Jaipur, Jaisalamer, home!

From Varanasi we flew into Jaipur... This might not have been the best idea, but we had a company pick us up, take us to the amber fort light show and then a dinner.

Our plane was delayed and we missed the English version of the light show, but the Hindi one was still ok, such a cool site!

Dinner was great but the music and dance group was kinda annoying, they were insisting people to dance with them (we are eating goddammit!).

Another overnight train to Jaisalmer wasn't too bad int he upgraded AC2 sleeper class!

The dessert sarfari was really fun! A good group of people joined us. The camel ride would have been enough after 30 minutes, it was an hour, fine.

They took us to a few sites which were cool... but they didn't offer any explanation. They made us some great indian food and the area we slept in was full on dessert! Great sand dunes, nice sunset, lots of stars. At night it was FREEZING, felt a bit like surviving in nature.

The next day we got massages and got ready for our 17 hours train ride back to dehli! We actually didn't have tickets again! We were waitlisted.

FORTUNATELY, some Canadian from Montreal gave us one ticket he had left, which was AMAZING! I found him on fb to thank him

Varanasi

Holy Varanasi!

One of the holiest places in India. The thing to do is an early morning and evening boat ride along the ganges to see people bathing/drinking the holy water! It's thought that Shiva (one of the super gods) made this ganga with some of his hair. At night there was a Shiva festival, where people were burning dead bodies every 2 minutes.

Note, as this is a very holy place, people send bodies from all over India and the world to have them burned in Varanasi. They work out how much would it will take and light it up. The bodies are generally covered, but still not a pretty site. People are quite aggressive with harassing you, lots of priests asking you to follow them, everyone offering to show you to your hotel, people giving you "free" stuff.

I remember on my boat ride another boat offered me a flower to light and set sail, I aggressively refused but he dropped it in my boat, then said "30 rupees" I threw it back at him. I was actually pissed more at my boat guy for letting this nonsense guy talk to me.

There were lots of stores/shops with the same name, The brown bread bakery, Blue lassi, what the hell is wrong with these people. People actually lie claiming "they are the real bakery".

Anytime a shop is featured in Lonely planet it just booms with business. Blue lassi is one of those. It's this guy with a raspy voice, who makes these lassis. The made is wide, but the Lassis are only ok, I really don't see the hype.

He also offers "special" lassis at an extra price. Apparently he WAY overcharges but is able to do that because of all the business he gets. He puts Hash in them and charges about 10 bucks canadian, should be around 2 dollars as per other local people.

Kochi, Agra

So this post is coming a little later.

I was in Kerala for about 2 days, arrived in Kochi where I met a guy from Chicago (Matt), who gave me a free ride using his uber app (he's in India helping to start it up here), THANKS MATT! I owe him a dinner when I get to Chicago.

The highlight of Kerala was going to alleppy and doing a small backwaters tour, was quite peaceful, nice villages. Most people spoke English hear which was nice, apparently the literacy rate is much higher and they learn English after Thamil (then Hindi).

I then met up with a friend and flew to Dehli then a long bus ride to Agra.

Agra was a really nice city, saw about 10 Indian weddings on our way to the hostel. Lots of bright lights and the groom on a horse or carriage.

For the Agra fort we arrived at 6:30 am with our tour guide Ramesh, he was really knowledgable and I booked him because he was recommended through a couple. His facts were bang on (had to keep him honest and verify) and really knew his way around the place. It was a little foggy that day but was still and awesome site. The place is full of monkeys which at times took my attention.

The story of the Taj Mahal is interesting, the Mughal Emperor of India built it as a tomb stone for his 2nd wife! Had all stones, taken in form all over the world! Would be equivalent of billions of dollars these days... the palace looks good but the guy is an idiot. His youngest son overtook him claiming he was insane and put  him away n the Agra fort, where he could watch his Taj mahal from a far!

I was also able to check out the Agra fort and the baby Taj Mahal. Agra fort was so grande, and we did an audio tour, lots of tour guides hang out inside the place was annoying, there English sucked

example

Me: so you're a tour guide
him: yes
me: How many children did Shan Jahan have?
him: 450 rupees!


We took an overnight train to Varanasi which was quite rough, we were waitlisted on the train and didn't have any seats! A sketchy police crew gave us their seat for 1000 rupees while they slept on the floor. It actually seems like they sold us someone else's seat as this guy was complaining to them, I've heard of this corrupt business taking place.  But we survived in the morning!

Palolem, South Goa, SILENT DISCO

I decided to take a 2 hour taxi to venture to South Goa. I was told less touristy and quieter beaches. This is the case! I lucked out with a sweet beach resort, the restaurant looks out to the beach, rooms are nice, and they are filming a Bollywood film in the resort today.

