Travels – where next?

Arrived in Delhi – you won’t believe what happens next

Posted on October 16, 2016 by Steve

Location: Agra, not part of the plan

Hotel: Royal Inn Raj Paradise – don’t be fooled by the name. 2 stars*

Bonfire Guest House 4 stars*

* This is my personal rating based on how useful the hotel is. e.g. Royal Inn was crap, they had a noisy generator running for power, linen may or may not have been clean, didn’t speak much English. Bonfire is crappish, but it is cheap, the owner is a young guy who is super friendly and helpful which gives the place bonus stars.

I imagine it happens in other industries, but in hospitals there is a pervasive superstition. If you enter a ward that is quiet, you are not to mention the word quiet as that ensures that it won’t be quiet for much longer.

Similarly I mentioned good omens yesterday – stupid me.

It was a looong 36 or so hours getting to Delhi. Not much sleep and bodily clock completely out of whack.

I had made reservations at two hotels as I know how these things work, last trip on the night I arrived my driver couldn’t find the hotel I had booked even though we were right at the address. I later learned that a hotel entrance might just be a door, I can now add to that knowledge that I don’t know how these things work at all, it can be way more ‘interesting’.

With only hand luggage I was out of the airport in 10 minutes. Nice!

Getting to New Delhi station from the airport was a surprisingly simple mission. There was the usual clutch of auto drivers and I agreed to a R50 fare to the hotel.

Somewhere near it we were blocked by a boom gate, the area is closed. Gate keeper and auto drive converse in Hindi and I understand that we are trying a different route.

Except we weren’t. I ended up at a ‘tourist office’ where I discover there is some festival on, the one where they whip themselves with sharpened somethings – Knives? Chains? Tongues? Who knows, but the area is sealed off.

It seems half of Delhi is shut down and the helpful bloke let’s me call both hotels who confirm I can’t get to them. It is now midnight and I am exhausted.

Helpful bloke suggests the only solution is to get out of Delhi. There are no trains by this time of night and I am exhausted.

After a lot of research, discussion, righteous indignation, thoughts and vacillation I am still too exhausted to think straight and knowing I am being robbed I agree to a driver taking me 200km to Agra. Short of sleeping on the ground at the railway station I can’t come up with anything else.

I was assured, this is a 2.5 hour trip, but that didn’t factor in a driver whose average speed was under 80kph on a 100kph freeway. He drove the whole way with his lights on high beam – no big deal, so did everyone else, it was blinding. I was struggling to stay awake and was freaking out that he was too.

Fortunately most of the time we were going slowly enough to avoid serious injury should he have run off the road or into one of the many trucks with no tail lights.

We arrive at 0400 at an overpriced hotel in a back street off of a back street of Agra. When I left this morning the guy asked if I was coming back and when I said it was unlikely, miraculously the price of a room dropped by 30%. I can only wonder if the 30% surcharge went to the driver.

I am less exhausted now, I have a SIM card, some cash and all the time in the world.

Monday I will go back to the Taj Mahal – like any Wonder of the World you don’t go there on the weekend. Not part of the plan, but I am here, why wouldn’t I?

The other thing I was hoping to do since I am in Agra was visit Sheroes Restaurant but had no idea how to find it.

Walking to find an ATM and phone shop I stumbled on it by chance. But I am not taking this as an omen.

A religious experience

Posted on October 14, 2016 by Steve

$AUD1 = 3 Ringgit = 50 Rupees = $US0.75c Try to keep this in mind, I will generally talk in the local currency unless I need to convert for effect.

Location: Kuala Lumpur

Hotel: Container Capsule at airport. Quite interesting. 80 Ringgit for 6 hours to catch up on sleep. Built to look like shipping containers but it isn’t really. Just a bed in a compartment even I can’t stand up in, but it is perfect. If it was my holiday destination it would rate 1 star, but to freshen up it gets 4.5 stars – losing that last bit for having a noisy fan.

The trip has started wth a good omen – I have an empty row of seats on the flight fromGold Coast to Kuala Lumpur. Yeah, it is only a 3 seat row, but that is plenty long enough for me to stretch out during the 8 hour flight.

I manage to get about 4 hours sleep 🙁

Into KL at 0400, how exciting!!! And I am an international transfer so appear doomed to living hell, a day inside an airport. I know it is a first world problem and casually mention to someone behind an information desk that I am supposedly a privileged white male.

She immediately grasps the seriousness of the situation and suggests I can get a “pass out” from immigration if I already have my boarding pass.

Before I know it the time is 0530 and I am at KL Sentral station wondering a) what time it gets light (0700) and b) what time the city wakes up – coincidentally it is 0700 as well.

The first train to Batu Caves (thanks for the idea uncle Ron) is too nervous to appear until first light so I kill 90 minutes in another kind of living hell, a railway station. This has the dubious attraction of a guy in camo walking around blowing a whistle periodically. I look for a ball game of some sort and realise that the game is “don’t you dare fall asleep suckers”, played with homeless people and other travellers.

