Photos from Kochi / Fort Cochin

We just wanted to share some photos from the Kochi area, I added some comments as well!

Please click the link below to see ALL the photos (just 10):
http://bitjug.com/gallery/Kochi

Er.... what?

Hello All,

we hope you had a great christmas. A couple of our christmas presents were a 4 hour bus ride followed by a 12 hour train ride, but we arrived happy and we're now on the opposite coast of southern india!! We're in a place called Fort Cochin that was long held by the British, prior to their colonization of India. This is in the state of Kerala which encompasses most of the western coastline in the southern part of india. The title of this post is due to the train station we arrived in, which is called ... Er... Ernakulam. not the easiest name to tell people you are getting off at and be sure that you understand when the Ernakulam station is coming up! Fortunately we met some very nice indians on the train ride and they helped us out.

If you look at this map, we are essentially where it is labeled Mattancheri, out on the long outer peninsula:

http://uk.multimap.com/wi/33103.htm

we're distilling some impressions of our train and bus travels along with our new town and we'll post some more soon. We expect to be here for several days.

Holiday Cheers from both of us!

The REAL bobble-heads

The lonely planet book says that a sideways movement in the head can mean yes, maybe, "I understand you" or even No in Indian culture. This sounds to be a challenge, but how much do we really shake our heads? not all that often.

Unfortunately, this is not the case in India. For some reason, even Indians who speak very workable English are quite reluctant to say "Yes" or "No". Instead, you are far more likely to get "The Bobble". This is much better demonstrated than described, but basically it is a mostly round motion of the head with a diagonal emphasis, like one of those little dogs you see on the back shelf of someone's car, but with more of a diagonal movement as well. It is certainly floaty.

So, when do you get the bobble? Well, all the time. Our first experience in Pondicherry was negotiating for an autorickshaw (like a fully covered tuk-tuk) from the bus station to our hotel. I was gunning for a very good price of 20 rupees, and I had the competition of rickshaw drivers on my side, the first offered 50, the second offered 35, and the third agreed with my 20, I just didn't know it, because his head was bobbling wildly with no sign of speech, as I repeatedly asked "20 rupees okay?" he was repeatedly agreeing, but the diagonal movement just wasn't convincing for me. Add to this that there are hardly any street signs, and the unbelievably chaotic streets with 1000s of signs and vehicles, and I was convinced we were being taken back to Thailand for some exorbitant fare! However, we held out and arrived just where we wanted to be quite directly. I gave the drivers a tip for actually taking us where we wanted to go. Trust the Bobble!

But not all the time. Often the Bobble means "who knows" or "I can't do anything for you". We have also noticed that the bobble is an unbelievably effective way to get waiters over to your table, which is all the more surprising because 1. we have found no other way to get such prompt attention and 2. indians use the bobble all the time in conversation so how can the waiters use it as a signal from the customer? I think the only possible explanation is that my imitation of the bobble happens to be the "we need service NOW" bobble in the Indian bobble parlance.

We are still studying the possibilities of the bobble...

Travels and tribulations

Well, we are starting to learn more about how to travel here in India. While a 10-day vacation in one of these countries should be carefully planned ahead of time to maximize the use of time, part of the idea behind our long trip is to be able to ramble around a bit. However, we are noting that we need to plan a little bit ahead of time, since although we have stayed in our room for the last 3 nights, its availability for tonight is still uncertain. it's looking good though, which is important since there are very few other rooms available in town. Since this is the high season along the western coast beaches which are our next destination, we will start planning around 5 days out.

We have also learned that making reservations on the Indian railway should be done 3-5 days in advance as well. We were surprised to learn that the Indian railway is the largest employer in the world (!). Though booking is computerized, the system is complex enough to make travels a challenge. Tomorrow morning we will take a bus 3.5 hours to Chennai, then about 1 hour from the Monster Chennai bus station described in a previous post, to the main train station. From there, we will take a train leaving at 4:00pm and arrving in Kochi (which is on the opposite coast) at about 3 or 3:30am. This rather awkward timing is due to our booking 1 day in advance during a busy holiday period. Our train tickets cost approx. US $15 each, even though we are in an A/C 3-bunk berth (we wanted 2-bunk but it wasn't available).

