All posts by champagne&backpacks

Langkawi

January 24, 2014 champagne&backpacks 2 Comments

Getting to Malaysia was among the least pleasant travel experiences of Jenni’s life. The journey began with moderate trepidation. The tide was super low when we left our little slice of paradise in Lipe, so we were unable to take the longtail boat. Instead, we had to call a “taxi” to take us by land over to the immigration stand at Bundhaya Resort on Pattaya Beach. A taxi on Koh Lipe is basically a moped with a sidekick module attached to the side. And by sidekick module I mean a little metal basket. The engine was apparently not powerful enough to carry the both of us and our luggage up the hill from our resort so the driver picked up our bags and told us to meet him at the top of the hill. Then we hopped on and I, being of course a person afraid of approximately 87% of things in the world, hopped in the front as we began zooming down the semi-paved road. I held on to the damn seat for dear life as I imagined which bone would be protruding from which part of my body when I went flying face first into the pavement.

::langkawi sunsets don’t suck::

Alas, we made it to immigration. As is now par for the course, we encountered obstacles. All the normal tourists have their itinerary/confirmation pages for their ferry tickets printed out and neatly presented in little laminate pockets. We had an email on an iPhone, which didn’t make the cut. So Alan walked around to the resorts, trying to find WiFi to e-mail the immigration/ferry lady a copy of the PDF so she could print our tickets. Of course, though, the one resort where WiFi had worked well before…now not so much. It’s becoming comical how often technology fails us.

By the way, one of the cardinal rules of international travel is to never let your passport out of your sight. But it’s impossible to follow that rule. So don’t be alarmed when they take your passport at the immigration office in Thailand and then call out names and hand out passports (already stamped) 45 minutes after you disembark in Langkawi.

The “ferry” from Lipe to Langkawi was horrid. Perhaps someone could have warned us that it is not, in fact, a ferry, like the ferry we took from Railay to Lipe, but rather a motorboat cum amusement park water ride. Expect to get absolutely drenched. Not a little “sea spray,” friends. Soaked. Like how wet you get when you shower, and not a shower in India or some place where the water pressure sucks. Like a shower with a rain shower overhead and those side sprayer things coming out of the wall from three sides. I normally wouldn’t mind the wetness, but for the fact that everything of technological value was stored in a non-water proof bag I desperately tried to keep dry by hoisting it above the ground between my legs and covering it with my lifejacket when I wasn’t holding on for dear life as the boat and my stomach dropped over harrowing waves that caused all the Asian women on the glorified “ferry” to scream like I do when I see spiders.

The rational man’s take: It was a tad scary, but mainly a rollicking, rough ride. Four factors jump to mind that often lead to accidents with casualties: a vessel in bad condition; passengers beyond capacity; lack of life jackets; inclement weather. None of the four was present.

First impressions on arrival, however, are quite positive. The harbor is attractive, feeling less industrial and more like where your wealthy Malaysian friend might keep his yacht. The backdrop is comprised of steep, jungle-covered mountains and the Langkawi cable car. Langkawi is actually an archipelago of 99 or 104 islands, depending on the tide. But the name usually refers to the largest, main island.

Here does not feel remote as Lipe did, and it seems decidedly modern. There are high quality signs with (almost) perfect English. (To be fair, though, passed and past are at least both words, as opposed to “showa,” as some Thai ads boast. I’m from Boston, but I don’t think the rest of the wicked smaht English speakers of the world would agree it counts.) Our taxi driver, while naturally charging us a bit of a rip-off price, was friendly, spoke pretty good English, and engaged us in conversation about both his hometown of Langkawi and our experience in Lipe.

We stayed a little bit off the beaten bath. We decided an ocean view for a reasonable price (with some compromises of course: shared bathrooms and no actual beach) trumped an expensive beachfront resort or a cheap place off the water. So we opted to stay in a tube. Tubotel is a strange little spot with “rooms” built into what are essentially large concrete pipes. They’re just about big enough for a bed (with your bags stored underneath) and a lamp. It’s definitely a funky and unique place, with lounge music, abstract and somewhat hipster art, a fun common area complete with day beds, plunge pools (pretty much just a couple large concrete tubs of unheated water, but pleasant enough to cool off in), a pool table, homemade pizza and mini-kegs on offer from the fridge. The airport is nearby, and we quickly learned that Air Asia here is like Southwest in Los Angeles. You see their planes constantly, easily identified by color.

::tubes::

::common area @ Tubotel::

::that’s the room!::

Perhaps what we appreciated most about Tubotel were the “eco-pirate” tours they offer on a daily basis, shuttling guests to and from the nearby islands for free provided they pick up trash while on the beach. Even though we weren’t able to participate, we loved this idea, especially after our inspiration in Railay where we made a small contribution to remove some garbage from the otherwise magnificent beach.

Tubotel is just across a little inlet from the very popular beach (Pantai Cenang), but it takes about 20 minutes to walk there because the bridge is inland a bit. Once you do reach Pantai Cenang, be sure to look both ways when crossing the sand to avoid being hit by an SUV (they drive along the beach, jet skis and banana boats in tow). The beach is deep and the water is calm, albeit not so pristine looking and the sand quality is mixed. Picky comments for sure, but we’re coming from Thailand, and Cenang, my friends, can’t hold a candle to Lipe or Railay’s beaches. Though the sunsets were consistently marvelous on our three nights here.

Casa del Mar, a pricier resort on the Cenang strip, seemed like a great place to post up. So much so that we spent the better part of a day at its beach-side restaurant using WiFi and drinking sangria. The sangria was necessary, because much of this day was spent trying to pay for our new and improved (and by improved I only mean more expensive. Except for that pediatric dental care. That will come in handy for all the children’s teeth we’ve hoarded) Affordable Care Act health plan (seriously, how has this been so hard), and dealing with getting our credit card replaced (and all of our automated bill-pays updated) because the first time we shopped at a Target in probably two years was the week before we left the country and coincided with hackers stealing the credit card information of all Target shoppers.

::working hard or hardly working?::

::casa del mar::

The street just behind the beach resorts is abuzz with restaurants and shops. We thoroughly enjoyed Yasmin’s chicken shawarma. So much that we considered getting it again the next night, changing our minds only when we found a Turkish restaurant, Istanbul, where we wolfed down a chicken doner kebab sandwich and spicy lamb iskender kebab with yogurt sauce. Near Yasmin we bought some potent Carlsberg special brews (8.8%!) at the 7-11 and noticed a sign that alcohol sales are only for non-Muslims. By the way there are so many 7-11’s in much of Asia.

::beer for non-muslims only::

::their magazines look a little different than ours too::

Langkawi manages to strike a nice balance between action and relaxation. The main strip is lively and the beach has jet skis, but you don’t see rowdy partiers or hear much untz-untzing.

::and you can now see why we did little swimming here::

::loved these shrubs shaped into umbrellas::

We did something here that we hadn’t done since leaving the states almost two months before: we drove! We rented a car to explore more of the island. It was such an incredible feeling of freedom we’d forgotten, to be able to go as we please, wherever we wanted, with no haggling or ten minute conversations with a tuk-tuk driver to try to communicate a destination, and just throwing anything we might need for the day in the trunk. Alan was a pro with the steering-wheel-on-the-right, keep-left style driving, which was made very pleasant by the fact that there are super nice, rule-abiding, non-aggressive drivers here! It’s interesting that we have traveled exclusively in countries that drive on the left so far this trip (Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and Malaysia). You’d think this means I know which way to look before crossing the road by now, but it still isn’t quite second nature. The roads are also well-labeled and well-maintained, which made the contrast of roadside monkey clusters and later a herd of water buffalo crossing all the more intriguing.

::driving! a rare pleasure in Southeast Asia::

::monkey crossing!::

We first drove up to what had been described as the nicest beach on the island, on the north side, where some fancy schmance resorts are (Four Seasons and Tanjung Rhu). It’s a nice beach for sure, but still can’t really compare to Koh Lipe or Railay. That said, it was very interesting to see some women sporting bikinis next to Muslim women covered entirely head to toe. And we arrived at low tide to some really cool sandbars, one of which Jenni walked out to. It was a very long path and she lost her way on the return. A Malay man wanted to talk, know where we’re from, welcome us to his country, but Jenni was having a mild panic attack worrying that if she couldn’t find the sandbar to lead her back the way she came then would she step on those sea urchins with the crazy long needles? Asian sea urchins are far more destructive looking than the ones you see in the U.S. Which reminds me, I found it amusing and impressively resourceful when a kind European man we’d met in Thailand warned us to be careful to avoid stepping on the urchins in the direction we were headed by describing them as “sea porcupines.”

There are lots of women by the parking area at Tanjung Rhu offering one or two-hour boat rides to visit the mangroves and watch an eagle being fed. We passed, but I did see some mysterious animal poking out of the ocean that may or may not have been a crocodile. Or do they have seals here?

We planned to check out Datai Bay but stopped for lunch at Scarborough’s fish and chips. This nice little beachfront spot caught a hold of us with its free WiFi, and it was here over fried snow fish and spring rolls that we took the plunge into joint blogdom! (Only to run into…you guessed it…technical difficulties that were not resolved for weeks).

::why don't they sell this in the states?? jasmine iced tea. so good:: — ::why don’t they sell this in the states?? jasmine iced tea. so good::

Hours later, we drove over to the Langkawi cable car at Oriental Village hoping to catch the sunset. This is a great opportunity to get views of the island, and a very popular activity for visitors. It was absolutely terrifying. I’ve been on aerial trams before. I ski. I’ve been on those sky-bridge platform things in the Australian jungle. I’ve taken the tram to Sandia peak in New Mexico. This was by far the scariest one. I cried. Both ways. Going up I made it to the first “stop” and to my horror I realized Alan wasn’t kidding that the ride wasn’t over. That’s when I cried. On the way down I tried closing my eyes, but it didn’t help. Wow. If you’re afraid of heights, maybe this one is not for you.

Fortunately for Jenni, at least the sky bridge at the top was closed so she was spared the horror of walking across this suspension path spanning a deep chasm. It was a bit hazy so the views weren’t great, but we could still see quite a bit and the jungle covering these mountains is impressively dense and verdant.

::Jenni is still recovering here::

Overall we would say that Langkawi is quite a pleasant place and good for a Thai visa run or perhaps a quick beach escape with its international airport. But we would not advise traveling a great distance to visit Langkawi alone.

Practical Info

The main commercial area on the island is Kuah. The most popular beach area is at/around Pantai Cenang. The north coast is quieter with some fancy resorts. There are ATMs in Kuah and also at Telaga Harbour and Underwater World. Langkawi is duty free which means alcohol and chocolate, among other less important things, are cheap.

The exchange rate was 1 USD = 3.3 MYR.

Transportation: We took a ferry from Koh Lipe, Thailand which lasted about 1.5 hours. As noted above, it was a rough ride. We bought the tickets on Telaga Terminal’s website and paid $74 for two but the boat said Bundhaya on it. This ferry lands at Telaga Harbour, which is closer to the beaches and resorts on the west of the island than is the Kuah Jetty. There is an ATM and mini mart here. From Telaga it was about a 15 minute drive to Pantai Cenang (taxi cost 30 MYR). There is an international airport (and this is Air Asia territory), and also ferries from Penang and the mainland.

Our ferry to Penang left from Kuah Jetty, and a taxi there from Tubotel cost only 30 MYR and took 30-40 minutes. The Kuah Jetty area has a Starbucks with free WiFi, several other F&B options, ATMs, SIM card shops, etc.

Many visitors rent a moped or car, which is a good idea because it’s fairly cheap and the driving is very mellow compared to many Asian destinations. We got a Nissan Sentra automatic for 24 hours, delivered to and picked up from our hotel, for 90 MYR. A manual transmission would have cost 60 MYR. Petrol is subsidized and inexpensive at ~2 MYR/liter, far less than we pay back in California.

Accommodation: We stayed at Tubotel, an interesting property just west of Pantai Cenang that we described above. There are loads of properties on Pantai Cenang. Casa del Mar is very well-reviewed, and Meritus Pelangi is a big resort on the western end of that beach. Many fancier resorts are on the north side of the island, including Four Seasons and Tanjung Rhu at the eponymous beach, and The Datai on its namesake bay. There are also some less expensive, well-reviewed places off the beach in the hills.