Figure 1: Appears to be a scene taking place around the pool table.

Last night when I arrived was rent a scooter, just so highly efficient, I don't do any super adventurous (like over 30 min) but there is significantly a lot less traffic and so just biking around is really fun with great scenery. I heard about this silent disco last night so I had to check it out. I've seen one once at a music festival (Bonarroo). Everyone got ear phones, and you had three stations you could chose from. I met some really interesting people, one guy was a bollywood actor, I didn't believe him so he showed me some of his commercials... legit.

Then the place turned into a big dance party and several of us agreed to keep it to the Indian Bollywood music station, actor guy was TEARING IT UP. He explained that Indian dancing is alot about your facial expression... so true. His name is Abishek Gupta, may be famous one day.

Most of today I lazed around, got a head massage, hair cut, shave, read of my "what young india wants" book. I also have perfected a great skill in negotiation, not that I really want anything here... but I do enjoy the feeling of A GOOD DEAL! (the jew in me).

credit: this technique was mentioned to me by a colleague who had heard it from a professor
Let's say I want some pants, and I see they all have designs on them. I ask how much. Immediately they quote me something double its actually value. Then conversation would go something like this

Me: wow...
them: ok sir I give you good price
me: ok, I really want this
them: sir good price for you
me: yeah for sure, by the way, do you have any that are only one colour? No designs? (clearly aware that they DO NOT have this)
them: sir great pattern, traditional, very nice
me: yeah they are so nice, but I REALLY only want on colour, oh such a shame, maybe ask your friends, I'll pay higher price, so important its one colour

Basically I keeping explaining how sad I am that they don't have THE ONE THING I WANT (although I could care less, I just want some cheap pants!). This really helps lowering the price...



Dear readers, I will be updated pics into the previous posts, FINALLY 

Scooter Adventures

I finally decided to get a scooter, IT IS SO AWESOME. I'm just whizzing around these beach town, I don't go too fast and there aren't many cars. I checked out this famous Anjuna market which only takes place on Wednesdays. It is SO LARGE, but lots of negotiating lots of junk. I found today an enjoyable bargaining day, about 50% of the merchants speak Russian, which freaks me out. I say the classic "harosho" in Russian and they started approaching me with all there selling Russian phrases. Most of them however... admit they openly don't like Russians. Unfortunately I've seen some pretty rude people in the negotiations (Indians and Russians), can't we all just get along?

I need to find an ATM, and then I plan (somehow) to head to south of Goa, will be a long journey but I think it will be a little more enjoyable to be in a less touristy area.

Spice Plantation, cooking course

Yesterday I visited the spice plantation in ponda. Kashew and a bunch of other indian spices are a big deal here, brought over by the portuguese. For the equivalent of 8 bucks we had a 45 min tour of the demo plantation and a solid Indian lunch. Was worth it but just SO far.

 Figure 1: My Indian guide tour, she seemed quite serious but she was nice. She was talking about a
chilli that was so hot, 1000 times more than normal chilli.. I said "give it to me I'll eat it!" and grabbed it from her hand, she lost it! But thought it was funny when she got that I was kidding.

Figure 2: Me attempting to bite a cinnamon tree, when you scratch the bark it smells great!.

 After I was able to squeeze in an Indian cooking class. Mokti's class. The class had great reviews and initially they were "full" but I got a call saying a spot opened up. For about 30 bucks.. it might have been worth it because I did have dinner taken care of. But there was no great explanation. But I would feel confident to get ingredients to create a solid chicken curry, prawn masala, aloo gobi, and chaptai. I got my first episode of the runs... I blame it on the chicken that was left out... DAMN YOU MOKTI! Fortunately it resolved within 24 hrs, so I didn't take my azithromycin.

Late night was rough, a Canadian had recommended an "awesome" place in anjuna beach. After carrying all my stuff, refusing super expensive taxis, I arrived... it was full of a bunch of hippies and was almost like camping... #I'mAFairyPrincess. So I settled on some other place which had air conditioning but that was the only positive side.

Scuba diving adventures!

This post is a bit behind, but I went Scuba diving around a ship wreck in goa. Was quite fun! And because I'm a little experienced it was me, one instructor and someone else who was a "master" diver. So we wondering around the ship wreck. The visibility was quite poor, couldn't see more than 2 meters in front, but it was fun nevertheless!

Some Indian College students on my trip

Notice the contrast with skin colour

I've finally noticed in Goa, this place is FULL of Russians. Often they speak limited English, and in fact lots of the local Indians here speak RUSSIAN (at least enough to sell them fake fur coats).  In the evening met others in the hostel which was nice, I was too tired to go out... so was everyone else.