. It came as a surprise that it took us over two hours to find some internet and then it was the worst we've encountered. It looks like all the good connections have been reserved for the hardcore computer coders (hiss hiss).

There isn't much to see in Bangalore but we found it to be very large, very busy - and by Indian standards - very westernised. At a loss for things to do we strolled around Cubbon Park located in the inner city.

Compared to the surrounding sights the park was a big green magnet that we couldn't resist. It was a rather modest park but it gave us what we were after, an escape from the concrete jungle.

Not wanting to dawdle we were eager to resume our travels West.

Random Fact: It is election time in the worlds largest democracy (i.e. India). It's hard enough collecting the votes from 4 million New Zealanders - 99.9% of which have birth certificiates, so imagine the logistics of collecting 1.2 billion votes, many of which are from remote villages.

The best story we've heard is that one gypsy women voted three times. Once for herself, once for her deceased mother and once for her deceased sister. The driver for her voting thrice wasn't her political fanaticism, it was the 1000 rupees ($40 NZD) that the party she was voting for gave her per vote. This story courtesy of her Australian husband who advised that instead of money the locals were often paid in alcohol and that voting for deceased relatives is common practice - as long as the state doesn't know they are dead of course.

Highlight:
- Watching Indian women ride escalators. Some seem to have limited practice at 'riding the moving staircase' so there are plenty of wobbles on the entry and exit.

Lessons Learned:
- Computer coders are notoriously dull (and we are yet to be proven otherwise ;-p) so why would a city full of them be any exception?
- Either silicon valley isn't as impressive as we've been lead to believe by the American media or Bangalore has some catching up to do.

Pondicherry and Mamallapuram

2009-03-21T00:28:00.001-07:00

In its hay day India was a hotly contested spot by ‘advanced’ European companies/countries. Having seen a lot of what the English contributed to the country we were keen to see the two cents left behind by the French. To do this we set off for Pondicherry, three hours south of Chennai on the coast of the Bay of Bengal.

Pondicherry was, and in many ways still is, the French stronghold in India. It is home to a statue of Napoleon, the cheapest croissants in the subcontinent, and lots of surly French attitude - from Europeans and Indians to boot!

Pondicherry was hit hard by the Boxing Day tsunami but now you can hardly tell. The huts and shacks that line much of the coastline are back and its business as usual. The town itself is well laid out and boasts French St names and architecture. The thing we noticed most was that people take pride in their town and keep it clean.

It was the first time we’d seen the Bay of Bengal in a swimmable condition so we grabbed bicycles and croissants and put our legs to use. The photo below is of us enjoying the fruits of our labour.
Like France, Pondicherry is a novelty but has little of substantial value to offer. Having not been to France we can only jokingly speculate on this. Grabbing a local bus we went to Mamallapuram. Like too many small towns in New Zealand Mamallapuram is home to an oversized object.

Thankfully Mamallapuram’s object – Krishna's Butterball – isn’t man made and is slightly more dignified than an oversized vegetable/animal/bottle (Ohakune, Cromwell, Gore, Paeroa, the list goes on...).

The ball is housed in a well maintained (by Indian standards) park of ancient temples which were often carved directly into large rocks. We wandered around until the intense heat defeated us, forcing us to retreat to the comfort of the beach.

At the beach we saw something completely unnatural. Despite there being no natural food source or drinking water, dozens of cows choose to call the beach home.

They spend the day meandering around looking for rubbish and presumably working on their tans. Even with the heat none were brave enough to go into the water much to our disappointment. One evening we saw something resembling an albino dolphin playing in the surf; it turned out to be Clint.

Random Fact: Indians use the terms 'Lakh' and 'Crore' when talking about large numbers, usually cash. 1 Lakh = 100,000 and 1 Crore = 10,000,000 - it's all part of a larger system.

Highlights:
- Swimming. Doing anything between 11am-4pm can often take serious energy, a refreshing dip is just the tonic
- French cuisine, a more than welcome respite from masala and chappati
- Vigilante justice. If you’re foolish enough to leave a bag unattended on the beach do not worry. The locals use good children to inform on the bad ones, who are then apprehended and beaten by their parents in front of you. It won’t bring your $10 NZD back but hopefully the kid will learn his lesson

Lessons Learned:
- Don’t leave your bag unattended on Mamallapurum beach
- There are no seagulls in India. Instead crows have filled this vital niche. Incidentally we’re quietly campaigning for the crow to replace the kingfisher as India’s national bird…
- We were surprised to find that the croissants tasted like croissants. The French were obviously stricter task masters than the Brits when it came to the use of masala
- Injuring the right foot while running on Mamallapuram beach is common. In fact our small survey suggests it happens to 75% of all runners

Calcutta, Chennai and Goodbye

2009-03-20T21:54:00.000-07:00

After a peaceful rest in Bodhgaya it was time to crack on. Calcutta was our destination and we were excited to see a city largely built by the English Raj.

Visiting a new town or city is a lot like meeting a person for the first time and as with people first impressions count. Now if Calcutta was a person our first impressions would’ve been that he (or she) was large to the point of being obese, outspoken with poor personal hygiene and of questionable integrity bordering on being villainous in nature.

We caught a taxi to the main tourist hangout, Sudder St where we spent a lot of time on the internet applying for jobs in London. We arrive in London in mid April. If you have any advice or know of any Business Analyst or HR/Comms opportunities please get in touch.

Before we knew it, it was time for Adam and Liv to depart for the greener pastures of Thailand. After our last supper we wished them well knowing that Thailand would be like a different world after India. It was really great seeing them both again and we sincerely hope that Adam gets a haircut – he looks like a girl. Before they left they were kind enough to give us gifts of Khata's from Nepal which we were both stoked (and embarrassed) to receive – as you can see in the photo below.