In comparison, Air tickets from Chennai to Kochi cost approx. US $135, and still require the 4+ hours of bus ride to get to the Chennai airport. We will see how much fun the rail travel is, It MUST be better than the bus, but we may be more motivated to go the air route next round!

Please view our Pondicherry photo gallery!!

I have posted some images from Pondicherry, where we have been for the last 3 days and will leave from tomorrow morning, It was a French colony for many years. I have added comments below each photo, so if you have time please read those comments, they should add some context to the images:

Please click here: http://bitjug.com/gallery/Pondicherry

Mamallapuram Photos!

Tiffany did a wonderful job of describing some of our experiences, but here are some photos of Mamallapuram, where we have been for the last two days. The photos of the beach, temples we visited, and ourselves, are here:

http://bitjug.com/gallery/Mamallapuram

please view our photos!

wow, it is tough posting images from a camera in some places, but I did it just for all of you!

please check out the 9 pictures from bangkok we posted in our gallery, you can click on the small pictures to get bigger ones.

Click Here: http://bitjug.com/gallery/bangkok1

Holy Cow, we have arrived in India!!

Yesterday late morning we left from Bangkok international airport on a Thai airways flight heading for Chennai (Madras) in south India. We arrived mid-afternoon at the Chennai airport, with about 3.5 hours in flight time. Chennai is apparently only second to Bangalore in software engineering in India. We spent at least an hour trying to figure out how to get some cash, we tried an ATM but it didn't take our foreign cards, and eventually found a money-changing desk operated by the state bank of India where we could obtain some cash.

We had decided on the airplane to head right for Mamallapuram which is a city a little ways south of Chennai on the coast. According to our lonely planet guidebook to South India, it was reputed to be a small laid back village on the coast. Our first task was to get a bus to the central bus station in Chennai, which is the largest bus station in Asia (!!) We thought that we could then get a bus from there down to Mammalapuram. As soon as we got out onto the main boulevard in front of the airport, we saw a different world from Bangkok, let alone the US. The streets are very busy in Chennai with so many motorcycles, autorickshaws, and buses it is hard to imagine without seeing for yourself. In any case, there are no lanes whatsoever and the use of the horn is very popular. We asked a gentleman in a white uniform which bus went to the central bus station and he told us to get on anything with a '70'. This brings up a good point, there are fewer travellers in India than in bangkok, but it is much easier to find English speakers. Most bus-riders in Chennai, for example, we found had at least basic English skills, some even fluent.

So, when a 70 came by, we hopped on, and the bus was packed. we were the only westerners on this bus, but everyone was friendly and helpful. Also, while the men wear basically western style clothes (simple button shirts and simple slacks, often dark), the vast majority of women wear beautiful saris in such vibrant colors! Their clothing is a treat to see on a full dirty old bus! With our 36lb large backpacks we were certainly out of the ordinary. When we arrived at the vast central bus station, we found that it did seem more like an airport (albeit a third world one) than a bus station. we asked for directions a few times and found our way to a platform with a bus numbered 188 waiting. this matched what our guidebook said and a fellow we asked said it was going to Mamallapuram as well. We got on the bus and stuffed our big backpacks into the overhead shelves, a tight fit. The bus ride was about 2 hours from Chennai, and we again asked others on the bus to let us know when to get off, since stops are not announced and it is hard to see road signs in the rain.

Once we arrived in Mammalapuram, we were quite tired and decided to just enlist the services of an autorickshaw (a covered tuk-tuk) to get us to the siva guest house, where we wanted to stay. We had not had a chance to figure out how to call from Chennai, so we were arriving unannounced and hoped they had a room. We squeezed into the back seat, just a touch bigger than the back seat of a porsche 911, with our backpacks for a trip just a half mile or so to our guest house. We were pleased that they had a room, which is quite basic (two small beds pushed together, sink, bathroom with open shower and toilet, no hot water), but priced accordingly and very clean. It costs the equivalent of $5.51 a night. We have subsequently found (from reading the guidebook) that the optimal accommodation seems to vary buy town, for instance here in Mamallapuram we could spend 4 or 5 times as much and not get much more in the way of a room, or we could spend 20 times as much (really) and get a very nice room with veranda, swing and beautiful garden areas, but it would be hard to justify. In our next town we plan to spend 2 or 3 times as much as we spent here.