Food: There are abundant options on the main strip at Pantai Cenang. Yasmin is a Syrian joint with a small, proper restaurant as well as a nearby sidewalk stand where we enjoyed chicken shawarma (10 MYR). Palm View offers seafood plus meats like deer and ostrich and was crowded. Orkid Ria was packed each night. Tomato is popular. There is Starbucks and a 24-hour McDonald’s.

Istanbul was closer to Pantai Tengah, the beach just southeast of Cenang. If you are near Tanjung Rhu then Scarborough’s is a good option for fish and chips.

There are also Dunkin’ Donuts and Dairy Queens in abundance in Langkawi and Penang. How is it easier to find a Dunks in Malaysia than it is in California?

Activities: Perhaps the star attraction is the cable car, ascending ~700 meters in less than 15 minutes. Tickets may be sold in combination with things like a 3-D movie, but we did just the cable car and it cost 30 MYR each. Pantai Cenang is the most popular beach area and it’s loaded with jet ski rentals and parasailers. Underwater World is located here. There are also some crafts centers, Telaga Tujuh (aka Seven Wells) Waterfalls, a museum or two and duty free shopping.

January 19-22, 2014 (Sunday-Wednesday)

Asia, Koh Lipe, Thailand

Paradise Found: Lipe

January 19, 2014 champagne&backpacks 1 Comment

Sweet, untainted tropical bliss. Our home of five nights on Koh Lipe was pure, unbridled relaxation. We picked the very best hotel on the whole island, if I do say so myself. The island is quite small; you can easily walk around pretty much the whole place without exerting too much energy. The vast majority of the hotels are located on Pattaya Beach and Sunrise Beach, with a smattering also on Sunset Beach. Ours was set apart from all of them, on its own private little beach over the hill from Pattaya and a bit south of Sunset. And oh, was it paradise. We knew things were looking good when our longtail from Pattaya rounded the southern tip of the island and we saw some crab-eating macaques climbing up the rocks above the flawless turquoise sea. We had a little cove filled with lounge chairs and hammocks, a small beach, a slice of crystal clear water to wade in and a huge labyrinth of coral to snorkel through.

::arriving via longtail::

So if you go to Koh Lipe, we highly recommend you check out Pitiusas Resort. I believe it’s fairly new as it hasn’t got too many reviews on TripAdvisor or elsewhere, a fact that made us hesitate to book, but so happy we pulled the trigger. It’s a bargain for such a pristine and isolated corner of the Thai islands. Our bungalow was about $70/night. To be clear though, the rooms are not what make this place so special. Each room is its own bungalow set up on stilts up a hill. There’s a smidgen of an ocean view and the rooms are pretty bare bones. They are not overly spacious, large enough for a big (kind of hard) bed, a fan and a little armoire. That said, you do have your own private balcony complete with a hammock. There is no hot water, but as we are becoming accustomed to rarely showering this didn’t bother us. Also, it’s hot and you are in the ocean constantly, so it’s not really a big deal here. That said, we showered once in five nights. (Cue the “ewwws.” We joked that our average rate of showers per week is probably closer to two than our former seven. How will we ever adjust to the working world again? Oh, with a real shower, probably.) And since we’re getting it out with the negatives, the beach is not ideal for swimming when the tide is very low. And while there is a restaurant and a teensy-weensy bar, there is not a ton of variety, and the service is not the most impressive. And this is a plus or minus depending on the person: be prepared for lots of topless Europeans (this is not specific to Pitiusas, but it’s more common on these quieter more isolated beaches). Boobies big and small, perky and droopy. And bikinis are not limited to the svelte and sexy. Am I becoming weirdly modest, or are one pieces very much in vogue in the US? I don’t think we saw a single other person in a one piece in Thailand. We saw lots of larger than lifes in thong-esque bikinis though. When did I become such a prude?

::private deck and hammock::

::swing::

::the bar::

The WiFi didn’t work, which put us a bit behind on the blogging, but it was such a nice place to unplug and unwind. I think we read a cumulative five books over the four and a half days there.

The landscape is slightly different here vs. e.g. Railay in that you don’t get the jaw-dropping limestone karsts or dramatic cliffs, but the trade off for remoteness balances out. Alan remarked that Lipe has a bit of a South Pacific feel. And this is what Jenni calls a “honeymoon place.” Railay is not a honeymoon destination, unless you want to be surrounded by hip Europeans and topless chubby Russian ladies and hoards of men in banana hammocks and worst: children. If I were to honeymoon in Thailand, I would do it somewhere like Pitiusas on Lipe.

::the bar::

Again, the animals were a highlight for me. I struck up an intense friendship with the semi-wild resort dog, whom I affectionately named Bug. With the manners of a well-trained house dog and the energy and joy of a convivial puppy, plus an affinity for holding paws he obliterated any ability I had not to fall in love. Given the romantic setting I suppose it’s not that surprising that I engaged in one or two make out seshes with this little guy, after I hand-fed him the carrots from my dinner. Carrots are his favorite. I would totally steal this little booger if I could. He’s the sweetest. And I know I say that about all dogs, but this one really stole a piece of my heart. Although the puppy at Bila Beach nearby who bore an uncanny resemblance to Ryder tugged at my heartstrings as well. Look at that face, just aching for some Thai noodles.

::love bug::

::bug!::

::you can never have too many thai puppy photos::

There’s also an impossibly sweet cat that likes to hang out near bungalow four and he’ll mew for you and wait outside your door for love, much to Alan’s displeasure.

Much of the action on Lipe is on and around Walking Street, which connects Pattaya and Sunrise beaches with a strip of mini-marts, restaurants, spas, souvenir and dive shops. We ambled through one day, though didn’t sample many of the goods. We did, however, purchase some very overpriced sunscreen.

::Pattaya Beach::

::Walking Street::

And we leave you now with a million pictures of this divine and restorative view.

Practical Info

There are no ATMs on Koh Lipe. This is surprising given the amount of development, but be prepared. There are shops on Walking Street that will swipe your card and give you cash for a 5-10% fee.

About that development…most of you travelers are all too familiar with the pattern of paradise found then lost. Such is the nature of the world. A spectacular location is “discovered,” a wise developer sees its potential, word spreads, and pretty soon those who were there before it was well-known cry foul. Lonely Planet describes Lipe as “this decade’s poster child for untamed development in the Thai Islands.” We can’t offer a before/after comparison, and yes much of the island is quite commercial. But there weren’t any true eyesores and it does not have the feel of e.g. Koh Phi Phi, probably in part because it is more remote. And the western side with Sunset Beach is more laid back, and Pitiusas’ spot is peaceful as can be.

Transportation: We took the Tigerline Ferry from Railay, and actually getting to the ferry was not so smooth but I think that was the fault of the travel desk at Sunrise Tropical Resort on Railay (which we covered here and is otherwise very nice). That aside, it cost 1100B/person which includes the longtail from Railay East to Ao Nammao, a shared van ride to the Hat Yao pier in Trang, a ferry to Koh Lipe where you disembark on a floating platform off Pattaya Beach, followed by a longtail for 70B/person which dropped us right on the beach in front of Pitiusas.

There is also a ferry to/from Langkawi, Malaysia which we took on departure…more details in our Langkawi post. It was quite a rough ride. Note that many use the Langkawi/Lipe ferry to make visa runs from Thailand.

On the island, walking is generally sufficient, though there are moto-taxis and we took one (for 100B) to get ourselves and our luggage to the Bundhaya immigration office when we left for Langkawi.

Accommodation: We stayed at Pitiusas and discussed it above. If you want to be closer to the action, you should stay on Pattaya or Sunrise Beach. If you want peace, relaxation and a beautiful setting, Pitiusas is hard to beat. There is a spit of sand jutting into the ocean on the northeast part of the island. This is very pretty, though with the prevailing northeast winds this time of year Pitiusas’ location was even more advantageous.

The WiFi at Bundhaya on Pattaya Beach worked fairly well.

Food: We ate many of our meals at Pitiusas. Our lunch at Daya Resort was fine, and Lonely Planet claims Daya has the best bang for the buck beach BBQ on the island. We also had lunch at Flower Power on Sunset Beach, which was pretty good, and Bila Beach, which was a cool spot in its own little alcove, complete with banana daiquiris, hammocks and menus painted on bamboo shoots. There are lots of eating and drinking options on Pattaya and Sunrise beaches and Walking Street between the two. Castaway Resort on Sunrise Beach looked cool, as did the bar in front of Z Resort on Pattaya.

Also, check out the Thai potato chip flavors.

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Activities: Relaxing! In addition, you can rent kayaks and there are lots of places offering day/snorkel trips and several dive shops. The diving is rumored to be pretty good around here. The going rate was about 2800B for two dives with equipment. Some operators use longtails and others more proper dive boats. There are day trips visiting the nearby islands of Ko Adang and others, which are far less developed. I believe that Ko Adang has some bungalows and you can camp on Ko Rawi.

Massage spots are omnipresent, and the going rate is 300-350B/hour.

January 14-19, 2014 (Tuesday-Sunday)

Asia, Railay, Thailand

Restorative Railay

January 14, 2014 champagne&backpacks 12 Comments

Three planes, one van, one longtail boat and a beach tractor ride later we arrived in paradise. It was a bit of a tiring journey from Varanasi, taking nearly 24 hours in all, mind you the actual flight time was a total of perhaps 6-8 hours. Lesson learned on planning in advance. One of the big dilemmas for “round the world” travelers is whether to buy the so-called round the world airline tickets or a package of major flights in advance, or to buy one-way tickets as you go. We did a bit of a combination, buying a number of more “major” international flights before leaving, and then supplementing that with internal flights, ferries, buses, trains etc. as we go. One such major ticket was a flight from Varanasi to Bangkok that had a sub-optimal layover in Kolkata. We wound up skipping Bangkok altogether and taking a decidedly un-direct route down to Krabi. We are learning!

By the way, a handful of people have asked why we’re skipping Bangkok. Alan has been already; Jenni had not, but figured we’d see lots of big hectic Asian cities on this tour and given the protests and craziness going on there, figured it might be an OK city to skip for now. We will eventually be making our way back up to Northern Thailand, but decided to work our way south down the islands and ferry it over to Malaysia for a bit before the journey back up to Chiang Mai. It kind of made sense, it kind of didn’t. We were kind of tired of changing our mind on itineraries and so this one stuck.

We also had some concern regarding the onward ticket rule and thought showing a confirmed Koh Lipe to Langkawi ferry ticket would be safer than arguing about our plans to cross from Thailand to Laos over land. As it turns out, the onward ticket issue never came up on our flights to Thailand from India or Malaysia and in any event we chose to fly from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang.

Anyway, on to the good stuff: a very much appreciated beach holiday!!! After 25 nights in India, some of which were more trying than pleasant, we were ecstatic to be on “vacation.” So much so that we bought a bottle of bubbly at the duty free in Bangkok and upon arriving in Railay popped that bad boy with a toast of “cheers to not being in India anymore!” We love us some India, but talk about a vacation from which you need a vacation!

There is so much beauty to be found in Thailand, it’s incredible. Picking a couple of islands to visit was almost as difficult as picking out what to fill your plastic baggy with as a child at those bulk candy stores. Being optimizers, you know that this process involved Alan vigorously researching the virtues of each island and Jenni google image searching each one with a lot of comments like, “well, this one looks like the most perfect turquoise water, but did you see the way the longtails frame the karsts at that island?!” At some point we settled (smartly) on Railay. By the way, while we didn’t spend too much time in the town itself, Krabi was featured on the New York Times’ list of 52 places to go in 2014.

Perhaps a little orientation on Railay and the Thai islands is in order. There are tons of islands! Some are on the gulf side, like Koh Samui (very developed and often compared these days to Phuket) or Koh Phangan (home of the full-moon party), which Alan visited on his 2007 trip to Thailand. More are on the Andaman side, and that is where we stayed on this trip. Ko Phi Phi is probably the most famous of these. And Railay is not actually an island. It is part of the mainland, but huge limestone cliffs make it accessible only by boat so it has the feel of an island. These same cliffs make it very popular with climbers. This blog covers the various islands pretty comprehensively.