Batu Caves is actually pretty cool. A limestone outcrop full of some huge caves dropped in the middle of suburbia. Hmmm…since caves are open space can something be full of them? Let the debate begin.

The place has many temples in and around it. it is obvious how, like Uluhru, such things had (have?) mystical significance. The biggest cave is the only one you don’t have to pay to get into, which means it is the only one open at 0730.

My guess is that they tried taking money off people but after the climb they were too exhausted to pay. It is steep!!! But it is worth the effort to see how ongoing renovation works can nudge something that is quite outstanding to being quite a mess.

I am there for morning puja, a drummer and someone playing a long instrument that likely has a name but can best be described as a metal oboe but with holes rather than whatever those mechanical things are. In the West drum machines have taken their toll on drummers, here there is no harmonium player, instead there is a cassette player playing a drone – cassette player! The acoustics in the cave are awesome enough to overlook this.

Despite all the work going on the place is really interesting, plenty of gods to pray to if you are so inclined. I was watching a ritual and the holy man came over and put a white tilak mark on my forehead. Astonishingly, I wasn’t expected to make a donation (I don’t think).

One good thing about being so early was that the tourist busses didn’t start arriving until about 0930 – I think the place gets crazy during the day.

Body clock completely wonky, I think I am hungry and right opposite was a Hindu restaurant. These places are great because Hindus are vegetarian so no trying to figure what to eat.

My first meal is a dhosa with 2 glasses of sugar cane juice for 10 Ringgit ($3). It was a religious experience.

Is this it?

Posted on October 13, 2016 by Steve

I fly out in 4 hours and thought it wise to make sure all systems are working. This is mainly a test of whether https://Steve.Davis.net.au posts automatically end up on Google+ and Facebook. And it is a good opportunity to get started once again. If you are interested in reading about my last trip click the 2015 category in the right hand column.

I am taking a phone, a tablet and a camera – although I have a support team so I can relax a bit, I will be keeping an eye on 123host. What a world we live in when I can take photos on each of the devices. And what a first world issue to deal with when deciding which takes the best shot.

Best way to decide is a test

Samsung tablet -2Mb

Canon ixus camera – 9Mb

Motorola G3 phone – 5Mb

I think I will use the camera mostly. The tablet is a distant 3rd on resolution alone and let’s not even discuss that my finger photobombed the shot.

While I like the colours and contrast of the phone over the camera, they can be adjusted later in LightRoom. I prefer that little bit of extra view with the camera, I can always crop a camera shot, but I can’t add to a phone shot. It will be useful to take photos with the camera once in a while…I keep telling myself that.

This bag is all I am taking. I looked at it and laughed in a mixture of embarrassment, triumph and patheticness. It seriously has all I need. A clean shirt and pair of shorts, toiletries, some medicals (double checks gastri-stop), too many wires and chargers and of course, a ukulele. Yes, there is really a uke in there – I hope it will survive the trip.

What else can a person possibly need?

The bizarre thing is I needed a huge suitcase for a week in Melbourne recently and a day pack is all I need for 5 weeks in India.

Overnight to Kuala Lumpur where I really hope I am allowed out of the airport to go to Batu Caves during a 14 hour layover. Then into Delhi 2200hrs local time on Friday…I should be in great shape 😛

Another adventure begins

Posted on August 29, 2016 by Steve

Addendum

Posted on August 28, 2016 by Steve

“My beauty is my smile.”

This is the motto of the women at Sheroes Hangout, a café run and managed by acid attack survivors in India. They are strong, they are fearless, and they’re challenging the perception of beauty while raising awareness of violence against women.

Nestled amongst a row of busy shopfronts in the famous city of Agra—home to the Taj Mahal—stands a brightly colored two-story café called Sheroes Hangout. This pay-what-you-choose café employs women who have survived harrowing acid attacks, often at the hands of their own family members or romantic partners. According to a 2017 report by USA Today, acid attacks have been on the rise in India, averaging an estimated 250 to 300 victims per year. In India, an estimated 70 percent of acid attack victims are women. Often the acid, which is easily procured and extremely corrosive, leaves its victims deformed, blind, and forever scarred.

At Sheroes Hangout, the survivor’s stories are varied. One woman was attacked by a step-parent, jealous of her partner’s child. Another woman was left permanently scarred by her husband who, in his anger over not having been given a son, threw acid on his wife and two sleeping daughters. One young woman was attacked by a group of young men at random, who tossed the deadly liquid at her as she walked down the street.

Sheroes Hangout in India | © Barcroft Media/Getty Images

In an effort to address the growing national issue, two young men—Ashish Shukla and Abhay Singh—began the #StopAcidAttacks campaign in Delhi in March 2013. The founders were appalled by the staggering figures of acid attacks in India compounded with the lack of awareness about the violence against the predominantly female victims.

“Someone had to take the initiative,” explains Singh. “Acid attacks could be against males or females, but the majority of acid attacks are gender-biased towards women. We knew we couldn’t reach out to all of those survivors, so we decided to form an organization to represent them.”

