things are starting to get interesting here. 2 weekends ago a bunch of us set out on our first trip within india. it randomly turned out to be a holiday and thus a long weekend here. even though i feel like they probably have the same holidays every year, they still can't manage to schedule them in advance. thus, the friday before the weekend even the professors didn't know which days they were going to have and not have classes. they said we would have monday off so we traveled from sat - mon, but when we got back it turned out that there were classes on monday and tuesday was the day off for the festival.
as my yoga teacher always says in his excellent accent and pretty good english, "suggest yourself relax". this is the motto that we have all realized is the only way to really deal with india - there's no way of knowing exactly what's going on, and it's best to just take a seat and figure it all out later.
so anyway, the trip. all the trains and buses were full of people going to their villages for the holdiays, so we had to show up to the train station to get on a more local train that they just sell tickets to until it leaves. thus, the train was pretty full.
got to warangal, found our hotel, and went to the thousand-pillared temple. very beautiful and very old - 1163 ad to be exact. it was hard to focus on the temple though because we were immediately swarmed by around a hundred school kids who all wanted to meet us and take pictures with us. (pictures in my album) there was a small group of girls who kept following us and we didn't know why until we realized they were daring each other to touch us. it's strange being white here.
early the next morning we went to vijayawada. a relatively uneventful train ride - the highlight was probably the guy sitting across from me who played music on his phone every time we slowed down - the only 2 songs he had were 'we will rock you' by queen and some early backstreet boys song. it was a strange soundtrack to have in india.
after getting rejected at a restaurant where we sat down and they refused to serve us, we found a restaurant and took out our aggression as we feasted in the 'fancy dinning room'. we had heard the undavalli cave temple was beautiful, so we got in rickshaws and asked them to go. they didn't seem too confident about it, but off we went.
after getting rejected at a restaurant where we sat down and they refused to serve us, we found a restaurant and took out our aggression as we feasted in the 'fancy dinning room'. we had heard the undavalli cave temple was beautiful, so we got in rickshaws and asked them to go. they didn't seem too confident about it, but off we went.
imagine our surprise when they pulled up to the police station, got out to talk to the officers, who then came towards us looking very serious and asking us for our "papers".
i don't really understand why because i thought it was a big tourist site and it's just outside the city, but the rickshaw drivers had no idea where this place was. the "papers" the cops were asking for was our guide book with the name of the place. so after doubling the fare our drivers took off again, got lost again, and took us down a bumpy road (it's amazing what you can do with three little wheels, makes you wonder why anyone in the states would ever need an suv) past an onion farm and a big banana plantation.
we made it though, and it was certainly amazing. don't know how to put it in words so check my pictures. i met a guy there named sandeep who really wanted to show me around a bit. i followed him for a bit but then went to join my crew while he and his two friends stood awkwardly around. in the end, as they were about to leave, he asked me for my phone number. as i was giving it to him i realized how bad of an idea it probably was. it's probably good that i didn't fake number him because he texted me right away with a very strange poem about friendship and came back to make sure i got it. then he left for real and i waved to him and his friends as three big guys crammed onto a scooter and scooted off.
as we were on our way out of the grounds, surprise, a class of school kids! you'll never guess what they wanted to do. so we took a few pictures, told them where we're from, etc. during all this chaos, guess who showed up! sandeep came back, having picked flowers for us all! so we said bye to sandeep and were saying bye to the school kids when they offered us a ride into town. with no plans in mind we piled on to their school bus and the serenaded us all the way back to town. well actually we were driving in the absolute wrong direction but we figured something would work out eventually and so we had fun with the school kids and then got dropped in a suburb that evidently never sees white people on its streets. we found the right bus though to get back, transferred to another bus. everyone was very helpful - the whole front of the bus was trying to help us figure out where to get off, the bus driver even stopped the bus for us so we could figure out what was going on.
that night, kai and i left the girls watching tv to go out and explore. (it's amazing how few looks just two white guys got compared to when we had 6 girls with us.) we found a little wine shop and bought some beers and went back into a very dimly lit little bar where they brought us snacks (mostly chicken bones with a bit of grisly meat and tons of spice paste). we met a couple of the local friendlies who provided us with plenty of tips and entertainment.