Despite what we’ve said Calcutta isn’t all bad – it does have rugby. Wrangling our way into a preseason training session we spent three hours choking on dust as we ran around in hot conditions with the enthusiastic and energetic locals. Whilst the team we trained with were quite new to the sport it was great fun to have a run and meet some nice Indians who are passionate about their rugby.

Not wishing to stay any longer we were glad to board our 28 hour train south to Chennai. Covering a whopping 1662 km’s the train trip went smoothly and passed surprisingly quickly. After Calcutta/India in general Chennai was an eye opener, it was in a different league. Everything is better maintained and organized and things are just generally nicer.

We felt obliged to do a day tour of the city taking in the major sites. The first stop was Fort St George, a fort unlike any we’ve seen in India to date it was made by the British and looks more like colonial mansions. It was the first structure in town and the first territorial possession of the British in India. Every good fort has a museum and Fort St George was no exception. The highlight is shown in the photo below – a secret underground chamber about half a metre deep whose purpose is unknown...

We then took in St Marys, the oldest Anglican church east of the Suez (and the oldest British building in India) and Kapalishvara Temple. The photo below is of the temple – not the church…

It was then off to Marina, one of the longest city beaches in the world. The beach was covered in trash and we were lucky enough to see an Indian man taking care of his business down by the high tide line.

Random Fact: The Indian head wobble. The wobble - neither shake nor nod has caused us great confusion as we have endeavored to understand its meaning. Men and women perform it and it can be used for many different things and often without words. We've reached the conclusion that it can mean anything from "good" to "I understand". For a fuller explanation check out this website: Indian Head Wobble

Highlights:
- Clean, wide streets where horns aren't used constantly (Chennai)
- Egg rolls. For $0.40 NZD these things are great. It's similar to a dry firm omelet, but is rolled up and portable. Comes with a nice filling of things to top it off
- Chennai transport stations. The train and bus stations are both large, modern, clean and well run.

Lessons Learned:
- The state of Tamil Nadu (where Chennai is) is a lot better run than most of the rest of the rest of India
- Boys will be boys all around the world. The Indian soldiers on the train sneakily destroyed a bottle and a half of whiskey in 30 minutes, before passing out
- Kiwifruit is expensive in India - $1 NZD per piece. The Motueka orchardists should develop a direct supply chain to Indian supermarkets

Bodhgaya

2009-03-10T02:44:00.000-07:00

We had arranged to rendezvous with friends from New Zealand so we hopped on a train to the meeting place - Bodhgaya.

We'd said goodbye to Adam and Liv two years ago in a dark and dingey alleyway in Wellington. Since then they've been teaching English in China and traveling.

Bodhgaya is the most revered of all Buddhist sacred sites because it's the home of the Bodhi tree - the tree under which Buddha achieved nirvana. Now when we heard this we were amazed and couldn't believe that its the same tree. We were right, the existing tree is a fifth generation descendant (great great great grandchild) of the original Bodhi tree and was brought in from Sri Lanka.

The tree grows at the back of the Mahabodhi Temple which excellently is free. Photo below: Dan, Adam and Clint standing tall infront of the Bodhi tree.

After spending some quality time catching up with Adam and Liv it was time for an activity day. We chose the Mahakala or (Dungeshwari) caves, where Buddha did severe pennance. After years of extreme self-denial at the caves he realised the futility and wandered down to Bodhgaya. Hiring bicycles we made our way out to the caves.

After an impromptu match of cricket which the NZers didn't do well in, the locals kindly directed us to the wrong hill. After climbing the steps, and there were alot, it was so hot we had to stop for a rest.

Battling on in the heat of the day and with Adams bike continually breaking down we finally made it to the right place. It was smaller than we expected - but slightly larger than the picture below suggests!

Back at the Mahabodhi Temple we found a concrete pillar where devotees try and flick coins onto the top, presumably to receive good karma. The top is pointed meaning that it's very hard. We failed to get any coins to stay up so didn't receive any good karma. We did however knock down a few coins while trying to get ours up - so we used those coins to buy good karma via the donation box.

While in Bodhgaya we enjoyed many cups of the really nice chai the Indians have. At less than $0.20 a go you can't ask for better value.

Random Fact: Some Indian men refuse to age gracefully. Instead they opt to dye their hair a bright red colour. It's always obvious and often entertaining. But then again if it's good enough for 'Big B' why not your average Rajjy?

Highlights:
-Enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. Simply chilling out under the tree was enough for us to achieve our own version of Nirvana- a great way to escape the hustle and bustle which is India
- Nice village life. On the way to the caves we rode through a village which was full of nice people. Everyone was happy to see you and waved and smiled as you went past - nobody asked for money, it was almost surreal after the othersides of India that we have seen
- Talking fast to other New Zealanders. It was great to have some fast paced conversation with friends knowing that what we were saying was being understood!
- Adam leading some rooftop yoga under the star light. The '5 tibetans' will serve us well if we can do them regularly!

Lessons Learned:
- You can spend the night at the Mahabodhi Temple under the Bodhi tree. We saw Japanese tourists erecting little individual pop tents - classic.
- Everyone tries to collect fallen leaves from the Bodhi tree. Watch out or you'll lose a hand.
- If you're bike is broken the locals will try to fix it, their tool of choice is always a rock. Don't let them near the bike (this will be very hard), they'll only make it worst!
- Leave a key somewhere obvious and it will walk off. A local will then find it and want a reward - all our kind man received was praise and wishes of good karma