The men quickly realized that the campaign’s goal would be to address the challenges that women would face after their attacks. They saw the need for a place where survivors could not only earn an income but also come together and uphold their dignity in society, proudly showing their faces in the safety of an organization that supports them. In December 2014, Sheroes Hangout was opened in Agra followed by a second café established in Lucknow.

An acid attack survivor working at Sheroes Hangout in India | © Barcroft Media/Getty Images

As a tourist in India, I first came across Sheroes Hangout in January 2017 while on a visit to the famous city of Agra. With its brightly colored décor and a menu of tasty snacks, the café seemed similar to any other but for one stark difference: all of the staff don scars from their life-changing acid attacks.

There is no need to ask the women what happened to them. Their stories are posted on the walls, played on a video screen, and printed on written materials. Guests are invited to visit the café to enjoy a meal or a drink, all while learning about acid attacks and meeting the strong, resilient women who survived them.

“After the attack, I couldn’t find work. No one would employ me. I had no way to make money” says Maddhu Kashyap, a wife and a mother from an underprivileged area of Agra who works at Sheroes Hangout.

It was only after a group from Sheroes Hangout came to visit Maddhu during one of her hospital stays that she learned about the café as a workplace. Her family was struggling to cover the costs of her injuries and medical expenses, but it was the lack of future income that caused her the greatest anxiety.

“It’s hard to get a job If you’ve been attacked by acid. Companies only want to hire beautiful faces. The government doesn’t give any help to victims,” adds Maddhu. “Now that I’m working at Sheroes Hangout, my children are back at school. It was the foreign people who buy drinks and eat food that helped me. Not the government.”

I speak with Roopa Kashyap, a woman I first met back in 2017. The change I see in this woman in just two years is remarkable. In our first meeting, Roopa proved quiet and shy. On this visit, Roopa sits before me in a black fitted blazer while wearing an expression of self-assurance and confidence.

“I never used to leave the house. I only left for medical appointments and hospital visits and when I did, I covered my face,” recalls Roopa. “Since joining Sheroes, I no longer cover my face. I make regular appearances and I speak about the Stop Acid Attack campaign. Now, I don’t care what people say.”

Roopa explains to me that when the Sheroes employees hear of a woman who was attacked, they go to meet her, give comfort, and provide support in those early days.

“It’s important for us to be together and show that Sheroes understands,” says Roopa with a smile. “We can support each other and continue living our lives.”

Sheroes Hangout in India | © Sabrina Rubini

Unfortunately, due to changes in Agra and a road widening plan, apparently Sheroes Hangout has been forced to move (their Lucknow location remains open). The café is currently closed and a #RebuildingSheroes campaign has been launched to raise funds for the new location.

I realised I left out a couple of important things along the way, so like all plans, the plan to not add any more to this blog was flexible. And I just found this in drafts ages later, still worth publishing.

Something has popped up on social media the last couple of days and I can’t believe I didn’t mention it at the time. In Agra, the location of the Taj Mahal, we visited Sheroes restaurant – twice. Rather than me explain, read this. Incredibly brave women with horrific injuries.

Namaste

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Steve

That’s all folks. The actual adventure is over but the memories will linger…which is why we do such things.

There are a lot of beliefs and myths and stuff about India that you hear, this is my annotated list of things I wish I had known before I went.

India is amazing – it is everything you do and don’t expect and more. India is an assault on all your senses. It is colourful, friendly, frustrating, noisy, crowded, spectacular, religious, smelly, funny, not punctual (mostly – but who cares) and absolutely fantastic.
Pack light – if I ever go again my entire wardrobe would be 1 pair long pants, 1 pair shorts, 2 cotton shirts, 1 pair sandals/thongs. That’s it. You do not need shoes, I carried a pair for 7 weeks that I only wore on the plane over. If you go north in the winter you might need a jacket. Obviously this doesn’t count for women, you will still need your entire wardrobe.
Water is not such a hassle – I didn’t intentionally drink tap water but I am sure I ingested it many times in drinks, food and the like. I likely brushed my teeth in tap water out of habit. Don’t freak out about it especially after you have been there a while and gotten accustomed to the flora. Drinking water is available everywhere, absolutely everywhere, for Rs20 (40c) for a 1 litre bottle