::Phra Nang::

::looking at Railay West from Ton Tsai::

::Railay West::

::Phra Nang::

Railay itself has a few different sections. The most popular area is Railay West, a beautiful crescent bay framed by huge cliffs with awesome sunsets. Our hotel was on Railay East, which is the non-swimming mangrove-y side, but a mere five-minute walk across to West. And being on the East side meant we were even closer to Phra Nang (about a 10 minute walk), which is the beach on the south of Railay and our favorite spot. Then there is Ton Sai, reachable by longtail or a short walk over rocks (tide-dependent) from Railay West.

Unless you are there to climb, you can probably skip Ton Sai. It has lower quality beaches and water than Phra Nang or Railay West. It’s more popular with the toking crowd who hang out walking on tight ropes and listening to music best described as heady. No wonder Alan remembers spending his time here when he came in ’07.

Funny enough we stayed at Sunrise Tropical Resort, the same hotel in Railay that Alan stayed at over six years ago when he traveled post-big law and pre-buy-side jobs. It was a bit of a splurge, at around $100 a night, and oh what a luxury it was. Air conditioning! Tons of space! Wood floors! Blankets! Pillows that are soft! A separate shower! A safe! A TV (that we never turned on but still)! A pool (that we never went in even, but who needs it when you have perfect oceans lapping at your feet)! A huge breakfast buffet! A mini-fridge! Towels for the shower! AND separate towels for the beach! We are living like gods among men here! Even though Sunrise Tropical is not on the “good” side of the island, we were only a few bungalows farther than the farthest back rooms of the hotels on the “good” side. Plus there is that proximity to Phra Nang.

Phra Nang is wonderful. It is home to one very nice resort (Rayavadee) and no other development. To walk there you pass caves full of crab-eating macaques (aka mustache monkeys) and arrive at a perfect bay of clear turquoise waters with jungle-covered karsts sticking out of the pristine sea. And the coolest part by far: there are longtail food boats. It’s the Thai answer to food trucks. Pad thai, fried rice, coconut shakes, beers, and more all on the cheap and available just a few steps into the water. Heaven.

::karsts::

::mmmustache::

::food boats!!!::

::bonkey::

::food boats::

::making us a fresh coconut shake on the boat::

::monkeys::

Railay West is by far the most popular, lined with resorts and bars, including one awesome sunset viewing spot at the walking street entrance where they set up rattan mats along the sand, play chill music and serve drinks while the big pink ball in the sky sinks into the ocean. I’m trying not to insert too many sentences in here that say simply “sigh,” but it’s hard. How else can I describe that feeling? And in what was quite possibly the most perfectly set up question and response of Jenni’s lifetime, when Alan pointed at the white lanterns young lovers were buying from Thais on the beach and sending off into the sky by flame asking, “what are those?” Jenni was able to respond, “Oh Alan, you just don’t watch enough Bachelor to be cultured.” (On Ali’s season of the Bachelorette they attended the Lantern Festival in Taiwan, there is also a lantern festival in Chiang Mai.). Proof, watching the Bachelor does not suck the living soul out of me, but in fact makes me a more cultured person!

We had one other epic sunset while in Railay, this time while having a picnic back over at Phra Nang beach, eating pad thai, mango with sticky rice and a bottle of wine while being practically the only people there. Pretty incredible. So while it is quite touristy and crowded on Railay, there are still pockets where you can feel a bit removed from it all. Which is pretty great considering how easy it is to get here.

It was quite sad to see how much trash people leave all over the beach. Jenni walked around and picked up a few pieces, but it’s really a bit soul-sucking to see the way people treat this natural treasure. And an aside, how come people don’t consider throwing their cigarettes on the ground to be littering?! Huge pet peeve. Also, tons of people smoke here. So, those are my main complaints: trash and smokers. Have some respect for the bounty this mother earth provided us, people! Come on!

Alan also indulged me one day with a boat tour out to see some of the more iconic Thai islands. He’d been before, and so had seen these beautiful, but preposterously touristy locations prior. But let’s be honest, it’s not exactly a big deposit in the favor bank to generously oblige your wife’s request to go to some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, again. We first hit Bamboo Island, where it appears you can camp! Pretty cool, although for an island with absolutely nothing else on it, it struck us as odd that the tents are set up right on top of one another. Oh and the highlight here was the water. Clear clear clear clear clear. Mmmmmmm.

We boated by Phi Phi Leh and the Viking Cave. Next was arguably the most famed photo-op spot of the Thai islands: Maya Bay on Phi Phi Leh. This is where they filmed The Beach (apparently, though I don’t think I’ve ever seen it, a rather shitty movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio). We were in awe, not so much because of the breathtaking natural beauty (which was admittedly quite stunning, if you could see it), but the MASSES of tourists. It took probably 15 minutes to pull the boat onto the shore because they literally had to shove other boats aside and squish ours in between the dozens of others. Absurd. It’s an absolute joke. It’s like a caricature of itself, complete with at least four and a half tourists taking jumping photos or flashing a peace sign at any one time. When Alan was here in 2007 he stayed on Phi Phi Don (the larger, main Phi Phi island with all the development) and hired a long longtail boat for a day, and with a very early start he saw Maya Bay with hardly anyone else there. Perhaps this is still possible if you beat the day tour rush.

We stopped to snorkel just outside the cove at Maya Bay, which was fun as always. I love snorkeling. It’s one of those activities that’s so consuming you can’t really think about much else beyond the mesmerizing display of foreign creatures living quietly and unbeknownst to most of the world below you. An in-the-moment and awe inspiring thing, that ocean is.

The boat stopped quickly by monkey bay at Phi Phi Don, but there were no monkeys today. After an unexciting included buffet lunch, we wandered over to the northern side of Phi Phi Don and hung out in the super shallow and even more beautiful bay. So much better on this side. It’s like a gigantic kiddie pool, but the water’s warmth comes not from gallons of human urine. And it’s surrounded by beautiful nature, not Dora the Explorer diapers bloated with chlorinated poo.

We snorkeled one more time at shark point, where we were not lucky enough to see any sharks, but did see some scary looking starfish cum spider like things that made Jenni rather uncomfortable. It’s funny how Thais use the word “maybe.” A language of perpetually hedged statements. While explaining the itinerary it was “maybe we leave now, maybe we go first to Bamboo Island, maybe after we go here… maybe then… maybe maybe maybe.”

Whenever I travel to tropical beaches I am reminded of my fascination with hermit crabs. I don’t know what it is. I’m obsessed. As those in attendance at our wedding might recall, Alan vowed “I promise to try to accept that nothing I am ever saying or doing will compete for your attention with a puppy.” This vow did not extend to hermit crabs, but Alan is trying to accept that no matter where we are in conversation when I spy a shell crawling across the sandscape I have to explode with “oh look at that one!” Then I inevitably pick it up and put it on my hand or Alan’s stomach, just to ensure he witnesses the awesomeness that is this little animal LIVING INSIDE OF A SHELL. And then I usually share with him (for the umpteenth time) the story of how when I was lonely in college I went on over to Ithaca’s Pyramid Mall and bought myself a pet hermit crab. Somehow, my obsession manages to reignite itself again and again. What is it about those guys?

::Thai pancake::

::hitting spots I never knew I had::

::deliciousness::

Practical Info

If you are from the US or many other countries, you do not need a visa to enter Thailand. Do not be confused by the space on the immigration card asking for your visa number, nor the signs at the airport directing you to the visa on arrival desk. Proceed directly to immigration. ATMs are widely available. The exchange rate was ~33 Thai Baht per US$.

Communication: At the airport in Bangkok we purchased SIM cards from AIS. DTAC is another popular telecom company. We paid 299B for seven days of unlimited data and 100B worth of talk time. Rates are 1B/min local and 3B/min to the US. This card is valid for a few months. There are lots of plan options, and you can top up at 7-11 stores.

Transportation: We flew from Bangkok to Krabi on Thai Airways. There are airports all over Thailand and many flights are quite inexpensive and convenient. Air Asia also flies here. Having taken three flights and traveled overnight from Varanasi, we decided to have our hotel in Railay arrange transport. For 1200B we got a private van from the airport to Ao Nammao from where we took a longtail straight to Sunrise Tropical Resort on Railay East. It would have cost a little less to arrange this ourselves. I think a taxi from the airport costs ~600B and a longtail ride ~60-80B/person.

Getting around the islands is often a mix of ferries and longtail boats. Ferries cover the longer distances while longtails are great for short trips, and often a ferry will offload you to a longtail for the last couple hundred yards onto land. You may have to disembark in knee-deep water.

Longtails to Railay West leave from Ao Nang on the mainland, and to Railay East they leave from Ao Nammao. Once on Railay, it is easy to walk between East, West and Phra Nang, and you can also take longtails between Phra Nang and West and Ton Sai.

Thailand is very tourist friendly. You can arrange day tours and island transportation at countless places, including likely your hotel.

Accommodation: We stayed at Sunrise Tropical Resort in a very spacious room with good AC and WiFi. There is a pool that we never used. Breakfast was included and good, with fresh omelets, fruit, etc. It is probably preferable to stay on Railay West, but again the walk is so short that it doesn’t really matter. If money is no issue then Rayavadee is where you want to stay. It is on the most beautiful beach, and I believe the grounds are open only to guests. So while the beach is public and you can easily walk there, it could be nice to step outside your room onto that beach.

Food: There are lots of food options, from proper restaurants at the resorts (which often have BBQ’s at night) to little stands on walking street, etc. One of our favorite experiences here was dining from the longtail food boats on Phra Nang. And Jenni proclaiming that her first Thai pancake hit a spot she didn’t know she had.

Activities: Many come to Railay to climb, and there are classes for beginners. You can rent a kayak from various vendors. On the walking path between Railay East and Phra Nang there is a side trail leading to a lagoon. It is very steep and slippery, and we passed. With better footwear and free hands we probably would have taken the challenge.

We did an all-day tour on a 30+ person speedboat to Phi Phi etc. which cost 1400B each including lunch and soft drinks and mask with snorkel. There are also onshore excursions to local parks and mangrove kayaking and more. Diving is easily arranged.

January 11-14, 2014 (Saturday-Tuesday)

Asia, India, Varanasi

A Fiery Finale to India

January 10, 2014 champagne&backpacks 2 Comments

You know what makes Varanasi feel so refreshing? There are puppies and women. Puppies and women! What’s not to love? I knew something was amiss after all this time in India, and it was too many Y-chromosomes in the air. Finally, the ladies are back. And they brought with them puppies. Well no, I guess it’s just “puppy season,” as Ananya, the daughter of our Homestay owner Harish, told us. (Now that should be in the guidebooks under “when to visit.”) But seriously, there are women everywhere, which is not the case in all (most) other parts of India we visited. Especially at night. And here we saw lots of women out, young and old, day and night, in groups and alone. Which makes me feel safe, and happy. Also, Ananya took us out for an alley walking/food tour one day, and the company of another young woman all day was so welcome and refreshing to me. I forgot how comforting the presence of other ovaries can be. (Alan says: This is our first post together on the combined blog, and I bet you can guess who wrote this paragraph. Though I do love me some ovaries.)

::Varanasi puppies::

::where the ladies at::

Varanasi is one of the world’s oldest living cities and one of the holiest places for Hindus. It sits on the banks of the River Ganges and the stone ghats leading down to the water are the epicenter for both ritual ablutions and cremations atop wood-fueled pyres.

::Ganges::

::cremation ghats::

::wholesale flower market::

::ghats::

::bathing in the Ganges::

We expected Varanasi to be a highlight. When we began our trip we knew we were going to spend 25 nights in India, and the only places we knew for sure we had to see were Kerala and Varanasi. And so we booked flights into Kerala and out of Varanasi. The rest of the stuff in between was planned as we went. But Varanasi we’d known was a must-do. In fact, it’s the one place in India I’ve been talking about going since I started talking about going to India. The only reason we skipped it on our first trip was that the idea of watching people burn the bodies of their loved ones seemed even more antithetical to the idea of honeymooning than did the risk of Delhi Belly that everyone felt inclined to warn us about when we revealed our plans to spend our post-nuptials in such a locale.

