Hampi

Hopefully this post will go through, as the Blogger dashboard has been somewhat less than reliable lately.

We're in the middle of our second day in the lovely town of Hampi. Judging by our activities over the last 36 hours, the town is home to approximately 14984934 temples and other historical sites of incredible value. There's so much here that it's hard to digest all at once.

We came here by overnight train from Bangalore. I'm happy to report that nobody had any bags stolen, nor was anyone harassed, despite some people worrying beforehand. The major difficulty of the trip seemed to be that the temperature in the upper bunks was somewhere around the level of "Arctic Circle." Still, I'm glad we got a chance to do this instead of taking planes and the bus everywhere.

Tomorrow we go to Badami, where apparently there are even MORE temples. It's enough to make a history major weep. Hopefully I'll be rested enough to appreciate them all. However, right now everyone is counting down to what's sure to be the highlight of the trip: Goa.

Oh yes, and happy Halloween to everyone. My costume this year is "awkward white tourist."

Trip 2

Tomorrow at 4:30 PM we head to Bangalore to get on a train for Hampi. This is the beginning of our second and final trip to see temples (and to sit on the beach on Goa, but shhhhh don't tell anyone).

I know I haven't posted much lately, and this is because there really isn't much interesting stuff going on right now. Classes here can become just as much of a routine as back in Connecticut. However, I assure you I'll have some more neat stuff to write about once we get into this trip.

What's a foreign country without nearly getting killed?

So it's still Diwali here, which means nobody's sleeping thanks to the constant sound of fireworks going off all over town. It feels like we're in a war zone.

Last night, Dr. Raju and his wife invited us to their house for a celebratory dinner. But first...fireworks! We all waved around sparklers and nearly set each other on fire while we took turns lighting up some of the bigger stuff. Their neighbors also had a big bunch of fireworks, and kept scaring the living daylights out of all of us with the noise.

The main event for us, however, was a package of five small rockets that were designed to all shoot up into the air at once. This, however, did not unfold as planned. One rocket went up, while the other four shot off in four different directions. We all scrambled for cover as one shot under Dr. Raju's car! An exploding gas tank would have put a real damper on the evening, but luckily we all lived to tell about it.

The rest of the night was uneventful, but after several people telling me how much danger I would be in if I came here, I find it rather funny that my only near-death experience has come at the hands of fireworks.

CRACK! BOOM!

Happy Diwali to everyone. The Hindu festival of lights starts tonight, and as I type this I can hear fireworks going off somewhere near the guesthouse. Wonder where I can get my hands on some...

Annoying Indian fauna strikes again

So it seems three girls on the trip have discovered lice in their hair. Since we don't know where it was picked up, now we all get to go through annoying lice treatment. This has certainly added a wonderful wrinkle to the trip.

I may wind up just cutting my hair short again to save some trouble. Hopefully it'll be back to normal again by the time I come home.

Cochin

Rejoice, for I have found a stable (overpriced) wireless connection in my Cochin hotel room.

We arrived here last night after spending a day cruising the backwaters of Kerala. The way that works is that you get on a houseboat and sail around the larger areas, dining on absolutely delicious Keralan seafood. After lunch, you get on a canoe and explore the small canals and see small village life up close. It's a tourist attraction, so there are other white people around, but it's still very neat to go right by, say, women washing the clothes in the canals.

Cochin is a bit of a letdown so far. The pollution is the worst I've seen since Bangalore (which is why I'm inside in the middle of the day) and the synagogue is closed for renovations, and they're not sure when it'll be open again. We did walk around Jew Town, and get hassled by approximately one billion shopkeepers eager for us to just look around, no obligation, you don't have to buy, it doesn't cost anything, blah blah blah. Just walking around any Indian city takes the patience of a saint.

Speaking of patience, one thing that's starting to drive me mad about this country is that just about everyone is trying to rip us off. We have to go into any store or rickshaw transaction with the assumption that the price we're quoted is going to be outrageous, but a lot of the time we don't know what the reasonable price is. I hate haggling, and I especially hate haggling when the amount I'm being ripped off by is equivalent to about one dollar. I'll work up a full head of steam, realize how little 20 rupees is worth, and then just decide to get in the rickshaw and get it over with. It's possibly my least favorite thing about the country.

Anyway, we're here until Wednesday afternoon, when we fly back to Bangalore, and I'll actually have to begin work on these papers. Hooray!

I'm alive

Hello everyone, I haven't forgotten about the blog, and I was all set to write a nice long post here until the power went out in this cafe and I was informed that there's only five minutes of battery backup before I lose everything. Once I can find a stable place I will tell you all the cool stuff that's going on.

Pondy

Greetings from Pondicherry's hippest Internet cafe, Coffee.com. This has to be the strangest place in India. It was a French colony until the middle of the twentieth century, and it's immediately obvious once you enter the city. All the streets have French names, the cops wear French uniforms, the streets are broad avenues insted of the cramped alleys of normal Indian cities, and our waiter at dinner last night spoke French as a first language. Then you step out into the street and get buzzed by a rickshaw. Very odd.

We came here from Chennai, which I would be perfectly happy never seeing again. Exceedingly polluted, absolutely unwalkable, and with the hardest-bargaining rickshaw drivers I've ever seen. There's really very little to see there except the government museum, which commands about 45 minutes of your time.

We came from there to Pondy, seeing some temples on the way. This morning we went to Auroville, an experiment in cooperative living just over the border in Tamil Nadu. It was founded by one of India's revolutionary political leaders and his companion, a French woman known as the Mother. We saw a film on how wonderful it is to live there, and saw their meditation center (which resembles a giant golden golf ball), but couldn't see the actual village. Still, an interesting thing to hear about.

It's lunchtime now, and we'll be seeing an ashram after that. More updates to follow.

Disaster strikes

As you may have deduced, I am NOT on a train right now.

We were at our pre-train dinner when we get a call from Raju. Our train plans are no more. Apparently he decided that the Dasara crowds would be too much on the trains and cancelled our tickets, booking us for an 8:30 AM flight out of Bangalore instead.

For those who don't know the geography of the area, this means we will be leaving the guesthouse at 3 AM for the 3 hour bus ride to the airport. It's a 45 minute flight to Chennai. From there we'll be going pretty much directly to the first temple. We're going to be totally sleep-deprived and obligated to pay attention to the teacher. This is especially bad for me because I'm writing my final architecture paper on the very first temple we're visiting.

I'm fairly disappointed. As anyone who knows me knows, train is my favorite way to travel, and it doesn't help that this completely ruins our sleep schedule.

The Mysore Zoo

List of things currently living in my room:

1. At least two geckos
2. At least three spiders (which are far away from my bed, thankfully)
3. The nightly mosquito invasion
4. A mouse?

My little furry friend hasn't made any appearances lately, so I can only assume he's moved on to greener (dirtier) pastures. I'm just glad I didn't have to deal with disposing of a mouse corpse.

In more exciting news, tomorrow night we leave on our overnight trip to Chennai, formerly known as Madras. We'll be traveling for around two weeks, and I'll have sporadic Internet access at cafes. I'll update when I can.

The festival week was fairly uneventful. It seems to mainly be an excuse for Indian tourists to spend a bunch of money. People are trickling back into the guesthouse as I speak, and it's a bit of a joly after a week of almost nobody being here. The high point of the week was probably going for a swim at the Regalis Hotel's pool. Not exactly an exotic experience, but a highly refreshing one nonetheless.

Time to get packing. Updates on the trip to follow once I get to a computer in Chennai.