finally sick of curry...

McLeod Ganj, Himachal Pradesh, India
Originally uploaded by ddboo.

Ola!

It was only March 17th the last time I blogged and SO much has happened, grab a cup of coffee, or skim through most of it....

An got sick for a few days in Mamallapuram and we couldn't really do anything, we think it was sunstroke. It was a good time and place for it to happen since we had extra time there anyway. I just swam at the pool, ate fantastic food and spent time with some great people that we met at dinner one night. One in particular was an Indian man by the name of Swamiji. He was born blind and was orphaned at birth, sent from home to home. He is now in his early forties and such an amazing person. He spends his life traveling around India trying to help people in similar situations as himself. He was so interesting to talk to and has a very positive attitude on life. He has done more things in his life blind than many people will probably ever do with eyesight. Including skydiving, driving a car, driving a jet ski, learning how to swim, traveling alone extensively he even won a photography contest once (?!). He has had some serious near death experiences and his stories were just unbelievable. An and I spent allot of time with him in this town, swimming in the pool, out for brekkie and dinner, even helping him write emails and edit poems that he has written. We were lucky to meet him, he was really inspiring. We are still emailing with him and editing poems!

We couldn't get a direct train to Hampi so we ended up spending about 18 hours in Bangalore. Which is the trendiest city in India where all the IT and call centres are. This is where you notice India's revolution. The older generation and in rural areas, all the women wear sari's and most marriages are arranged. Women are married between 16 - 20 (or else there is something wrong with them), have children by 21 and stay home while the husband works. Enter Bangalore. Girls with tank tops on, tattoos, even smoking. Which is SO taboo for a woman here. Barley a sari in sight. There is so much western influence here, there is a McDonalds or Pizza Hut on every corner. Western clothing stores everywhere. An and I took this opportunity to get our western fix. We ate Pizza and Ruby Tuesdays. We even went to a mall and got the worst makeovers ever. We looked like drag queens (see flickr). We were so tired and filthy from being on the overnight train the night before. The plan was to arrive in Bangalore and find a hotel with a pool so we could swim and use the shower to escape the heat. Well one look at us and no hotels let us in. We realized we had become the unsavory characters that we are usually escorting out of our hotels..

An has become the toughest rickshaw negotiator I have met yet. It’s awesome. We know the prices now and what it SHOULD cost to go a certain distance. And we know when someone is trying to rip us off. So here's a scenario: An: "how much to X" Rickshaw Man: "120 Rupees" An: "WHAT?! THAT’S WAAY TO MUCH, COME ON DENISE LET’S GO!" Rickshaw Man: "OK 100!?, how much you pay?" An: (as were walking away) "We'll pay 30, we came here from the bus station yesterday and paid 30!" Rickshaw Man: "OK pay 70" An: "screw this, let’s go find another one" Rickshaw Man: "how much you pay?" An: "40" Rickshaw Man: "OK get in". An huffs and we get in the rickshaw. Repeat every time we need a rickshaw. It’s great because we never get ripped off anymore. One instance sticks out in my head, it was 5am in Pondicherry and the rickshaw driver royally ripped us off. Storming off An says to him "Ya, thanks, really nice welcome to Pondicherry!" Obviously knowing we had been ripped. That was the last time any rickshaw driver would ever hose us. It’s become a joke between us when it comes to rickshaw time we have this "act" down pat. No one messes with us.

We went to Hampi from Bangalore on another night train. We slept like babies, babies with really dirty clothes on and drag queen makeup. Sleeping on a night train is becoming second nature. We try to get the upper bunks for maximum privacy and we never know where our stop is since the train breezes through each town. We make sure to befriend someone local in our cabin and mention where we are getting off. This works like a charm. Every time our stop is coming some friendly Indian wakes us up with enough time to pack up and have a chai tea before de-boarding. Everyone is so helpful, since we are often the only tourists.

So arriving in Hampi was as usual, someone woke us up on the train, negotiated a rickshaw into town etc. We checked into a so-so place and the heat here was unbearable. The town had a desert landscape and climate. The Hampi bazaar (where all the shops, restaurants and guest houses are) lies beside a river, surrounded by huge boulders and ancient temples. It’s quite a sight, with one huge temple overlooking the whole town. There are monkeys and cows everywhere. We were there during low season; it’s just too hot to really enjoy it. After asking around town we took a rickshaw to the edge of a banana plantation and decide to head in and look for these waterfalls. We didn't find any waterfalls but we found a big pool with allot of big slimy boulders in it. It was pretty fun to slip and slide all over the rocks, like slim surfing over them on our bellies. Sounds weird, but it was so fun. We met two guys swimming who were heading back into town the adventurous way...boulder hopping along the river. So we decided to follow, not the greatest idea in flip flops and our survival was questionable at times. We got lost, had to cross a big river, avoided snakes then found ourselves lost in the banana plantation. The banana plantation was huge so we decided to pick a direction and just go with it. Eventually after getting attacked by killer tree thorns and pretending we were in a movie like "touristas" (about to be found by crazy natives that would harvest our organs, or at least blood thirsty monkeys) sweating like maniacs we made it back to town. Took about 4 hours, which felt like 8 in the heat.