::Ganges::

Well, we came in prepared for intensity, for emotions to be tugged, eyes opened, cultures experienced. And that it was, but what was perhaps most intriguing was the experience of joyful emotions in Varanasi. It does not feel like a sad place. The contrast of extreme happiness – people going on pilgrimage to one of the holiest places – and extreme grief – burning the bodies of their loved ones – is fascinating. We learned from Harish that death at a relatively normal age (e.g. not a child or young person whose children have not yet been married) is not so much a cause for mourning as it is for celebration of a life well-lived. After the friends and family of the loved one carry the body to the river and it’s been cremated, the family (if not poor) of the deceased provides food and sweets to thank those who came. Interestingly, the cremation is generally to happen immediately, but if family members need to travel to attend and see the body, the local members might keep the body warm (in winter, or cold in summer), as Harish did with his mother, by rubbing ghee on the body until the rest of the family can come pay their final respects. It was an emotionally powerful story and an experience difficult to imagine.

We saw the cremation ghats from a handful of different vantage points: the first time on a sunset boat trip up the river, seeing a few cremations from a distance, where the impact is somewhat diffused. (Though you do get a pretty up-front view of the nightly pooja ceremony, which to be honest felt like a show for the tourists). The next morning we woke early to see the ghats by sunrise, and while it was quite foggy, it was still a special experience, seeing all those people up at the crack of dawn to bathe in the freezing cold waters of the Ganges on a winter day. And let me tell you, it was cold. Alan was wearing long underwear! Most moving by far was witnessing the cremations on our last day when we walked to the main cremation ghat of Manikarnika. We went in expecting an intense experience, and intense it was, in some ways expected, others surprisingly so. Of course, it’s a moving experience to see the bodies carried to the river on bamboo stretchers, dipped in the water and then placed on a pile of logs to be burnt while dozens of people crowd around. I was somewhat surprised, though it makes perfect sense when you think about it, to see how many animals congregate by the main cremation ghat. They come seeking warmth, and next to the eight burning bodies are a mix of cows, dogs and goats, everywhere. It can be hard to watch, to see slowly the cloth wrapping the bodies consumed by flame and evaporating into ash to reveal the soft beige of a human skull, and to see the still intact feet poking out of a fire in which the legs and torso have all but disintegrated already.

::keeping warm on the ashes::

::pooja ceremony::

::boats on the Ganges::

::pooja ceremony::

::brrr::

While the cremations were impactful and emotional, they weren’t necessarily disturbing to us. What was quite so, however, were a handful of young men and boys around the ghat. We’d been warned in advance, like so many tourist destinations in India, that unsanctioned “guides” will try to sell you tours for money. Here, of all places, seemed to us a disgraceful place to do such a thing, and to top it off, they lie about the money, claiming that they only request donations to provide firewood for the destitute, where in reality they are keeping it themselves. This is one of the holiest places in the world for Hindus, yet this disgusting dishonesty is taking place for personal benefit.

Armed with the knowledge of where this money actually goes, we refused any tours from these boys, one of which was quite pushy. When we told him we didn’t want a tour he stormed off saying, “fine, go away then.” We stayed on, observing quietly and respectfully (no photographs), for a while after. As we were walking away the boy called out after us “good, leave and don’t ever come back here.” In some bit of shock we turned around to confirm he was directing this towards us, and to our dismay he was. Trying to avoid confrontation Alan gave a pitied laugh at him, and this flared the boy up, trying to start a fight I suppose, yelling after us things like “don’t laugh at me, I don’t like your laugh. You stayed here a long time and did nothing.” As opposed to this boy? Who stands there while people return their loved one’s bodies to the earth and scams tourists so he can go buy himself some cigarettes? I am quite an emotional person, and had expected to be moved to tears at the sight of the cremations, but ultimately it wasn’t the cremation but these shameful boys that made me lose my emotions.

::goats in sweaters, of course::

By the way – I read recently an article on NPR about how people can send in the ashes of their loved ones to companies that will compress them into diamonds that you can wear as keepsakes. Clearly Varanasi is not the market for these companies as the ashes are going into the Ganges, but I thought it fascinating. Apparently the diamonds usually come out blue, though some are yellow or black. Does that mean you have a dark soul?

::jump rope::

::barber shop::

::you can never have too many photos of goats in sweaters::

Another highlight of our time in Varanasi was the walking tour we took with Ananya. We ate LOTS of food on this tour, starting with a plethora of pakoras. We learned that anything fried in graham flour can be a pakora. We tried tomato, eggplant, cauliflower and a few others. And we had some terrific chai. I’ll miss Indian chai, I will. That sweet, spiced goodness. Here, Ananya threw in a Kit-Kat as well. Chocolate, as she says, is not a dessert in India. What is it then? A snack. Meandering through tight alleyways packed with people, mopeds, cows, dogs, goats and Bengali style houses with peaceful little courtyards, we stopped a man pushing a food cart full of peas to try “Indian peas.” These looked to us like regular old, get ‘em at your local grocery store snap peas and so we stuck them in our mouths, pod and all, and took a bite. Ananya turned around when she saw a man laughing at us and quickly informed us that you aren’t to eat the outsides, but just pull the peas out from inside. I don’t know, tasted fine to me. But she sure got a kick out of it. Next on the culinary tour was lassis at Spicy Bites. According to Ananya they are the best lassis in Varanasi. They definitely aren’t the best lassis in India, but they did have some of the most unusual flavors I’d seen. We went with a tried and true classic: chocolate banana coconut and chopped nuts, and a newbie: blueberry. Stick with the classics. That said, the best lassis we’ve had in all of India were probably the saffron lassis at Raas hotel in Jodphur. After “whetting” our appetites we went for a South Indian lunch at Dosa Café. We shared the masala dosa and veg uttapam, which is kind of like a pizza with a polenta crust. Both were heavy on the coriander for my taste, but Alan seemed to enjoy.

::pakora maker::

::pakora!::

::hand made textiles::

::an impressive and dying art::

::dosa::

::uttapam::

::paneer in the making::

::rose lassi::

Onto dessert! Varanasi is well known for its desserts. And Malaiyo is one of its showcase sweets. It’s a special treat that’s only made in Varanasi and only during the coldest winter months (this, also, should be in the guidebooks under “when to visit”). It’s made from milk, which is boiled for a long time until it turns into an airy foam. It’s also got some cardamom in there, and I believe a bit of rose water. We’re told they place big pots of this on the roofs at night so that they chill. Served in clay cups that are thrown away after a single use, they look like mounds of yellowy fluff. And they taste like an airy, lighter than mousse creamy cup of goodness. Make sure they pour a little condensed milk over top of it for the full effect. Ayo for Malaiyo.

::ayo for malaiyo::

::gimme some of that sugar::

Of course, this was only the teaser, and we went next to a sweet shop for a gulab jamun (basically fried dough soaked in honey and rose water, oh god), and a couple other sweet balls of rose water/cardamom/pistachio based goodness. They all taste similar, but vaguely different. Some of them have silver foil atop them, which you eat. It’s hard to fight the urge to peel off what looks like tin foil.

The alleyways range from fairly deserted and pleasant to walk around (albeit you always have to dodge the occasional pile o poop), to crazy and hectic. The difficulty level of crossing the street doesn’t quite rival Mumbai but is made none the easier by mopeds driving on the wrong side of the divider. The environment feels ironically happier here than so many places we visited in India. It’s strange to find that in a place most strongly associated with death. Especially when you have to step aside on occasion as groups of men pass by with dead bodies hoisted on their shoulders.

::we saw this dog in a sweater vest pee on a poor woman’s sari!!!::

Especially near the mosque where lines of locals wait eagerly for their turn inside, there is a large security presence. I never did quite adjust to the number of weapons that the officials carried here with such cavalier indifference to where they’re pointing.

We passed a number of music shops where the hippie variety tourists toted sitars around.

Ananya told us how from December 14 through January 14 it is not a time for weddings, but instead Hindus eat only bland food (rice with this daal type stuff) and grieve for ancestors lost. After the 14th there is a celebration with lots of kite flying. A friend I met while studying abroad also told me about the same festival, which is celebrated with more flair in Gujarat beginning January 14. We unfortunately missed it but it sounds worth checking out.

We usually cover accommodation in the “Practical Info” section below and we added some advice there, but we are including here our thoughts on TripAdvisor ratings and a lengthier discussion because in Varanasi our lodging was a more integral part of our experience than usual. We stayed at a homestay, named, aptly, Homestay. It’s the number one rated spot on TripAdvisor and people really rave about it. We’re coming to the realization that ratings on TripAdvisor can seem inflated, perhaps because people give ratings on different scales in different locations. For instance, we’d rate our hotel in Cochin to be a “5,” for India and for the price. It was one of the best places we stayed, with a nice location, large room, functioning WiFi and A/C, but it’s no way a “5” compared to say, where we stayed on our honeymoon in the Maldives (for 28x the cost). You begin to notice in India especially people raving about things like “water actually got hot!” Also, a hostel might be a “5” for a hostel, but it can be difficult to know whether something is a “5 for a hostel cheaper than your morning latte in New York City for dirty backpackers with ridiculously lowered standards” or a “5 for a charming experience if less than luxurious spot” or the “5 for anything in the world at any budget.” So, take your “5” ratings with a grain of salt.

That said, Homestay was pleasant and we’re not trying to tear them down. It’s just not the BEST. The family who runs it is quite nice. You interact mainly with Harish, who is helpful and friendly, if also a bit long-winded. Our biggest complaint with Harish is that he spends so much time talking about how much his guests love him and how well he treats everyone that you never really get a chance to see it. Maybe it’s just that we spent four nights there and so heard his spiel to each new guest as they arrived. He also likes to opine on things on which he lacks personal knowledge, a bit of a pet peeve of ours. For example, he likes to explain why foreign tourists see certain local acts as irritating, because he apparently understands the psyche of Americans better than, say, the American tourists sitting across from him. And he’ll tell you how a sight in India is the second most impressive in the country, so beautiful, second only to the Taj Mahal. And fifteen minutes later he mentions he’s never actually been there. You can also expect to pay a bit more for transport and tours than you would otherwise. For the most part this is fine, because his guys aren’t going to try to take you around to shops and restaurants where they get a commission (much appreciated), but the tuk-tuk driver we’d hired didn’t speak any English, so if you’re looking for more of a guide, it’s definitely not a bargain (especially compared to what we got for less money in Cochin). Also, his airport shuttle fees are expensive and his argument that he’s saving you money because you aren’t dealing with commission schemes falls short here. Again, though, after a long 3.5 weeks in India we were just so over haggling.

Breakfast (included) and dinner (I can’t recall exactly but I believe dinner cost around Rs 250/person) are served communally. Harish’s wife, Malika, does the cooking. It’s pretty good. We loved her pakoras and the paneer curries. Weirdly, the dish I liked least was her paratha. Breakfasts are quite basic, pretty much toast (though with some fantastic homemade guava jam) and one hot Indian item that’s hit or miss. And when the power goes out (which happens pretty frequently), the toast switches to bread.

It is quite nice to share your meals with the other guests. We met several interesting people over the course of our breakfasts and dinners, including one couple that was also on a long-term round-the-world style trip including extensive travel in India. It was really fun to have people who could relate and discuss in detail with us such exciting matters as obtaining malaria pills and getting diarrhea (which for the record, was the woman’s opening line as we introduced ourselves at dinner. “Hello, we were supposed to arrive two days ago but I’ve had diarrhea for days.” Oh India and the things you learn about those you travel with).

The monkeys in Varanasi are scary little mothers. Our room was on the top floor, and we had to walk outside across the roof a bit to get to our door, which was something we avoided doing when the monkeys were out there. But the good news is that Jenni’s fight or flight instincts are intact. While dining on a rooftop in the old city, some monkeys snuck up there and in an impressively swift motion she jumped and ran inside the building before Alan could even grab the banana lassi and her sunglasses. Which he sat valiantly protecting.

Other Varanasi Sites

We’d planned for four nights in Varanasi, expecting to have a work day and catch up on blogging/planning for the upcoming countries on our trip. Otherwise, we would not have spent so much time here. Given that we had plenty of time to spare, our first day we visited Sarnath. This was somewhat disappointing. Perhaps if you have a passion for history, Buddhism, or both, this would be more fascinating. Deja vu to our commentary on Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka. Or if you hired a knowledgeable guide. But as a sightseer with little understanding of the ruins you’re viewing, it’s a bit underwhelming.