Not everyone speaks English – this was a bit of a surprise as I had assumed they did, even if not well. Also, not everyone speaks Hindi, especially in Tamil Naidu. I learned a handful of Hindi words and could count and then couldn’t use any of it the last week in the South. Speak in simple sentences even to English speakers. Don’t say “Can you tell me the way to the railway station please” say “Which way railway station?”. More often than not people will go out of their way to help you. Those that don’t will simply point in the general direction or give you a head waggle.
Head Waggle – yes it is endemic, here is what it means:
See that little golden spot where all the circles intersect? THAT is the meaning of the head waggle…I think
Money is easy – get yourself a Citibank debit card. No fees, they do a straight 3% loading on currency conversion, it can be used in ATMs everywhere to get local currency (watch for those that charge a transaction fee). The only problem was some online booking won’t accept a foreign debit card, shop elsewhere, there is always an alternative to buy exactly the same thing.
Trains are the best way to travel – install the Cleartrip app, easily the best way to book trains. If you are travelling overnight get yourself a 2AC seat this is 2nd class Air Conditioned. You get a bed and linen including a small towel. If you are not that fussy get a sleeper class, reserved bed but that’s all you get. Avoid general seating at all costs. Don’t freak out if a train is full a couple of days before and you are wait listed with up to 10 in front of you. In the whole time I was only not confirmed once, that was with The Sheila (she was confirmed) and we both travelled anyway. For trips to the airport and the like Uber and a local version, Ola, also work well. If you get an overnight bus, be sure to get a sleeper, they are pretty good.
Buy a local SIM – cheap as and even if just for using Google maps it is well worth it, especially since they don’t make station announcements on trains so you can check where you are. You will also get SMS notification about train bookings and the status of your ticket. I used Airtel, would likely choose another company next time, it was pretty slow internet.
You will get sick – maybe not very sick, I didn’t. But I definitely (and still) had stomach upsets that were more an inconvenience because you need to be aware of the nearest convenience. I took an arsenal of antibiotics for every ailment you could think of. Probably better to be prepared than need to go looking for it when you are feeling awful, but I do feel it was overkill. You can buy any drug over the counter at Medical Stores, even down to asking for how many tablets you want and they will be cut off the strip.
Eat street food – obviously not everything you see, but if it looks good, there are lots of people eating i.e. it is fresh and you are hungry, go for it. Street samosas are the best, don’t be surprised to see someone in front of you feeling them to make sure they are hot. I really enjoyed fresh sugar cane juice too, very refreshing and a bit of an energy boost. When you buy street food it is expected that you stand and eat and drink it before you pay for it. Also, if you need more sauce on your samosa, just ask.
Hotels are mostly good – this is a no brainer, you generally get what you pay for. Anything over about Rs700 will be reasonable, feel free to check the room first, don’t forget to feel the mattress, they can be very hard, a light pad over a board. Also check the hot water, don’t take their word for it that there is hot water – not that it matters really, the weather was so hot most of the time a cool shower was welcome. Towels are rare, take your own travel towel, one of those light ones that dries quickly. Every room has a ceiling fan that you will welcome for the air movement and the speed with which your washed clothes dry. The included Wifi will nearly always be dodgy. Sometimes a hotel will include breakfast which will sometimes be really good and other times just a piece of white toast with jam.
Have a theme – this time my theme was finding stepwells. It didn’t dominate my trip or distract from anything else, but it was fun to track them down and they are so cool. Your theme might be bird watching or temple visiting or seeing concerts. No matter what, it gives you some detective work to do in each location and you never know what it all leads to. This is where the adventure lies.
Go with the toilet flow – I think that washing rather than wiping is cleaner and embraced it. Finding toilet paper in a hotel is rare, anywhere else it is almost unheard of. Get used to it, likely 6 billion people in the world do not use TP.
Say yes! – this has been an onging theme of the blog because it was my philosophy for the trip. Saying yes to things I would normally balk at led to some of the most incredible and unique experiences I had. Obviously you need to make a quick decision on whether it isn’t such a good idea, but I don’t think I had more than a couple of times I knocked back an offer. Do be aware of people hustling, almost everyone wants something in return for helping you. But if you are offered a meal or somewhere to stay take it. The guest is god in India, people are honoured to have you in their homes and treat you unbelievably well.
I was invited into a Hindu festival celebration. I said yes, it was fantastic.

That’s it. I have nothing more to say. I hope you have enjoyed my ramblings and maybe are inspired to have an adventure of your own. If you have been lurking and gotten this far without commenting, say “hi” in the comments.

Namaste

Not quite done…

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Steve

If you get confused about times in this post it is because I am going to compress 4 days into one and use the first person present for the whole thing. No, it doesn’t make sense to me either.

Kuala Lumpur…hmmm…it is…actually I am not sure the word to describe KL, maybe I will come up with it by the end of the post. The initial word that comes to mind is clean. This is definitely a soft landing for returning to Australia from India. Still in Asia but people mostly obey traffic laws, there are no cows, no rubbish, streets are well maintained, they use machines such as excavators instead of human labour and no visible poverty – at least in our part of town.

We have found a shoebox of a room in Chinatown at Suzie’s Guest House. Given that we are only sleeping in it, being small doesn’t matter too much, but there isn’t a lot of space for the bucket to catch the condensating water dripping from the AC. It also got a bit cramped when guy had to come and climb up to the switchboard and reset the electrical switch for the whole place after something I plugged in tripped it.

Post in Chinese Temple, Kuala Lumpur

But it was in an interesting part of town and only a 2 minute walk from the railway station when you knew the way or 15 minutes the first time you walked there. A few doors down from the hotel was a wonderful Chinese temple, very different to all the Hindu temples in India.