The next day we got up early and decided to hide from the heat in a cave all day, which we didn't end up doing at all. Instead we climbed up to the famed monkey temple, where the monkey god, Hanuman was born. This is about 20 minutes straight up stairs, and of course, we decided to do it right at noon (the hottest part of the day). Anyway after sweating our butts off doing that, we went for a swim in a nearby lake and made delicious salads for lunch on a frisbee with a swiss army knife. Gourmet!

Next stop was like the amazing race. We went to the town of Belguam, where An's grandmother was baptized. Her family lived there when the English colonized India. We were searching for clues and talking to people all day trying to find out the address of the house they lived in or school she attended, anything. We found the chapel she was baptized in and found records of baptism at a nearby church, we may have found the house she lived in. We hired a driver for the day to help us on our mission. After we found what we could find, we drove around taking pictures of the town and well..kids. More kids. There are no tourists at all in this place. I don't know why though, the old British architecture and the colours of the houses and buildings are amazing. The market is bustling and has everything you could ever want. We met some friends of our driver and they invited us into their house to see their dogs and have something to drink, the people were so hospitable. They were knocking on doors asking if anyone had information on An's family. The kids totally mobbed us. I felt like Michael Jackson, ripping at our clothes and screaming. There were about 50 of them. All wanting us to take their picture, complete chaos. Got some funny pics.

We left that night to Mumbai. As we pulled into town in our taxi, a guy ran up to the car and asked us if we would like to be extras on a Bollywood set. Ya! It was 8:30 in the morning and we had to be ready to go onset by 9:30 and we still hadn't found a place to stay. After being ripped off by the taxi driver and looking at a few overpriced and gungy hotel rooms we finally settled on something. We showered and ran out the door...Bollywood was waiting. I was thinking this could be my big break (besides the fact I am not Indian and don not speak Hindi). The first four hours were painstaking. Sitting in a small room waiting for our scene. So BOOoooring. The time finally came after lunch. We were actually filming a Yamaha commercial, that will be aired in India at the end of April. An and I both got parts that would probably pay a considerable amount at home. No talking or anything but good cameos. It went something like this: Super hot stud drives by the super hot babe on his shiny Yamaha and then I walk behind him. So does An. It’s so cool! We made 500 Rupees!
Earlier in the day someone spotted us and asked us if we would like to make some more money. More serious coin, I am talking like 1200 rupees. Big money. The job was this: It was fashion week in Mumbai, which is the capital for Bollywood and fashion in India. An and I make ourselves pretty and show up at McDonalds for pick up at 8:30. We are then driven to the posh side of town and asked to pour ourselves into some seriously tight jeans and Perroni beer shirts. The party starts. We are on the red carpet with 2 other "Peronni Angles" (seriously, that's what they were calling us), taking pictures with all of India's hot shots. Fashion designers, Bollywood actors, Models, Athletes...you name it. All the magazines and newspapers were there and there were like 10 camera men taking pictures of us all night. We were instructed to walk around the party, drink free beer and get the photographers to catch us schmoozing with famous people drinking Perroni. Tough job! Anyway as silly as it sounds, we had a blast, met alot of people and even picked up some Indian dance moves. We got home at 2am after a really Loooong day. The next day we slept in and shopped and toured Mumbai all day, then treated ourselves to dinner at an expensive restaurant to reward ourselves for a hard days work.

We flew to Delhi and decided to go to Dharamshala, home of the Dali Lama (who was driven out of Tibet). This town is made up of Tibetan Exiles that have been driven out of their country by the Chinese takeover. Their country has been under Chinese rule since 1949 and no one is doing anything about it. Last night I went to listen to a Tibetan speaker who had spent time in as a political prisoner in Tibet, and has since been driven out to India. The Tibetan Identity is being erased in the schools as the Chinese teach Chinese language and culture. It is even difficult for a Tibetan to even get a job in Tibet, as the Chinese do not hire them. It is really sad, these people are slowly losing their identity. Free Tibet!

This town is up on the side of a mountain and a nice relief from the heat. We are here for a week. We did an 8 hour hike the other day up the Himalayas to a place called Triund. It was hard, straight up the mountain and straight down, with snow covering the last hour up. It was incredible at the top though. The altitude and exercise killed us and we got Tibetan massages last night. I injured my knee in Thailand and am trying acupuncture here; I'm scared that it won’t be better by Kilimanjaro! That’s it for now. Heading back down to Delhi in a couple of days to meet Martin and head to Rajasthan!

Yay!