::yes, that instruction is necessary in India::

However, I was more than pleased to discover an Indian zoo tucked away behind some of the temples. All you culture-ites, please avert your eyes. In lieu of checking out more of the temples… we went to the Indian zoo. And it was awesome. They had a collection of deer-related animals, a host of the most exotic looking birds, crocodiles and these strange-looking incestuous accident of a crocodile’s offspring: the cavial. It’s like a croc, but with a wicked fat tail and a long skinny nose.

::cavial::

::crazy Indian birds::

::Indian croc::

After our outing to Sarnath we jetted over to the old city for ayurvedic massages on the uber-cheap. You get what you pay for. Not the best massages I’ve ever received, but possibly the cheapest. And definitely the most invasive. They really got up into the nooks and crannies there. Alan said no man has touched him that way since his father last bathed him in the late 70’s.

Some final observations on India.

It can be overwhelming, which can be hard to admit. But it’s at times discouragingly difficult to get by, and I’ll tell you it was a great relief to arrive on the beaches of Thailand for a stretch of days with little to plan beyond “should I order a banana daiquiri next? Or a banana colada?” In fact, I write this post while in a lounge chair listening to the waves lapping a few meters below me, while the sweetest dog keeps us company over our mojitos. Sinfully good this bit can be.

Before India I’d mistakenly believed that the Air Hancock is a universal symbol for “check, please.” This one doesn’t translate to Hindi, unlike the universal language for “pot sold here”: Bob Marley music and/or posters.

Another interesting cultural difference that we noticed throughout India: the non-sexual touching of same sex friends. While it’s quite taboo for men and women to engage in PDA, men and men often, how do I say this, cuddle. No, but really. I’ve seen grown men spooning on the street. It strikes me as odd, that in a country so focused on sexual repression and where the rights of homosexuals are pitifully archaic (I read in the newspaper there that during 2013 they reinstated an old law banning “unnatural sex”), the men touch in ways you don’t see much in the western world.

Practical Info

Transportation: We flew to Varanasi from Delhi on Air India. Our flight was delayed several hours and many were canceled due to fog, which apparently is common at this time of year. There are flights from Agra at least a couple days each week.

A car to our accommodation (Homestay) was arranged by Homestay and cost Rs 850, which seemed quite expensive. Since it can be even more difficult to find things in Varanasi than elsewhere in India, especially in the old city, folks often recommend arranging transport directly with your lodging.

The day we visited Sarnath we paid Rs 100/hour for a tuk-tuk. This also was surprisingly expensive, and that was a theme of services arranged at Homestay. For comparison, we paid Rs 60/hour in Cochin and that was for a driver who spoke English well and doubled as a guide.

Accommodation:

We stayed at Homestay and covered most of the experience above. One of the key decisions here is whether to stay in the old city or not. The old city is near/on the river, closer to most of the attractions and more atmospheric. However, it is also more crowded and hectic. Homestay is about 1 mile from the main ghat. I believe that many of the higher end properties are away from the ghats.

I think I might prefer to stay closer to the ghats. While this might be less peaceful in some respects, the ghats and surrounding alleys are fascinating and it would be nice to envelop yourself in this world for a couple days. Unlike Agra, where the Taj Ganj area does not offer much to compensate for increased tout-presence and commotion.

We had lunch one day at Shiva Ganges View and the building and location were nice.

We heard that one or more heritage properties may be opening in the old palaces on the river in the coming years.

Food: We ate most of our meals at Homestay and the food was pretty good (covered above). Lunch at Aum Cafe near Asi Ghat was quite good. It is a crunchy place where we had our most Trader Joe’s-esque meal in a long time. An open faced sandwich with homemade nut butter, honey and coconut, plus a much-needed salad and a rose lassi. We also had lunches at Dosa Café (South Indian food) and Shiva Ganges View. The former was good and its owner friendly; the latter was bland albeit with a roof deck perched way above the river offering nice views.

In the old city we had lassis at Spicy Bites. The special with chocolate, coconut, banana and nuts was far better than the blueberry.

On our way to the airport we stopped at New Rajshree for sweets and samosas. It appeared clean and orderly, was packed and tasty. As mentioned above, malaiyo is a unique treat here, and of course street food is ubiquitous. We ate a lot of tasty pakoras in the old city on our walking tour.

Activities: The most popular and unique activity is to spend time on the ghats by the river observing ritual bathing, cremations and more. Dashashwamedh is the main ghat where the nightly pooja ceremony takes place. Manikarnika is the main cremation ghat. You can walk up and down the river, and a sunrise (and perhaps sunset) boat trip is de rigueur. We arranged our sunrise and sunset boat trips through Homestay. Each cost us Rs 300 and began and ended at Kedar Ghat. Near the river you will be inundated with offers of boat trips, and I think the going rate is in the Rs 150-300 range.

The well-reputed Banaras Hindu University is southwest of the old city and home to the Bharat Kala Bhawan Museum. The Monkey Temple and Ramnagar Fort are other popular attractions.

Many visitors make the ~10km trip up to Sarnath for half a day. We found it missable, but if you do go there are ruins and Buddhist temples plus a neat little zoo. It cost Rs 100 each to enter the ruins and Rs 20 each for the zoo.

January 6-10, 2014 (Monday-Friday)

General

A Merger of Sorts

January 9, 2014 champagne&backpacks Leave a comment

Well guys, big news. We decided to take a HUGE step in our relationship and… combine our blogs! We want to still be able to pack in as much world-seeing and adventure seeking as possible, and trying to capture it all on two separate blogs was proving to be quite the time sink. Plus, with Alan’s impeccable detail and trip-planning tid-bits and Jenni’s colorful anecdotes of how she is massively afraid of everything, we thought that the whole might be greater than the sum of its parts. Hence the birth of our new baby: champagne&backpacks.

All the content from our old blogs has been ported over here, so you can access each of our views on prior destinations by visiting our respective pre-merger posts. Going forward we’ll do one combined post for each destination. Some posts may be spearheaded by one of us, but always with the flavor, passion and enthusiasm we both share for this adventure. We hope the end-product is more enjoyable and helpful to our dear readers. Our goals are to document our experiences, to keep our friends and families updated and entertained, and to provide useful information for those planning long-term or more typical travel.

Jenni picked such a great name for our combined blog, and it’s kind of self-explanatory, so you’re probably not wondering why…but just in case. While this remains a work in progress and perhaps always will, after some months we’ve been able to reflect and gain perspective on our travels and writing. There are many blogs devoted to stretching one’s budget in every way imaginable to afford long-term travel. Others focus purely on the luxury segment. We fall somewhere in between. Saving money is always on our mind, but so is maximizing our convenience and enjoyment. We tend to pay up for location and time saved, so we’d rather spend $100 more and cut out a day of uncomfortable travel. At the same time, we’re happy to spend $100 less to stay across the street from a fancy hotel and suffer the indignities of low thread count sheets. We like to splurge every now and again, but we’re not above pairing our Moët with some In-N-Out Burger.

By the way, you will be automatically re-directed to the new site if you visit the url’s of either of our old blogs, and if you signed up to receive e-mails when we post new entries, you should still receive those, only now from the new and improved champagne&backpacks!

We hope you enjoy!

Asia, Delhi, India

(the tiniest bit of) Delhi

January 6, 2014 champagne&backpacks 1 Comment

It’s a good thing we paid up for 10-year multiple entry visas for India, because we didn’t get out and about to see nearly as much of Delhi as we’d like. We spent three nights in Delhi, though we basically didn’t go out during either of the two full days. Saturday day we spent in our hotel room doing research for our upcoming adventures in Thailand, Malaysia and Laos (we leave India so soon!). (But we did get out in the evening for a super fun night, see below!) And Sunday.. well, it was here that my streak of luck with avoiding a foodborne illness ended. At least I made it a cumulative four weeks in the country before it happened. And anyway, I think getting sick in India is a right of passage.

::so. many. people.::

::check out those goat heads::

::mmm gulab jamon::

We had hired a driver in Agra to take us to Delhi, and much of the drive was actually incredibly pleasant. We paid extra to take the expressway (the tolls are over Rs 500), and it’s definitely worth it, as you travel on a nice modern highway with unbelievably little traffic. There is hardly anything around for much of the drive, which I found somewhat surprising as well.

I was amused by our driver (he is from Delhi) who asked our opinion on the people of Agra, saying that he thought they were not nice. Much nicer in Delhi we asked? No, he said. Only in the South. And when we pulled onto the street where our hotel was he made sure to tell us “this is a bad place.”

Despite that warm welcome, we really enjoyed (what we saw of) Delhi. Our hotel (Hari Piorko) was not amazing, but it was many many steps up from the accommodation we had in Madurai and Agra. I was pleasantly surprised that for about $30 a night in the capital city we could get a spacious, somewhat modern room with blankets, toilet paper and hot water. Each room also has a fish tank built into the wall. The water in them is practically black, and it’s a wonder the fish in there are still living, but it felt like this place might have been the bee’s knees back in, like, 1981. When the fish tanks were last cleaned. Anyway, I think it was the only place we’ve stayed in India that offered room service, and this came in quite handy since we spent so much time in that room.

After arriving Friday in the afternoon we stepped outside our hotel door and into the madness that is Paharganj (hawkers galore) and negotiated with a few tuk-tuk drivers before getting a ride over to famed Karim’s for some middle-eastern-ish Indian food. The place is absolutely packed, and I think there was even a security guard manning the entrance. Get there early, as they were sold out of a few things we’d contemplated trying. We ordered Karim rolls (lamb, and a delicious spice combo), which were fantastic, but quite small, especially at the price tag of Rs 125 each.

Our tuk-tuk driver was hilarious. Example: he asked, are we married? To Alan, are you happy? And then he tells us that when a woman cries on her wedding day (for arranged marriages it’s often emotional for the bride and her family since she is leaving her family to live with the husband’s etc.) and when the man asks why, she explains, I cry for only one day, you cry for every day after. Oh, ball and chain jokes. They translate everywhere.

After lunch/dinner/dunch we wandered over to Jama Masjid and explored the mosque for a few minutes before being kicked out for the afternoon prayers. It would have been nice to climb the tower for a better view of the city, but we kept on and bought a pomegranate from a street cart for our first dessert of the day. So good.

And then we ventured into the Chandni Chowk area. There are tons of shops selling textiles, clothes, food, everything. And there are tons of people and vehicles, of course. Holy mother of crowdedness. Each time I think I’ve experienced the on-top-of-eachother-ness of India, it’s one-upped. But I think Delhi truly takes the cake. At one point I literally had to crawl over a man’s push-cart to finish crossing a crowded road we were stuck in the middle of. That really is an awesome experience, if only when you reach a breaking point and confirm you are still in one piece.

::so. many. people.::

We fought our way up to Chaina Ram, legendary for their desserts, and bought a nice big box of assorted sweets that we picked out based pretty much solely on how delicious they looked, though we had essentially no idea what was in any of them. And after eating them all I still couldn’t really tell you, except that I think pistachio, coconut, rose water, milk and cardamom(?) play big roles.

::sweets in hand::

We hired a rickshaw driver to take us back to our hotel, and while he agreed to a price of Rs 80 we wound up giving him 100 because it looked like such hard work.

::rickshaw driver working hard::

After a full day’s worth of trip-planning on Saturday we were rewarded with a fun night out with my college friend, Aash, who lives in Delhi. She and Adi took us to a happening spot (Smokey’s Bar and Grill) for dinner in Greater Kailash 2. I was very happy to have arrived at a place where we could drink the ice cubes and order salad. And even happier to reminisce on college days, share great conversation and get the locals’ perspective on all things India. They were fantastic and very generous hosts, and it was refreshing to see the “real” India as we might experience it if we were living in Delhi, rather than as tourists hopping from one sight seeing spot to another. We went big, closing down Smokey’s, venturing to another bar for a drink before last call, and last a sneaky, hidden bar that’s only allowed (I use that word loosely) open late because you can’t hear it from outside (it’s tucked far into the middle of a huge hotel). The crowd here was captivating. There were a handful of men being entertained by some Russian ladies, and one very drunk American who was super excited to see fellow Americans. When we arrived back at our hotel at around 3:30am I wasn’t sure if we were at the right place because I didn’t think it possible the packed street full of hawkers could ever be so barren.