Loved these hanging coils of joss.

Packets of joss sticks

It was right opposite a Hindu temple just like all the Hindu temples in India. But this being marriage season it was inevitable that one time we walked past we would see love, if not actually present, at least appear to be being consecrated.

We had seen a few pre-marriage celebrations, but this was the first actual ceremony

One block over is Petaling Street which I think might be one of the main street markets in the city. This is the best place to come if you like shoes and watches and handbags and t-shirts multiplied by 50. By that I mean there were about 50 stalls selling fake designer bags. Another 50 selling fake brand watches. Another 50 selling t-shirts. All selling the same shit. It is crowded and all the stall holders hassle you to come into their stall which sells the same shit as 49 other stalls you have just passed. We couldn’t wait to get out of there.

Transformer! Motorcycle converts into street stall. Very clever these Asians

Are you ready for a different currency? Three Malaysian Ringitt (RM) to the Australian dollar. I actually found myself converting to Rupees a couple of times since I was so used to them.

The better shopping was behind the market stalls in the shops at the base of the buildings. If you are willing to be a tough haggler and really stick to your guns and go to walk away you will generally get something for about half the original price. Sometimes the prices are stupid, one place a crappy little wooden Buddha carvings that were worth about RM10 and he was asking RM70, I involuntarily laughed out loud and he immediately said “OK, 50” which means I likely could have gotten it for about 25. Another place something mediocre was on sale for RM40 and I offered RM20 but wasn’t getting very far. We eventually got to him saying adamantly “best price is RM25” so I walked out of the shop, he came running “OK 20” but it was too late. My attitude hardened with this lot, if they are treating us like a soft touch and trying to take advantage I am not that interested in giving them my money.

Next day we decided to head on a big walking loop through the Central Market (more shops selling more of the same shit and some even worse shit) where Sheila finally found her dream sarongs. But of course by this time there was a hitch with finances. I hadn’t thought far enough ahead to transfer funds to the debit card I could use to pull cash from ATMs, you know how your money goes into that banking black hole for a couple of days? So for a day we were watching our Ringits, exchanging some $US and wondering if it was worth cashing in our Rupees. Fortunately the next day the funds arrived and we could eat, more importantly, Sheila could shop.

The walk took us to the KL Bird Park which is touted as the world’s largest free flight aviary on one sign and SE Asia’s largest on another. Either way, it was big and as much as I hate birds in cages, this was a mighty big cage to the point of not really being one. Except where the birds were in small cages for some reason.

The peafowl must be happy, there is a lot of them and they seem to be breeding quite happily.

Spotted this snake stalking a gecko that was desperately trying to not be lunch.

Spotted this beautiful snake stalking a gecko that was desperately trying to not be lunch.

Koi feeding frenzy

KL also has a free bus that does a loop around the city so we jumped on and off that a few times, heading to the the famed Lo Yat Plaza, the huge technology building. It wasn’t long before I had a feeling of deja vu, as though I had been there before. This was because I realised I had actually been there before a few years ago and in fact nothing had changed apart from the iphone model number. Six floors of nothing but computers and phones and IT stuff. Unless you are after something specific and know the price this place is just too big and overwhelming and like the market, too many shops selling exactly the same shit at too high a price.

Lo Yat Plaza

From there we wound our way to the famous Petronas Towers via a network of confusing underground tunnels that lead to the ground floor of the towers and, you guessed it, more shops. But these were not just ordinary shops, they were extra ordinary and I don’t mean extraordinary. Pick a brand name and the shop will be there, we could have been in any shopping mall in any city in the world. We couldn’t wait to get out…again.

At least on the outside you can get a sense of the scale of the buildings that were apparently built as a beacon to lead people to the shops and a celebration of fossil fuels (Petronas is an oil company). They are big and impressive for sure and the walkway that bridges them gives a sense of strength to the buildings.

Petronas Towers KL

Opposite the towers

Heading back to the hotel we walk through a park and there is a big marquee set up. I suggest we go in and check it out, Sheila is reluctant but in we go where it is a bit cooler and a bit confusing what it is all about. As we are leaving a guy comes up to me and asks if I speak English. He explains that the event is a regional promotional expo for Terengannu and their stand is promoting English languages courses, could they interview me. Yes! of course and I give what I hope is a good talk about English being useful but to be sure to hang on to their native language and culture, that making a connection with the person is more important than having perfect language and I am generally very profound and insightful. Most unlike me and I realise it.

He asks for a final general endorsement of the programme, about which I actually know absolutely nothing. This is my monologue as best I can remember and abbreviated a bit, you’ll get the idea.

“Thank you for the opportunity of addressing you and endorsing your wonderful programme. As the Prime Minister of Australia I want to tell you how excited I am to see such programmes blossoming in our region. I fully endorse the programme and promise to send billions of dollars in Australian aid to support it. We will also send food, clothes and beer. It is been my honour attending your expo today, as the Prime Minister I thank you for the invitation.”

They laughed a lot and loved it. Whether or not it will be useful is debatable. As usual, honoured guests had to appear in a photo.