the next day we took a 2 hour bus ride though beautiful countryside to go find "the definition of awkward" (- davita). we didn't know exactly what we'd find but we wanted to get out of the city and found this side-trip in our guide book. turned out there wasn't a whole lot goin on there but we spent a bit of time at the museum about the 27 m buddhist stupa that was once there - apparently this place (amaravathi) was very important in the development of buddhism in india, but you wouldn't know it. but it was a very nice day, great to get out of cities, and fun to be off the beaten track.
early the next day we came back on a surprisingly empty train! 6 uneventful, spacious, and beautiful hours later we rolled up to hyderabad, happy to be home. on the way back we talked with an ayurvedic doctor who told us all about the many uses of cow dung and cow urine. she also told us how the exact place that we had just come from was the best place to be that night for the festival - apparently they make sweets with freshly harvested rice and ghee, and light the fields all around the town on fire after having harvested them! wild.
but we were back in hyderabad, so the next day we went to the crafts village to check out some kite flying, sand decorations, and other fun cultural stuff. it was all great, but the kite aspect of the festival was truly amazing - the skies were all dotted with kites being flown from roofs in every direction we looked, it was really amazing. they use a special kind of thread that is covered in powdered glass so that kids can cut down each others kites (estimates are that around 300 pigeons were killed by said threads - they don't mess around here).
last week was relatively uneventful compared to the weekends so i won't waste space. saturday was absolutely one of the craziest days of my life though in terms of contrasts. we all got on a bus at 9:30 am to go to the MV foundation girl's camp - a camp where they take young girls who are child labourers in their villages or who need shelter from abusive homes - and give them 6 mos - 1 yr of education, enough to catch them up so that they can keep going to school somewhere. the foundation tries to get all kids in schools and to end child labour, and considers any kid who's not in school as a labourer.
two of the girls told us their stories about how they got there, and they were incredibly powerful. these poor girls talked about losing parents, abusive homes, getting married at age 12, running away from home, and committing suicide. we spent the rest of our time there playing with all the girls though, which was a ton of fun and it was great to see even the girls who had told us their stories still having a good time and not having totally lost their innocence and ability to feel young. we taught them 'head and shoulders knees and toes', duck duck goose, and the boogie woogie and they taught us dances about rain and village life and such.
a few hours later, we were on our way to this guy's penthouse to party. his family owns the building so he has the top floor to himself to throw parties - it's furnished with a bathroom, a bar, 2 sofas, speakers and a sound system, and a lamp - streamlined for the weekends (which last all week for these people). so we hung out there for a bit and then went to the nicest club in the city at an absolutely beautiful hotel. since we were with a local movie star we all walked right in, past everyone, to our reserved vip area - couches right on the dance floor with plenty of free bottles of vodka. as usual we were the life of the party and took control of the dance floor for the night. once it closed we went back to the penthouse for a bit before going home.
the best part of the night was actually back on campus, where a couple of us who still had some energy went to the field at 4 am to go heckle with the students at the cricket tournament that had been going on all night (and proceeded to go on for the next few days).
so while the day was of course a ton of fun from start to finish, i've never gone between such extremes in a society in so little time. it was one of those 'holy shit india' moments for sure.
i think that's enough for now, more to come soon!
we made it though, and it was certainly amazing. don't know how to put it in words so check my pictures. i met a guy there named sandeep who really wanted to show me around a bit. i followed him for a bit but then went to join my crew while he and his two friends stood awkwardly around. in the end, as they were about to leave, he asked me for my phone number. as i was giving it to him i realized how bad of an idea it probably was. it's probably good that i didn't fake number him because he texted me right away with a very strange poem about friendship and came back to make sure i got it. then he left for real and i waved to him and his friends as three big guys crammed onto a scooter and scooted off.
as we were on our way out of the grounds, surprise, a class of school kids! you'll never guess what they wanted to do. so we took a few pictures, told them where we're from, etc. during all this chaos, guess who showed up! sandeep came back, having picked flowers for us all! so we said bye to sandeep and were saying bye to the school kids when they offered us a ride into town. with no plans in mind we piled on to their school bus and the serenaded us all the way back to town. well actually we were driving in the absolute wrong direction but we figured something would work out eventually and so we had fun with the school kids and then got dropped in a suburb that evidently never sees white people on its streets. we found the right bus though to get back, transferred to another bus. everyone was very helpful - the whole front of the bus was trying to help us figure out where to get off, the bus driver even stopped the bus for us so we could figure out what was going on.
