More Tales from India

where, oh were to begin?

perhaps with the fact that i haven't found a decent keyboard yet in this country, which makes typing long blog entries a pain. this particular keyboard has a dysfunctional shift key on the right side, so i'm opting to use no capital letters.

otherwise, please excuse all other typos and let's talk india. incredible, incredible, india...

i believe i left off talking about my love for the city of madurai... :) the main attraction in this city is meenakshi temple. i can't even begin to keep straight any of the hundreds of hindi gods, so i won't make any attempts to enlighten you on that just now. but, like so many historic sites, this temple has been built and rebuilt over many centuries. it's massive. and very, very colorfully decorated with hundreds and hundreds of hindi gods that one could sit and take in for hours if one had the patience.

i paid my tourist fee (often times, indians pay around us$0.50 or less, where tourists pay more like us$5--and then some if you want to take photos. there are parts of the temple only open to hindis (i accidentally found myself in one of them and was promptly, but politely, asked to leave... it wasn't my fault they didn't have any signs up in this spot like they did all the others!).

anyways, i got my train ticket out of there that night and hopped on a 7:50pm overnight train to mysore. i was in sleeper class, the second cheapest. this means that i got a berth to sleep in for the night--an upper one like i had requested (and thank goodness i did!), and had a decent night's sleep all things considered. my train journey was really quite uneventful, until we hit bangalore around 6:30am and OH MY GOD all hell broke loose. before, the train had still been calm, quiet and not crowded. bangalore brought on the complete opposite--complete chaos. i continued to perch in my upper berth as hoards of people pushed their way on to the train and fought--literally--for seats. and, naturally, there were certainly not enough seats for everyone. i was largely ignored in my upper berth #24; not sure if it's because i am a foreigner, or what. i was definitely the only foreigner in my carriage. finally, a young boy in his 20s, perhaps, asked me in hindi (or some other language?) if he could sit up next to me. i figured his bravery warranted himself a seat ;) he then proceeded to speak to me, but i didn't understand. all i gave him was a blank stare. he says to me "english?" i nod my head and say yes, and that, my friends, was the end of our conversation. until we reached mysore three hours later, that is, when i confirmed that this was indeed where i should get off the train.

enter the city of mysore. thankfully, india redeemed itself with my trip to the city of mysore, in the state of karnataka. a city of just under one million people, i wasn't sure what to expect. but in the end, i was pleasantly surprised--and ended up staying four nights!

excerpt from my journal:
"what. a. day.

chaos from the train ride. insanity of getting myself off the train and out of the station. fatigue and frustration of finding a motel for the night (and an epic fail with my attempt at the ymca hostel in which i wasted $3 on a ricksaw ride). and then paying 600 rupees ($12) for one room tonight. and then getting fooled into room service (though, it ended up being good--an omelet, toast and chai). being led astray by a "helpful man not looking for money, only concerned with getting good karma by helping tourists" to an old market that only opens on this one day every week and closes in the early afternoon... then being side tracked to his "coffee shop like in amsterdam." then his anger when i said i had to go back and that i didn't want to see his coffee shop like amsterdam where a lot of american and german and other tourists go to hang out. and then meeting another guy on my way back who wanted to show me his coffee shop like amsterdam. and his big "fuck you" as he gave me an up and down stare with a look of disgust and said something else to me that was incomprehensible."

yup. what a day indeed. getting an indian guy to give me a solid "fuck you" is definitely the sign of a good day. turns out i had a third guy try the same thing on me a few days later. aaaannnnd, during dinner with a lovely scottish girl we found out that my "fuck you" guy tried to pull the same thing on her. lucky for both of us, we trusted our instincts and did not follow these guys to their coffee shops like in amsterdam. ha!!

anyways, mysore became my city of indulgence. after starting off with paying double my normal amount for a room and having room service for the first time in my life, i decided to live it up a little. needless to stay, i started that night with a beer at a rooftop restaurant. a much needed kingfisher. i did some shopping during my four days there. i sampled some indian sweets (they consume sooo much sugar here!!). i went to a western-style coffee shop and ordered a mocha for three times the price i pay for my normal daily chai. i used my korean facemask that i had brought with me to make myself a little spa night my first night in my 'fancy' motel room.

i met a guy from bend, oregon my second or third night in mysore who is cycling around india for three months. daniel, the same age as my parents, approached me after i sat down alone at the same rooftop restaurant adn asked me if i wanted some company. he invited me over to his table, which he shared with with a young indian man who he basically pays to help him do whatever he needs to do around town. turns out that daniel was a very odd man and though i was thankful for the company for a little while, after about 20 minutes i was wishing i had politely declined his offer for company. in my few hours with daniel, i learned that he went to the doctor in india, after being too self-conscious to do so in oregon, and that his psa levels are negative and the doc gave him some pills that have seemed to make him depressed so he was thinking of stopping them and just dealing with the dysfunction and that he'd be meeting a lovely german woman for a three day weekend soon and that he wanted me to come with him on a cycling tour on the east coast of india that he's pay for at the price of $1,200, but that it wasn't to get me into bed because he had no interest in that and only wants good company. whoa. too much. waaaay too much.

i declined an invite to join him and his little indian servant boy for coffee when i ran into them the next morning. sheesh!!!

(side note: currently eavesdropping on who i assume to be a young korean man in this internet cafe/travel agency while he hashes out some mis-communication with the guy here about a bus ticket; the korean guy (and the indian guy) is so damned polite! ha! i do kind of miss that country sometimes... korean people can be so lovely)

a bit scattered? yes. too much to write, not enough time to do so.

in hampi now, the land of temples and miles and miles of boulders to climb. more soon!!