Prime Minister of Australia and Ms Prime Minister pose with the locals.

Speaking of saying Yes!, it can be tricky getting The Sheila to do something she thinks is a bit silly, but witha bit of coaxing… This was also at the expo, such fun.

They are trying to make this an iconic KL sculpture, we’ll help by including it in a blog that is read by a handful of people.

And then we were at the airport heading for home. A huge hat tip to Air Asia for what is the worst check-in experience I have had in my life. KL airport is huge and a bit confusing at the best of times. We find Air Asia and there are hundreds of people standing in lines at four areas, each area has maybe 5 check-in desks working. There is no indication of which area or which line you should be in, they all just say “Baggage Drop” so we get in one line that moves very slowly. It isn’t like we have chosen the wrong line, they are all moving very slowly.

Unfortunately the hands on the clock are moving quite quickly and about 20 minutes before the flight closes I estimate that we are still over 30 minutes from the front of the line. We lose our position to find a better line or somewhere to queue jump and completely fail. I ask an Air Asia guy what we should do, the flight closes in 10 minutes now. He says “get on the back of any line” and I again explain that the flight is closing and we will not make it. Again he says to just get on a line. I say “Mate, I don’t want to fight with you, but you are not helping me one bit, we will miss our flight”. Perhaps he thinks this is Australian for “I am going to biff you” because he then suggests just pushing to the front of one of the very long lines. Great!

But I see it as the solution, so I grab the one bag we are checking and brazenly walk past all the patient people in one of the lines, up to the desk and tell the bloke “if you don’t check this bag now we are going to miss the flight” and bugger me, he does. The people I push in front of are even helpful and pass the bag to the scales and we finally breathe a sigh of relief…well I do. I don’t freak out often but this had me worried, it is like Air Asia have never done this before…completely useless.

We are on the plane heading home. I offer some gastri-stop that we thankfully never had to use to the woman sitting in my row who needs it and then, just when you think nothing else serendipitous can happen, as I am filling out my immigration card,her husband sitting next to me points something out.

Imagine how confusing this would have been indentifying body parts

Imagine how confusing this would have been identifying body parts

And now we are home, I have finished this post and I haven’t come up with the word to describe KL.

Tomorrow I will do one more post, it might be a best of, it could be a warning, it might be encouragement. I’ll sleep on it.

When we left India, despite my encouraging her to get some henna design on her hand, Sheila regretted not doing it. In KL someone was doing some at (believe it or not) Backpackers Day. Thanks to Google photos for the auto awesome animation.

The final result looks even better a couple of days later

This is the final result, it looks even better a couple of days later.

Could it be the end?

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Steve

It seems like months ago that I arrived in India, in fact it was 7 weeks. The Sheila met me in Delhi 2 weeks ago and here we are, about to leave.

We have arrived back in Chennai for a flight to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow morning and had an auto driver take us to a hotel near the airport so we didn’t have to travel far at 0600hrs.

Of course the last night in India is true Indian style. The overpriced hotel is in one of the worst streets I have seen in a while and the promised wifi has been limited because, as the manager put it ‘someone had many movies downloaded’. So we move to their ‘annexure’, same hotel but a couple of doors down the same bad street and the wifi works.

By bad street I do not mean unsafe, just that it was muddy and wet and crowded and grotty with no decent shops. But there was a cool market just around the corner that had some fantastic stuff like this:

This delightful piece is a backpack that I think is meant to be kind of like but not quite Mickey Mouse so that it doesn’t infringe copyright. Not intentionally of course. Who buys this shit?

We did find one veg restaurant after a bit of searching and after much comedic mime and signing trying to figure out what was on the menu we settled on an Aloo Mutter Paneer (Potato and pea with cottage cheese) curry with a couple of naan. The total price was about Rs150 ($3) and it was one of the tastiest meals I had eaten.

Served on banana leaves on the plastic plates with no cutlery. This is not tourist stuff, this is a non-descript restaurant in a back street in Chennai.

This was an overnight transit stop so apart from bad backpacks and good food, we move on to Kulala Lumpur.

Farewell India!

Halloween, you’re doing it wrong. In fact it is a religious thing, unlikely they have heard of Halloween, lucky buggers.

She was being milked at the time and had the biggest horns of any water buffalo I had seen. Not a great photo, it was pretty dark and I didn’t want to flash it.

I loved the incredible range of doors, especially on temples.

Wandered into a toy store back in Kolkatta and they had the most incredible collection of old kids cars as well as other old toys.

Refusing to use ‘Pi’ in blog title

Posted on October 31, 2015 by Steve

We woke up to a miracle of well being on the day we planned to leave for Puducherry from Mahabalipuram. Perhaps it was because we have visited so many temples, maybe because I have patted so many cows, it could be modern medicine, who knows?

Sheila was feeling so back to normal, despite my suggestion we catch another taxi, she was happy to go by local bus.

The super deluxe coach from Mahabalipuram to Puducherry, this means it has decent seats.