::aashica!!!::

After our experience trying to find the correct airport/terminal in Mumbai, we’d asked an Air India employee which airport we would go to in Delhi to fly to Varanasi. She assured us there was only one. Feeling smart, we hop in a car to take us to the airport on our way out and the first thing out of his mouth is “which airport?” Oh god, here we go again. Luckily, whichever one he took us to was the correct one.

Examples of things I by now find a comical part of the India experience: (1) We attempted to use an organized cab service that you call in advance so we could avoid haggling over price, though after 15 minutes on the phone trying to explain where we were and where we wanted to go all we ended up with was a text message saying “sorry, we can’t provide you a cab.” (2) Feeling not so hot myself, overheard in the Delhi airport bathroom: an American boy in the next stall puking up a storm and between sobs and retching crying to his mother, “I hate India.” (3) When we tried to use the airport ATM it shut off right after we entered the amount of cash to dispense. The helpful folks at the airport offered essentially no assistance, leaving us to figure out whether our cash came spewing out for a stranger once we’d boarded our flight. (4) Getting on the plane we discover that we were assigned seats that fail to exist. Mass confusion ensues while everyone stands around in the aisles until finally someone figures out that they switched the planes so our seat assignments don’t match, and tell us to sit wherever there’s an open spot.

Agra, Asia, India

Agra

January 3, 2014 champagne&backpacks 2 Comments

I’ll start with the positive because this post is going to get a little graphic. You were warned.

The good: the Taj Mahal! It really is incredible. I had my doubts. Can it live up to the hype? Can it really be that impressive? Yeah, it’s pretty awe-inspiring. Can you imagine someone building something like this today? Let alone in the 1600s without the benefit of modern machinery? Wow. And to be able to start 2014 at such an iconic and remarkable site, I felt really lucky. Much of the rest of our time in Agra, we weren’t feeling quite as lucky.

We stayed at Hotel Siddhartha, which is a moderate improvement over Hotel Padmam (as you’ll recall reading about in my Madurai post). Here we were provided no toilet paper or soap, but we were provided one towel. For the two of us. But again, it’s an ask-only policy. If requested, they’ll provide you with the world’s smallest TP roll. I don’t understand this. Do most people not ask and this is how they save money? Is toilet paper really that expensive? (No, it’s not. We went out and bought our own supply). It is such a strange policy. The toilet again leaked, though this time I was more certain than not that it was not sewage (hooray!). And it was freezing cold in Agra! I had not realized or anticipated just how cold it would be, and while we were provided a sheet and a gnarly looking blanket, it was cold enough that we slept in fleece jackets, hats and socks. Also, the promised wifi was non-existent and no apology or accommodation was offered in this respect.

But the true downside of this hotel did not hit me until 2014. Do you know what my very first experience of 2014 was? Waking up at 4am to the devastating realization that you can hear in full stereo all the noises from the neighbor’s bathroom. You don’t know disappointment until you’ve listened to a man do his business and realize that that was just a courtesy flush. Does this mean 2014 is going to be a shitty year?

I learned my lesson and wore earplugs the last two nights. Which is not to say I was immune from hearing the plethora of other strange and loud noises. Oh, India and your hodgepodge of sound.

I don’t really understand the relative value of things in India. I’m constantly surprised by how cheap certain items/services are versus others. Our hotel in Delhi is no five-star, but in India’s capital city and at $30 a night it has crown molding, room service and a built in fish tank (that hasn’t been cleaned since probably 1982, but still, it’s a fish tank with a few living fish). In Agra, a city that offers little other than the Taj and a handful of other sites, we spent $20 a night for a complete shit hole.

We arrived in Agra in the early evening of New Years Eve. First impressions: it’s cold here! Holy winter hats batman. (So don’t be foolish like we were and pay extra for the room with A/C. Although I don’t think the non-A/C rooms had hot water. Not that it mattered; I couldn’t bring myself to shower at that place.) It would be really nice to have ever entered a building with heat. At least I could put down my now greyed white linen pants for a few days as I jaunted around in jeans, a fleece and scarf. After checking into our hotel, we wandered around Agra and checked out a few of the rooftop bars and restaurants where music was blaring, lights were strung, and buffets were set up in anticipation of the New Years Eve festivities. Some looked promising, but tired, weary and cold, we opted for the ground floor enclosed restaurant of Shankara Vegis, which practically became our second home for our stay in Agra. We ordered the Shahi Paneer with paratha and it was divine. In fact, we ordered it again the next day! Also, their banana lassis are top notch. And it’s all super cheap. Highly recommend this place – the owners are friendly and nice, it’s cheap and delicious, and it’s just about the only place in Taj Ganj where you can access wifi from a restaurant indoors (we found one other place that had wifi but only on the roof). What’s not to love?

After dinner we shared a chocolate bar at the hotel and fell asleep before midnight to crappy (I should be careful with this word now..) movies on TV. Not the best New Years Eve of my life, but I got to wake up and see the Taj Mahal first thing in 2014 (well, second after hearing a man strenuously pass stool). Here, forget I said that and look at this picture of me at the Taj enjoying the less jarring noises of India:

The intensity level in Agra is high. We stayed in the Taj Ganj area, adjacent to the Taj. Here the streets are quite narrow and also crowded, which means lots of narrowly missed accidents. It’s also full of hawkers, cows, dogs, monkeys (though mostly they stay on the rooftops) and rats. As we were paying for a bottle of water and a chocolate bar on New Years Eve we noticed a rat at the shop owner’s foot. My biggest pet peeve was that you have to walk single file to even attempt to not get hit by bikes, motorbikes, tuk-tuks, cars, cows, dogs, push carts, people etc, and so I’d follow behind Alan and someone would cut me off to have some version of the following conversation with Alan: “where you going? You need tuk-tuk? Money exchange? Battery?” [Alan walks away after saying no thank you the first time and then ignoring him] “Yes? OK” Meanwhile I have to pass around the guy, which is not an easy task on those roads. It got serious. I may have been throwing some ‘bows to block these guys out by the end of our time in Agra.

::aww cow cuddles::

On New Years Day, after the traumatic events of 4am, we dragged ourselves out of bed to get to the Taj at sunrise. While we’d read that it opens at 6am, I think that refers only to the ticket counter, because they didn’t open the doors to start passing people through security until a little bit after 7am. Note that there are separate lines for Indians and foreigners (though they call it the high-value ticket holders line, because we pay about 10 times as much), and each is separated by sex. The Indian men’s line was by far the longest, so you wouldn’t want to get stuck in there and miss the good views before it gets super crowded. It’s one of India’s pricier attractions, but for good reason, and it’s still quite cheap (around $12 a person, and you are provided a bottle of water and shoe covers). There are also a bunch of rules about what you can and can’t take in, guidebooks and mobile phones being among the things you’re not supposed to have. So being the good, square rule-followers that we are, we left these things behind and of course saw tons of people carrying them around and using them. Also, you’re not supposed to take pictures inside the mausoleum, but I saw a handful of people doing just that with no consequence.

The sunrise itself was not worth coming early for as it was quite foggy and the lighting was sadly not the best, but it was definitely worth it to see the Taj before the crowds really amass. There is quite a big difference in the number of people there at 7am versus 10am. We stuck around for about three hours hoping the sun would come out and we’d get some shots in better light, but it didn’t change all that much. Still, it was really enjoyable to walk around the grounds, explore the museum for a little bit, and watch these beautiful green birds darting in and out of the trees.

After a late breakfast, which then turned into lunch at Shankara Vegis we ventured out to see Agra Fort. We’d asked our friends at Shankara how much a tuk-tuk should cost, and they said Rs 50. Getting a tuk-tuk driver to negotiate on price or come below Rs 100, however, was an impossible feat. It’s a bit weird that people don’t even counter; they’ll just drive off. While the case is not so extreme when its Rs 100 vs. 50, it has become a constant theme in our attempts to obtain transport. So many drivers just try to blatantly rip you off. Even when it’s clear you know how much it should cost they don’t try to save face. They don’t need the money that bad? Think they can find someone else to make it worth their while? Highly doubt it. Another thing that confuses me about India. Also, when you finally find a driver, they surprisingly often stop to do things of their own accord while you’re paying for their service. We’ve had numerous drivers pull over with no explanation, until we deduce that they’ve stopped to use a loo (OK on that one, I get it), or pick up a painting from a shop, or go out of the way to get gas on a short ride, or – the best – stop to wash you car! With a bottle of water and a rag! While we sat in the car looking confused for twenty minutes. I will never understand why this struck him as the appropriate time to do such a task.

Anyway, I digress. The Agra Fort was pretty cool to see. The carvings are intricate and beautiful, and you get to see the inlaid precious stone work up close, which is rather difficult to do at the Taj, so I really appreciated that aspect. (Most of the inlaid work at the Taj is inside the Mausoleum which is not well-lit (though maybe if you visit later in the day/on a sunny day).

::view of the Taj from Agra Fort::

::all inlaid semi-precious stones::

::all inlaid semi-precious stones:

After the Fort we hired a tuk-tuk to take us to the river to watch the sunset from behind the Taj. Seeing the visitors at the Taj move in opposite directions of the two levels around the Taj was pretty neat. They looked like swift currents of ants from our vantage point. The sunset itself was not super exciting, again because of the fog (there is a lot of fog in the area this time of year, so maybe plan your visit to the Taj sometime when it’s warmer and clearer out!). But we did discover this metallic green version of a ladybug. The drive into this area was fun too. Lots of monkeys, a cool little village, and lots of goats in sweaters. I’m so obsessed. The goats wear nicer sweaters than many of the people here! So sweet. I wish I could have captured a snapshot of some of the goats in knit Cosby-type sweaters. Alas, these were the best shots we got. You still get the idea.

::Taj from across the river::

::crazy ladybug type thing::

::goat in a sweater::

Guess where we went for dinner? Shankara vegis! 🙂 But we did switch it up for breakfast the next morning. We checked out “Stuff-Maker” (yes, that’s the name of the restaurant) on the rooftop of Hotel Kamal. The Taj had been completely socked in when we checked out the rooftops on New Years Eve, so it was a very pleasant surprise to see the stunning views on a clear morning. Plus, you get to watch the monkeys run and jump around the rooftops while you eat. These are some badass monkeys though. I’ve seen a lot of Indian people get nearly hit by moving vehicles, yet I’d never seen an Indian person express fear. Until today. When I saw a man run in absolute terror down the stairs from his roof at the sight of two of those monkeys shrieking and running towards him. Oh and guys, can we all agree that baby monkeys should be called bonkeys?

::bonkey and monkey::

::view of the Taj from the rooftops::

Later we arranged a car to take us to Fatehpur Sikri (about an hour away from Agra). Of course, rather than taking us to the entrance, our driver took us to a tour guide place where they show us their “official government ID cards” and proceed to try and charge us more than twice the rate of the actual official government tour guides. After arguing with them and the driver for a minute, we walked ourselves up to the entrance and hired a proper guide. I know there’s a lot of venting in this post, but seriously it gets so tiring. Everything is more difficult than it needs to be! Why can’t anyone just be honest and not solely interested in getting a commission off of us? Why can’t anything just work as expected!? Gah. Three weeks of trying to navigate our way through India has started to take its toll on us. (I know, I know, call the WAHmbulance. But I’m giving it to you real, guys… the good, the bad and the ugly. Lord knows we hit all three on this stop.)

The place itself is awesome. The first part – Fatehpur Sikri – is a palace where the king and his three wives lived. The Turk in me was pretty stoked to see the Turkish wife’s palace in comparison to the others. It may have been the smallest, but it was closest to the King’s, and the most expensive and beautiful – full of jewels in its heyday. You go girl. The Christian wife’s was mid-sized and the Hindu wife who bore him a child was massive. All three, and the common areas, had impressive carvings. There was also a giant Chinese Checkers board that the King used to play with naked women as the playing pieces. This guy was a character.

::(adult) Chinese Checker board::

Not far away is Jama Masjid, which is an impressive mosque with some really extraordinary gates, and an all white marble tomb where people give tapestries and tie a string to the walls while making three wishes. Cute. But be forewarned that they’ll try to sell you tapestries for a “charitable donation” of Rs 500-1500. It was after we refused this and the other tchotchkes for sale that we noticed our guide’s service declined and our tour quickly wrapped up.