that night, kai and i left the girls watching tv to go out and explore. (it's amazing how few looks just two white guys got compared to when we had 6 girls with us.) we found a little wine shop and bought some beers and went back into a very dimly lit little bar where they brought us snacks (mostly chicken bones with a bit of grisly meat and tons of spice paste). we met a couple of the local friendlies who provided us with plenty of tips and entertainment.
the next day we took a 2 hour bus ride though beautiful countryside to go find "the definition of awkward" (- davita). we didn't know exactly what we'd find but we wanted to get out of the city and found this side-trip in our guide book. turned out there wasn't a whole lot goin on there but we spent a bit of time at the museum about the 27 m buddhist stupa that was once there - apparently this place (amaravathi) was very important in the development of buddhism in india, but you wouldn't know it. but it was a very nice day, great to get out of cities, and fun to be off the beaten track.
early the next day we came back on a surprisingly empty train! 6 uneventful, spacious, and beautiful hours later we rolled up to hyderabad, happy to be home. on the way back we talked with an ayurvedic doctor who told us all about the many uses of cow dung and cow urine. she also told us how the exact place that we had just come from was the best place to be that night for the festival - apparently they make sweets with freshly harvested rice and ghee, and light the fields all around the town on fire after having harvested them! wild.
but we were back in hyderabad, so the next day we went to the crafts village to check out some kite flying, sand decorations, and other fun cultural stuff. it was all great, but the kite aspect of the festival was truly amazing - the skies were all dotted with kites being flown from roofs in every direction we looked, it was really amazing. they use a special kind of thread that is covered in powdered glass so that kids can cut down each others kites (estimates are that around 300 pigeons were killed by said threads - they don't mess around here).
last week was relatively uneventful compared to the weekends so i won't waste space. saturday was absolutely one of the craziest days of my life though in terms of contrasts. we all got on a bus at 9:30 am to go to the MV foundation girl's camp - a camp where they take young girls who are child labourers in their villages or who need shelter from abusive homes - and give them 6 mos - 1 yr of education, enough to catch them up so that they can keep going to school somewhere. the foundation tries to get all kids in schools and to end child labour, and considers any kid who's not in school as a labourer.
two of the girls told us their stories about how they got there, and they were incredibly powerful. these poor girls talked about losing parents, abusive homes, getting married at age 12, running away from home, and committing suicide. we spent the rest of our time there playing with all the girls though, which was a ton of fun and it was great to see even the girls who had told us their stories still having a good time and not having totally lost their innocence and ability to feel young. we taught them 'head and shoulders knees and toes', duck duck goose, and the boogie woogie and they taught us dances about rain and village life and such.
a few hours later, we were on our way to this guy's penthouse to party. his family owns the building so he has the top floor to himself to throw parties - it's furnished with a bathroom, a bar, 2 sofas, speakers and a sound system, and a lamp - streamlined for the weekends (which last all week for these people). so we hung out there for a bit and then went to the nicest club in the city at an absolutely beautiful hotel. since we were with a local movie star we all walked right in, past everyone, to our reserved vip area - couches right on the dance floor with plenty of free bottles of vodka. as usual we were the life of the party and took control of the dance floor for the night. once it closed we went back to the penthouse for a bit before going home.
the best part of the night was actually back on campus, where a couple of us who still had some energy went to the field at 4 am to go heckle with the students at the cricket tournament that had been going on all night (and proceeded to go on for the next few days).
so while the day was of course a ton of fun from start to finish, i've never gone between such extremes in a society in so little time. it was one of those 'holy shit india' moments for sure.
i think that's enough for now, more to come soon!
2 comments:
an epic youth, dear chap
Epic is an understatemnt, Tom and hey your Roman Holiday also sounds quite astounding (sorry to hear about your computer, though) If I had a blog I'd post how Keri and I kind of crashed a wedding at Battery Park Gardens last Sunday and wound up being served by the former server to the King of Egypt who is now our good buddy. That's *IF* I had a blog. Keep having fun, gentlemen, I know you are.
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