The ultra deluxe coach from Mahabalipuram to Puducherry, this means it has decent seats.

Overnight train trips get you to your destination overnight, but you don’t get to see a lot. Daytime bus trips through rural India are another story. Salt harvesting, rice paddies, other unidentified crops, countless shrines and temples and on this trip, a real thrill to see wild flamingoes in a lake we passed.

Flamingo at Kuala Lumpur bird park for illustration purposes only

Lonely Planet had another win with the Park Guest House where every room has a balcony overlooking the Bay of Bengal. This place is run by the Sri Aurobindo ashram and the grounds are full of simple but beautiful pieces of art some of which are going to be replicated at home.

All over the place are posters of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, a French woman who became his collaborator. There are lots of rules and even a curfew, but it was a great place to stay and see if Puducherry would scratch Sheila’s itch.

Of we set on foot in search of French influence. We didn’t get far before we fell victim to the ice cream shop just down the street at Alliance Francais. This was a good start.

The old map had lots of streets with French names. A newer map, and the streets themselves, had Indian names. The good start was tarnished a bit.

Before long Sheila was so well and in such rapture that she was salivating at all the Frenchiness ranging from buildings to food to faux gendarmes with non-faux firearms.

Puducherry police

There is a French embassy and to ice the cake of expectation, people actually speak French here. Sheila is in heaven and I have to conceded that I was wrong about Puducherry being as French as Nouméa I.e. not at all.

There was a rehearsal for a parade and the military guys were happy to pose, just look at the excitement on their faces

The cherry on top of the croissant was a wonderful meal in an almost French restaurant. My how the appetite has returned.

Delighted at our ‘French’ dinner, this makes me happy and life easier.

There was also a certain amount of wistfulness starting to creep in because our trip is ending . Puducherry is our last stop before heading back to Chennai for our flight to Malaysia. So we were lapping it up.

More Park Guest House art, broken terracotta pots.

More Park Guest House art, pieces from broken terracotta pots.

Of course there were Hindu temples, one particularly spectacular and another with what can only be described as an endearing performing elephant.

Hindu temple Puducherry

Temple ceiling

Place some money at the end of its trunk and it will touch you on the head to “bless” you. This is important enough to people to have them lining up and the elephant receiving enough coins to keep it supplied in croissants.

Elephant blessing

You can take the girl out of the Catholic Church but you can’t totally remove the church from the girl. So we visited some old churches and I scratched my head as Sheila, who had been a bit puzzled by the overt devotion of Hindus, crossed herself entering and leaving. Or maybe the scratching was from the elephant blessing.

Happy face electrical box bathing in rainbow

Happy face Catholic electrical box bathing in rainbow

Who knew that baby Jesus had male-pattern baldness, obviously inherited.

Continuing the series of military male models

I think you get the drift: there never was a Pondicherry zoo, but the French really were there and their influence remains. We had a lovely time and the truth is, there’s not a lot to write about, but plenty of pics of a relaxing couple of days.

Cutting firewood for the restaurant cooker, with an electric saw

Doctor doctor give me the news…

Posted on October 31, 2015 by Steve

Although I am generally writing posts a few days after the event I try to write it as though it is a live blog, hopefully you feel you are right here with us at Suradeep Hospital, Mamallpuram.

Suradeep Hospital, Mamallapuram

But before I get to the gory details let me back up, because the journey is as much fun as the destination, sometimes.

Although she wasn’t up to walking, eating or much else, The Sheila was so looking forward to heading south to Puducherry she worked out an itinerary that included a place I hadn’t heard of, Mamallapuram or Mahabalipuram as it is also known.

Digression: there is a trend to change all the colonial names back to either their original or to an Indian name e.g. Mumbai was Bombay, Chennai was Madras. This can be very confusing when you have two maps of a place and the streets have different names on each map.

We flew into Chennai early afternoon from Kolkata with The Sheila as sick as ever, if not worse. This being her part of the holiday I am saying “yes” to almost everything including “taxi, I am too sick for a bus”. Fair enough, it was Rs1,200 ($25) which is quite expensive by Indian standards but a) it was over an hour b) AC and c) random foreign tourist rate.

Research included finding a hotel in an inherited (and since passed on) Lonely Planet guide book. Our experience has been mixed with LP suggestions. Varanasi hotel was great, this one not so much. Huge room with AC, quite clean, quiet, but no screens on the windows and the bathroom was pretty grotty. This is especially important when you aren’t feeling well already.

You can see what a joyous event an Indian marriage is. This was at the celebration and photo shoot the night before the ceremony We were invited to attend the ceremony the next morning, unfortunately Sheila was too sick.

Sheila spent all that afternoon and evening in bed while I wandered what turned out to be quite a nice place. I’d say it started as a fishing village, but they have adapted to tourism really well. The streets are the cleanest I have seen in India, they hustle the itinerant touts and sellers out of the area and the shop keepers are quite friendly. Though behind their relaxed friendliness lurks the desire to hustle you into their shop.