::offering tapestries::

::tomb::

::crazy bee’s nests!!!::

::more goats in sweaters!::

The drive to and from Fatehpur Sikri is long, but I think worth it. Mostly because of the site itself, but also party because you get to see a lot of peacocks and really cute piglets on the way (I find it amusing how pigs really do flock to piles of trash). You also see lots of men peeing. But this is true all over Agra. I saw more men peeing in Agra than I ever thought I’d see in a lifetime.

::pigs and trash::

Back in Taj Ganj we checked out Joney’s for dinner, which is highly reviewed on TripAdvisor, and tourists seem to love it, as evidenced by the guest book they place in front of you when you wait for your food. Their star dishes are the malai kofta and banana lassis, both of which underwhelmed me (and Shankara’s banana lassis are way better!). The banana and honey paratha though? Mmmm, dessert paratha. Need I say more?

Overall, I’d say Agra is worth it because the Taj Mahal is so spectacular, and it’s nice to go see the fort and Fatehpur Sikri as well, but the city itself is most certainly not a highlight and I wouldn’t stay more than two nights. I’d also suggest paying up for a driver so you don’t have to negotiate constantly with tuk-tuk drivers or tourist agencies (which are essentially men with storefronts, a mobile phone and a few friends who drive cars).

Asia, India, Mumbai

Dosas and Mimosas: Bombay

December 31, 2013 champagne&backpacks 1 Comment

Mumbai/Bombay (whatever you call it) was my first experience in what I would previously refer to as “a really big crazy Indian city.” (We’d been to Bangalore, Udaipur and Jodhpur on our honeymoon; Cochin and Madurai were the biggest cities we hit before Mumbai on this trip). Now, I have a whole new view of Indian intensity in big cities vs. small ones. I actually think Mumbai is much less overwhelming than smaller cities we’ve seen (e.g. Madurai, now Agra). (P.S. I’ve by now also been to Delhi. It’s pretty intense here, so maybe Mumbai is the exception. Details to come in my Delhi post).

::wildly impressive temples. this one’s not even famous::

That said, it’s still quite an experience. And there are certainly intense experiences.

If you do nothing else, just come to Mumbai, get in a prepaid taxi from the airport, and drive to your hotel. That alone is an experience you will get few other places in the world. Holy intenseness, crazy crazy madness, overwhelming happeningness, and poverty of mammoth proportion. You pass slums leaving the airport, and we hit some pretty serious traffic. You don’t know traffic til you’ve seen Indian city traffic. Every last square inch is crammed with vehicles going every which way. I think our driver’s attempt to skirt the traffic contributed to the craziness of the drive, as we were on smaller side roads for much of it. Kids come knocking on the windows, some begging for money, others trying to sell you things. I spent the hour trying to soak in as much of the scene around me as possible, and crossing my fingers that our luggage tied to the roof of the car wouldn’t go flying off once we hit the expressway.

It’s always a little challenging getting into a new place in the evening when you can’t get your bearings. So starting Mumbai in the dark was a little confusing. Crossing the street is epicly difficult. Despite that there are traffic lights and pedestrian crossing lights at the crosswalks (or zebra crossings), it seems that cars occasionally consider red lights optional. And while traffic keeps left, as with most things in India, consider it a generality. Like our mothers taught us all when we were young, “look left right left, then cross…” Modify this slightly in India, look right left right, RUN RUN RUN. Actually, I think it best to find a group of locals that appear to know what they’re doing and follow (closely!) behind them.

There are lots of people out and about in Mumbai, though pretty much throughout the city (at least the areas we frequented) it’s not the overwhelming in-your-face-ness of say Agra, Madurai or Delhi (except maybe at India Gate). I’m starting to notice that men far outnumber the women in many parts of India, and I find it somewhat surprising that in a modern city like Bombay where many women work that we can walk two or three crowded blocks and pass not a single other female.

::serious attention to detail with the grass cutting::

Just walking out from the hotel to grab some dinner, we were thrown off passing guards with loaded guns pointed out at street so you have to walk right by it. I’m still not sure what building they were protecting, but it must be an important one. Looking like lost tourists in search of street signs, we wound up getting escorted to our restaurant, Kyber, by a friendly man carrying a laptop in shopping bag. I was skeptical; he was kind. And Kyber was delicious. It was here I tried mutton (goat) for the first time. We ordered the mutton rara: mutton pieces in an almond cream and red masala sauce. Fantastic, but the highlight was most definitely the mint paratha! I am so obsessed with paratha it’s scary, and I didn’t realize it could be improved upon (I’ve tried it aloo (potato), paneer (cheese), garlic, you name it), but mint! Who would’ve thunk it. Oh. Em. Gee. Solid meal. Though the city price tag was a shock after all the cheap and delicious eats we’ve had so far – about Rs 2,000 plus 22% VAT/service charges for what was actually only one main dish. Also they charged Rs 325 for rice (we’ve had huge meals of curry and unlimited rice for less than Rs 100!).

We stayed at a hotel in Churchgate called Astoria. The area is fantastic. Nearby to Colaba, which is probably the most popular tourist area, but a little bit less crowded, and lots of good stuff to see/eat/do nearby. We were also right next door to the Churchgate metro station, which proved to be very convenient for getting to our slum tour. The hotel itself was mediocre, and pricier by far than most of what we stayed in in India (about $100 a night, internet access extra). I guess Bombay is a pricey city. The most redeeming thing about our hotel was definitely the impressive breakfast spread. They had a guy who cooked up omelettes and dosas to order. I think I ordered a Masala dosa every morning. Definitely try the banana shakes as well. Also, they provide scented talc as a complimentary toiletry, random and awesome.

Our first day in town we set out to walk around and explore. We stopped to watch boys playing cricket on the Oval Maidan. It’s a large park with a handful of games going on at all times it appears. And the architecture surrounding the park (as well as all around this city!) is beautiful – art deco, gothic, very European. Next we walked up to India Gate, which was hugely crowded with tourists and hawkers. You have to wait in line to go through some security, but I find it more disconcerting than comforting when the bag check policy seems to be hit or miss. We saw Taj Palace from across the way. Despite the guidebooks intriguing mention of the awesome bathroom on the main floor, we skipped it. From there we walked up through Colaba market, again very touristy. I find it odd that there are super famous and popular places where food is not known to be great and their main claim to fame is showing tourists the bullet holes from the terrorist attacks. Not exactly my thing. Instead, we stopped at Olympia for a quick eat. While I was not enthused by the fact that we had to eat on the “Ladies Lounge” on the upper level, the cheap and tasty mutton masala spicy was worth the principle digression. We knew this spot was legit because it was the spiciest meal on the trip so far, and we were the only white people in the place.

::india gate::

::taj palace::

::me and ghandi::

::cricket at the maiden::

We walked off lunch through some random and poorer areas. Given how many people live on the streets, you see a lot of people’s more intimate and mundane experiences. We saw numerous pick-up cricket games in the streets, lots of people sleeping (everywhere), even kids being bathed in the street.

That night we went to dinner at Pizza by the Bay for some good ole western food. It was super delicious – fried calamari and margarita pizza and a bottle of wine. Mix of locals and tourists, and a great location where you catch the breeze off the water through the open windows.

While there’s definitely a range of budgets accommodated by restaurants in Mumbai, the mid-range restaurants are much more expensive than elsewhere. Or is it just that there weren’t many/any mid-range restaurants elsewhere? Either way, the prices were a shock after our experiences eating cheap. Most shocking are the wine prices. They charge $50 for a bottle of Yellowtail. YELLOWTAIL! Oi. Not to mention there is like 25% extra with taxes and service charges (which you never see at the more casual spots). Indian wines are more reasonably priced, and as such we stuck to these. We had an amusing conversation with our waiter one night about the virtues of Indian wine. His argument was essentially that the conditions for wine in India are on par with those in respected wine producing regions, but the problem with Indian wines is just that their vines are too young. Interesting. His other argument is that Indian people “have the tongue” for it, and so they can taste how good it is. I’ll buy that argument vs. most westerners when it comes to spicy food, but wine? I ain’t buying it.

We walked over to the Intercontinental Hotel after dinner to grab a few cocktails. A girl followed us all the way from dinner to the bar, trying to sell us some flowers by fake crying, making weird faces, hanging off of Alan, and a host of other odd tactics. She seemed to speak decent English so I told her that pretending to have a seizure was probably not her best sales tactic. I guess we were the fools because by engaging with her she gave us her hardest sales pitch all the way to the bar, and then waited for us until we came outside probably over an hour later. That girl should be a Bollywood actress. There are a handful of beggars throughout the city who hold out their hands to you, and they seem to get progressively more aggressive at night, poking you or whacking you with their outstretched palms if you try to ignore them.

The rooftop bar at Intercontinental was très chic and expensive (think $20 cocktails). There were no other non-Indians while we were there. We were seated at a 4 seat high top and twice asked if it would be OK to seat people with us. Both times we said yes, but then the guests refused. No love for the tourists?? Anyway, we very much enjoyed the great views and popular American music. With the flashing Christmas lights it had a very clubby vibe. The drink I ordered was spectacular, I think some combination of kiwi and coconut water and vodka and some other stuff. Budget buster day, but if only for a night we felt like our old employed selves. 😉

::drinks at the Intercontinental::

The next day we did some more tourist exploring on foot. We checked out Horniman Circle, which was a peaceful little park with a playground inside. Next we walked through fort area.

The shops were not in full force, it being a Sunday, but there was still plenty of activity. Including this cow, waiting in line for a Xerox:

::cow in queue::

The Post Office building is the most impressive I’ve ever seen. Seriously, the buildings in Mumbai practically rival those in St. Petersburg for impressiveness. We went in to the Victoria train station, tried to figure out how to purchase tickets from Agra to Delhi later in the week, but as with most things in India, it was confusing and definitive answers were scarce. We left empty-handed as we hadn’t brought our passports with us.

::train station::

::post office::

::boston strong, even in bombay::

Stopped outside to try a peroo (sp?), an Indian guava, with chili salt. Interesting, though I think we should try one with a pink interior. These were white and we saw vendors later selling ones with pink insides that looked maybe to be a bit more ripe.

Crawford market was fun, tons of stalls selling snacks and nuts and spices. We bought a little package of spicy cashews (which I believe gave me food poisoning in Delhi, ugh) and some candy covered fennel seeds (so good, and help digestion if eaten after a meal. They hand these out in lots of restaurants with your bill.) They also had lots of fresh fruits, and right next to it was a row of animal shops with adorable puppies sadly caged and birds of every type, from chicks to parakeets.

We walked by the Devi temple, which had a line of locals that wrapped round the block. We stopped to ask an official looking man if it was OK to go in with Alan wearing shorts, his response was to shove us in and cut the line. Felt bad, but nobody seemed to mind beyond the basic shoving whilst in line process.

Weary from the heat, walking and little food we finally arrived at Chowpatty Beach. I think this is THE spot for Sundays, and it was bumping. There are vendors everywhere selling snacks, toys, rattan mats, and a host of other items. My favorite? Guys with tricked out power wheel cars and motorbikes blaring music that they would push kids around on for a few rupees. We were tempted by the snacks and sweets, though having read that this is a particularly hygienically risky area, we opted for pre-packaged ice cream bars. Fantastic – mine was fruit and nut and had yellow raisins and nuts in it. Which reminds me that so many countries outside the U.S. use the yellow raisins over the red ones. So much better, can we make this a thing in the states?

::i think this girl is so stunning::

::tricked out hot wheels::

After chilling on the beach for a while we grabbed dinner at Cream Centre for some solid veg food. Alan got the regionally famous Channa Bhatura, which is a gigantic piece of fried dough that’s all puffed up with air. You pop it upon receipt and use it to spoon out the spicy chickpea curry that’s served alongside it. Pretty good. I enjoyed a paratha and some paneer curry. We stopped at renowned Bachelorr’s for shakes afterwards. Maybe try the fruit, we went with chocolate shakes and they were nothing special and pricey by Indian standards.

Our last day in Mumbai we went on a slum tour with Reality Tours. I was on the fence about the idea of a guided tour, but I’m glad we did it. We learned a lot, and you really could get lost inside those dark and narrow alleyways! We first saw the commercial area where they recycle aluminum and plastic. The non-toxic trades are in the residential area (fabrics, food, pottery, etc.). The lifespan of people working in the recycling shops is quite low given the fumes they inhale daily.