We went out for a quick bite at a nearby restaurant, then crashed out in our new room. Most restaurants here are geared toward tourists, though there are not too many tourists here by percentage of people it is still a very big part of the local economy. we have seen a smattering of western tourists, but they do not seem to be primarily American by any means. This morning we decided to have a very late breakfast at a thatched roof restaurant right on the beach. It was a treat to see big waves breaking along the shoreline and look out onto the Bay of Bengal.

We had some great ginger tea with milk, a nice tomato and prawn omelette, and a couple of coconut pancakes. We then took a nice walk along the ocean. The beach is nice, and the waves are very irregular in a way that I don't think either of us are familiar with. water can come shooting an extra 20 feet up the shore easily and get your legs all wet! This lends credence to the guidebook's warning that there are many riptides in the area, so we don't plan to go in the water. We should have plenty of chances to do that on the western coast. It is incredibly humid here, though (knock on wood) it has not been to hot yet. An early afternoon rain turned us around and pushed us back to our guest house, where we retired to read the guidebooks and rest. we then had a snack at another nearby restaurant, walked around town and found some TP. The town is very famous for its stone sculptures, so we were able to see several sculptors working and many statues, including a beautiful big 7'x4'x2' hindu elephantlike god, Ganesh, who is a popular image around here. Then we headed back to our guesthouse and started posting messages here for you all to read! we plan to stay here for another day or two, then move on to Pondicherry, which is another couple of hours south and is an area the French only released control of 40 or 50 years ago, if I recall correctly. It should have a very different feel, and since it has more of a european influence we decided to spend christmas there.

We hope you enjoy hearing about our travels! Things are a bit unpredictable here, so don't worry at all if you don't hear from us for a few days or a week, or whatever, but we will try to keep in touch.

update

We wanted to let everyone know a little about what we have been doing. We have been "relaxing" in bangkok (if that is possible in such a busy city) for the last couple of days, trying not to overdo things. The street vendors have such an amazing variety of food, mid day today we bought some coconut custard cups that were just amazing. fresh squeezed tangerine juice and too many other items to mention are available everywhere. the guidebook says something about how far you can be from a restaruant in bangkok, it seems like the maximum distance you could be away from one is about 10 feet, counting the street vendors. We spent yesterday visiting some of the major temples and hope to have some photos up soon, but it is a challenge to find a computer with a DVD reading drive even though internet cafes are everywhere (!). We will be flying out to Chennai tomorrow morning so we have been trying to arrange everything for that. Not too much time right now but we will post more info later. We at least have our cell phone sorted out so we hope it will be easy to buy prepaid cards in India as well.

We are here!

Hello,

After leaving Seattle mid-day Tuesday, we had a very long day with a 9.5
hour flight and 17 hour time change across the international date line
flying to Narita airport near Tokyo in Japan, we flew in a Boeing 777. We
stayed in the international terminal for a couple of hours while we waited
for our flight to bankgok, tiffany slept and I bought a japanese sour
gummy grapefruit and sour gummy lemon to eat. We had an additonal 2 hour
time change to bangkok, we were again flying united but this time in a
747-400, this flight was about 6.5 hours. We arrived in bangkok at about
11:30pm local time but the airport was still very busy at this hour. we
had to navigate around the official looking but "expensive" taxi stands to
the "real" taxi line, then were able to take a taxi quite a distance to
our guest house for 210 baht.

our room is very nice with air conditioning and hot water provided by a
small in-line hot water machine, it works very well. we have a private
bathroom and a small safe in our room. after we woke up this morning we
went to breakfast just a few hundred meters down the street at a small
restaraunt that specializes in fried flatbread. we each had a dish of
mosseman curry, which is sweet but not too hot, a flatbread, and each had
a stuffed veggie flatbread which was very good. tiffany had a passionfruit
juice and I had a sweet iced coffee. this was a great breakfast for us
because we were very hungry. portions were small but we got to try lots
of things, and our total bill was around $4.50 US.

I am sure we will not have this much detail for all of our travels but
hopefully it is fun for you guys to hear about our trip and arrival.

Best wishes!

Tiffany and Andy