The difference was that there wasn’t so much pressure to buy, just having a look was acceptable to many of them and I had some great conversations, especially with the owner of the first music shop I have seen. I kind of wanted a tabla, but they are so big to carry.

My uke meets its bigger and watt more complicated cousins

My uke meets its bigger and way more complicated cousins

By now Sheila hadn’t eaten for 3 days and she wasn’t responding to any treatment I found on the internet when searching for “sick in India”. While walking home that night I passed a hospital/clinic and we decided to go there in the morning.

Entrance to the hospital

As the parent of a doctor and a pseudo doctor myself I have an idea about the western standard of medical facilities, Suradeep Hospital didn’t come close, except by name. For once being foreign tourists worked to our advantage and we queue jumped lots of sick locals. A sweet woman doctor was seeing a steady stream of patients as well as handling the money and giving instructions to five or so nurses and assistants.

This photo gives an idea of the sad state of everything, patient included

She wants to do blood tests and rehydrate Sheila. Foreign Tourist advantage: some bloke, likely dying of malaria or worse, is kicked out of a small room and Sheila is put on a Sodium Lactate drip in the back streets of an Indian fishing village.

The beginning of a happy ending

It is almost as bad as you are imagining. No change of sheets on the bed between patients though a pillow is found (no pillowcase) and put under the sheet. They do use antiseptic but no gloves. There is a fan in the windowless room, but power has been erratic all morning. None of the staff speak English. And not a working Clown Doctor in sight.

Ummm…

Leaving her to her fate I am sent on a mission to find a better hotel. Though I don’t want to bore you with details, I will share the criteria so that I can get some of the sympathy you are feeling for Sheila.

Clean
Sea breeze
AC
Soft bed
Screened windows
WiFi
Reasonable price
Quiet
Hot water
Ground floor

This is pretty much mission impossible, but I say “yes” and head out. A couple of hours later, having checked out every hotel in town (10+) I am able to report back that from the list of requirements she can choose any 4 and a hotel would fit the bill. The only happy ending happening this day was that one hotel, Siva Guest House, just around the corner from our original, won the day. Oh how I wish I had noted the names of all the hotels in all my posts…sigh.

As they hook Sheila up to a second bottle, this time Sodium Chloride, I am despatched to move house. This place, though on the 3rd floor, has screens, wonderful breezes and a balcony. The promised WiFi is disappointing. Geeky friends, have you ever heard of a WiFi access point being visible to some devices but not others? I couldn’t figure it out. Didn’t matter, it was slow anyway.

Just before the hospital visit, doesn’t she look great? Nice beach though, cows included.

Just as I finish the final trip from the original hotel with all our luggage and am ready for a shower and a nap my phone rings, possibly the second time in India. Sheila is finished and while I am tempted to try my luck with some humour and say “just walk back to the old hotel, you’ll see me” I don’t tempt fate and instead say “see you in 5 minutes”.

It is too late to cut a long story short, but some tablets were handed over, blood results analysed (minor infection) and we chatted to the doctor who owns the clinic. She hadn’t had a break in over 25 years or so and treats poor people for free. Our bill came to Rs2,600 ($55) and we gave her Rs3,000 to pay for some medicine for someone who couldn’t afford it.

I am going to kill this tale by saying that Sheila ate something that night, first food in 4 days, and by the next morning she was almost back to normal having risen from what she was convinced was her death bed.

I knew she was better, we went shopping!!! We went walking!!! We continued shopping!!! We ate!!!! We went shopping some more!!!

Random photo to fill page: I found the burial site of Australia’s fast broadband network, outsourced of course.

Having bought some cushion covers the next mission was to find a matching textile for the back of the couch and we did. It was Rs2,500 according to the shop keeper. I have mentioned that Sheila is uncomfortable with me haggling. She figures we earn enough to pay full price and I suspect she is also worried about me offending people. But to me, and I think to the shop keepers it is a game that while there is an edge, can be loads of fun.

And so it was with this guy. We spent about half an hour bantering and batting back and forth and bemoaning the fact that our children wouldn’t be able to eat and we laughed and the price was coming down slowly. In fact we really wanted this piece but I knew better than to let on, we were going to leave and go and think about it…but if he gave it to us for our spending limit of Rs1,000 we would buy now.

The Rs1,000 spending limit was something I invented when I got a sniff he might sell for that. Back and forth we went, he even offered us chai, he acknowledged was enjoying the game, I was honoured but knew it was a ploy to weaken me. Fortuitously I had exactly Rs1,000 in my top pocket, I whipped it out, handed it to him and he laughed “better than nothing” and we had a deal. Not bad from a Rs2,500 start. Sheila softened the blow by not haggling for a pair of earrings.

Incredible some masons start with this and in about 6 weeks truth it into...

Incredible stone mason starts with this and in about 6 weeks turns it into…

The final result of the carver’s handiwork. I was truly in awe.

Rather than take a taxi, we head 100km to Puducherry by local bus. Rs60 Vs Rs2,000. This has been a long post, so that tale is still to come.