Note that taking photographs is not allowed on the tour, to preserve the privacy of the people. The below photos are professional photographs provided by Reality Tours.

plastic recycling

13th compound in Dharavi, the recycling area

Part of the mission of the tour group is to portray a more “realistic” image than the media does of the slums, and how happy it is here. True, there were a lot of happy kids and adults here. I imagine the picture isn’t quite as rosy as they paint it to be, but it does give you an appreciation of the sense of community that’s created here. 80% of profits go to programs in the area to provide education, the arts etc. The kids are as always adorable and smile and say hello. I’m sorry if this sounds crass, but I feel like this had to be one of the “nicer” slums. They have public pay toilets that are cleaned seven times a day, and a number of the homes had color TVs and internet. I appreciate the mission of Reality, but I’m just not convinced it’s the full reality.

We took a cab to the Dobi Ghat (where they wash the laundry) afterwards with another couple. It was quite amusing when the tour guide tried to squeeze a family of 5, another couple and the driver in a five person car. Though I’ve probably seen more people than that in a tuk-tuk by now.

::dhobi ghat::

We braved the train back to Churchgate by ourselves. Trains were not as bad as we were warned, though I certainly could see how they might be at rush hour. The Reality Tours sent a guide to meet us all at Churchgate, and he’d give us three stops advance notice to prep us for getting off the train (apparently they stop only for seven seconds, and when crowded you kind of have to push and shove your way to the door in order to make it. Wasn’t really crowded at all when we rode though). We heard there are an average of 15 train related deaths a day (Alan thinks in Mumbai alone, can this really be possible?!). The average must be skewed by a handful of bigger accidents, but it’s still incredibly high. I presume this is primarily because of the people who hang out the open doorways.

::Indian trains, not crowded::

Our last night we had dinner at Trishna, trying their famous butter garlic pepper crab, out of the shell. Tasty and VERY buttery. We also ordered chili garlic squid and a bottle of viognier, and even splurged on some kesar pista kulfi for dessert (kind of pistachio ice cream dish.. meh. nothing special). All in the meal was around $80. We’re living large in Bombay, baby 😉

A few thoughts on cleanliness/hygiene in India… A lot of people in India chew paan, a reddish tobacco product, so you see people spitting it out constantly. You also see a lot of it on the ground as you walk around. Interestingly, we did not see a single trash can on the streets of Bombay. Trash, you see tons of. The litter is much much worse in Northern India. In Kerala you see signs about keeping the environment clean, not littering etc. It’s not yet part of the mentality outside of Southern India. My friend Aash pointed out that the literacy rate in Kerala is around 90%, as opposed to something closer to 50 or 60% up in Delhi, so that probably plays a big role. Still, even in Kerala you will see trash flying out of bus windows.

You can’t be a puss about dirt here, and you definitely need a healthy open-mindedness about eating at less than spotless restaurants. We’ve had our fair share of meals that would not pass a health inspection review back home (is a grade F even possible?). It’s best to just not think about it. I’m particularly cautious in India (e.g. limited street food) because so many people do get sick here (according to the CDC there’s about a 50% chance of getting sick on a two week visit in India. Multiply by two of us and 3.5 weeks and we were (writing this from Delhi, where our luck ran out) beating the odds. You know it’s not a particularly clean country when restaurants use “hygienic” as one of the three words on their signs to entice you in.

Toilets similarly range in hygiene. The smell of the public toilets (where there are any) as you walk by is enough to make you try to time your water consumption with access to western toilets. And it’s no easy task, let me tell you! That said, you don’t see anybody peeing on the streets where there are public toilets. Men pee everywhere in India, and to my delight, I didn’t see a single man peeing whilst in Bombay! Hooray! Stay tuned for Agra, where I probably saw more men peeing than not peeing.

Getting out of Mumbai was a trip. Our plane ticket said we depart from “BOM,” and when you look up that airport code you’ll see that it’s the Mumbai International Airport. However, we were flying domestic, to Agra. We asked our hotel and they said it would be the international airport then. So they put us in a cab, argued with the driver in Hindi for about 5 minutes and then said, OK no problem, you’ll pay the metered price (basically no cab drivers will agree to metered prices, they try to rip you off, and there’s really no hope getting a metered fare unless you have someone who speaks their language arrange it), it will be a few kilometers past the domestic airport. We get dropped off at the international airport, and then the security guys can’t figure out whether we should be here or the domestic airport. We find some Air India employees who tell us to go to domestic. They’re just different terminals. Really? A $100/night hotel in Mumbai that’s popular with business travelers doesn’t know this? Anyway, we tried to hire another cab or tuk-tuk, and they all tried to rip us off massively (charging more for the 11km ride than it did to take the hour long trip from Churchgate to the airport). We weren’t that crunched for time, and were so furious at this point we told them all to fly a kite. Unfortunately though, nobody was even willing to negotiate. Finally an airport employee saw us struggling and came in to assist, getting a tuk-tuk driver to agree to take us at the metered price. Even then, she says in no case to pay over Rs 50, though of course our driver gets lost and so it cost nearly 50% more than that (not a lot of money, but nobody ever seems to know what’s going on). Then we’re stopped by security that takes Alan’s phone to look at our flight info and says “no, you have to go back to international.” How is this so hard?!? Honestly. Luckily/unintentionally(?), the tuk-tuk driver who could not speak English just dropped us at the domestic airport, and for an additional Rs 75 we were finally the correct airport. If you could see me fuming at the incompetence of the people running the airport food joint, you would have laughed. It’s a love-hate relationship I have with India. Love-hate.

Asia, India

New Obsession: Aloo Bhujia

Image December 29, 2013 champagne&backpacks Leave a comment

So in love with this spicy, minty snack! bonus: it’s for all ages.

Also discovered recently: mint paratha. I didn’t think paratha could be improved upon, but mint went and did it.

Asia, India, Madurai

Madurai

December 27, 2013 champagne&backpacks 3 Comments

I had started questioning myself after Cochin, the backwaters, and Munnar… is India really that intense? As crazy as everyone says it is? Am I misremembering our honeymoon and actually this is a very chill country? Well, Madurai quickly reminded us of the cacophony that so much of India provides. These parts of India offer near-constant sensorial stimulation: sights (colors, people, animals, things everywhere), sounds (essentially continuous honking along with the myriad of other city noises you hear), smells (yeah, lots of those… by the time you realize you smell sweet flowers and think to inhale deeply, it’s been replaced by some other foul smell and you regret taking that deep breath), touch (lots of people and stuff, not so much space), and tastes (obviously you know by now from reading my blog that I love me some paratha, and India has a hell of a lot to offer in the culinary department).

::bathrooms::

::view from our room::

By now I’m used to not having the luxuries at our hotels (a top sheet, a shower separate from the toilet, a safe, air conditioning, a hairdryer, etc.). But Hotel Padmam took it to a new level: none of the above, and no soap, no towels, no toilet paper. Though they do provide the dirtiest looking walls you’ve ever seen. Oh and the toilet leaks and it rotates smelling like piss, vom, and I’ll let you guess the third scent. You can also hear your neighbors retching. Loveliest sounds to wake up to, I tell you. Alan tells me I’m overreacting; it’s not that bad. But hey, I didn’t make us move, I’m just venting about it and resolving to try and bring in a little income somehow so we can avoid the no-TP style hotels in the future. (To be fair, we asked (twice) for TP, soap and towels and we received. I guess it’s just an ask-and-ye-shall-receive only policy. Also, we bought a top sheet for a few dollars from a shop down the street. It helped me sleep, and the pink really brightened up the room). Oh, also for $20 a night they threw in breakfast. We tried the South Indian breakfast the first morning, definitely the worst food we’ve had to date in India. Also, I’m pretty sure they tried to give us a used plastic bottle that was refilled with tap water. (Must be careful of this some places in India.) The next day we opted for the “continental breakfast” – three pieces of toast. It was much better at least.

::do not stay at hotel padmam::

Alas, we didn’t come to Madurai for the magnificent lodging (though I think there are one or two nicer places, if you go, by all means, stay at those), we came for the same reason everyone comes: the Meenakshi Temple. And it is truly a stunning piece of work. By the temple the street is quieter and a little more relaxing. You can wander around and everyone tries to get you to go in their shops, which do, to their credit, offer nice rooftop views of the temple. They of course want you to buy things from their stores though. Luckily, we met a not overly pushy guy who made us cinnamon cardamom tea and let us enjoy the views without too much of a sales pitch, provided we tell our friends to go there. So friends, go to Miya’s store and buy some elephants statues, or jewelry, or textiles.

::view from a rooftop restaurant::

The temple itself is really quite impressive. A bit confusing getting in – but to sum it up for you: full pants required, no hats, no shoes, no cameras, but mobile cameras are fine so long as you pay Rs 50. (Don’t ask me why… one of the stranger rules we’ve come across so far. Also, I just have to say that while so much of what India has to offer is beautiful and cheap to see, it’s a total bummer that you aren’t allowed to photograph a lot of it.) Foreigners must pay Rs 50 each to get in, and there are a handful of places that only Hindus are allowed within the temple itself (and the lines for these are impressively long). There is also an art museum within the temple and the entrance fee is covered by the Rs 50 paid to enter the building. Quite a bargain – for less than a dollar a person you get a full day’s access to this impressive site.

::incredible detail::

::long long lines::

::whispering into the bull’s ears::

We watched for a while an elephant who would take money from patrons using his trunk, then bop them on the head and pass the buck back to his owner. Pretty neat.

::a little business transaction::

After wandering and soaking in the place for a few hours, we enjoyed sitting and people watching. Alan lay down on the floor for a bit to gaze up at the temple towers and the sky and people thought this was quite amusing. That or just that we were white. (Also, one woman thought he was sleeping, which is apparently offensive, and so he got yelled at). One boy pointed and laughed at us and his Mom told him to come over and say hello. Next thing I knew I was shaking hands with 10 kids who liked to say “Hello! Hello!” It’s cute how much they like to shake hands and talk to us white-folk. (There are certainly other non-Indian tourists, but not all that many. Still, I’m surprised how often we get stared at in India. I would have thought people would be more used to seeing tourists by now.) We also ran into a few kids outside the temple who wanted “one pen, please” and loved seeing photos of themselves. These kids are hilarious and adorable.

::is that girl on the right not the cutest girl on the earth?::

Food in Madurai started out underwhelming: an undercooked chicken dish (Alan pointed out that you would think they could have cooked the chicken all the way through in the hour it took to provide it to us) at Chettanoor’s roof-top restaurant, and then a questionable South Indian breakfast at our hotel. Luckily the tali lunch at Arrathy was phenomenal. They give you about ten little dishes of curries and sauces, a bunch of papadum, and then they pile on a ton of rice, cover it with some golden powder and then drizzle hot liquid ghee over top of it. You aren’t provided silverware (except serving spoons). I attempted to use my fingers as the locals did, mixing the rice, powder and ghee together, but I am just incapable of eating saucy curries and rice with my fingers, so I used my serving spoon to assist. Learning to eat Indian food with your fingers is harder than mastering chopsticks! One of my favorite of the dishes was a sweet rose water and cashew concoction. Still trying to figure out what it was called so that I can order it elsewhere! Do tell if you know 🙂

::tali overdose::

::tali plate, minus the ghee rice and papadum::

My general impression of Madurai is that it ain’t that awesome. The food options (that you’d be able to eat at and not get sick from) are not very plentiful or amazing (the tali lunch was great, but other places that come highly recommended… not so much), and it’s just not that cool here. I’m writing this now from Mumbai, which I’d heard mixed reviews on, and it is so much better here. Weirdly, we’ve moved to one of the biggest cities in the world, with incredible population density and insane poverty, yet I saw several people peeing on the side of the road in Madurai and none here. I actually feel much safer walking around Mumbai than I did in Madurai, which is surprising to me. And if there are nice, chill spots with some ambience, we didn’t find them. So I would recommend one night max in Madurai. It’s pretty neat to see the temple, but I wouldn’t waste much time in the city itself.

Each time I’m blown away by the roads we travel to get to our next destination. The drive from Munnar to Madurai was no exception. Coming down the mountain we descended a terrifying series of switchbacks where the road would occasionally be blocked by rocks and/or road work with no warning.