Day 12-17: Varanasi: The city of light

On the morning of Delhi-departure-day, I went to see the Jama Masjid in Old Delhi. It was nice enough, allthough I wonder what makes them say it's the worlds biggest mosque. It didn't look all that huge to me. Perhaps they washed it too hot. Whilst packing I encountered a similar, long-anticipated problem. My pack is getting smaller and smaller. I feel like Alice in Wonderland, and await the fully-dressed white rabbits with clocks and tophats, but seriously: it's shrinking. So I mailed 5kg books to my mother in Belgium. Now my pack closes again. But if this arcane shrinkingproces continues, it is only a temporary solution...

I had a windowseat in the train, so I got a good view of cricket-playing slumchildren, girls herding goats along the railroadtracks, big piles of garbage, colourfull sarees, yellow flowerfields, lazy indian men, working indian women, dying indian cows,... In the dead of night as my eyes followed a mediumsized cockroach on the ceiling of the Kashi Vishvanath Express train between Delhi and Varanasi, it hit me: India is rubbish, but it's also the most magical place on earth and I love it. This nightly revelation was only enhanced when I sat on a riverside terrace, gazing at the rising sun and having a lassi a few hours later. Varanasi, or Kashi, or the city of light, or the city of shiva, no matter how you want to call it is unbelievably dirty. It's full of starving dogs, it's impossible to find your way through the alleys of the old city, and the story goes that a dip in the river means instant hepatitis. But it is SOOOOO beautiful. I spent the last 4,5 days wandering about the ghats (on foot or by boat), having lots of chai, good food, and just generally thoroughly unwinding. My room was wonderfully decorated (rajasthani-style) with two huge riverside windows. The curtains caught in the morningbreeze, the first sunlight falling on my gargantuan bed... And then banana-honey-toast and black coffee on the roof. A day that starts like that just can't go wrong.

Apart from this lazing about, I also went to Sarnath for half a day. That is where our mutual good friend Lord Buddha did his dharmacakrapravartanna-thing and founded his fanclub. The sites' archeological museum has some extremely nice sculptures, that makes one wish one was Alexander Cunningham. Yesterday, on my last night in Varanasi, I had pizza with Rosita, Paola and Robert, and I am astounded by my ability to understand spanish. I guess all that french and latin did make a difference after all. At night, the river is if possible even more magical than in morning. Because both the river, the opposite bank and the sky are completely dark, the boats seem suspended in mid-air. Not today, mind you, today, the boatmen are on strike, because they have to pay the government 50 Rs for everyday they work. Good luck to them. So that's that: I just spent 4 days gazing at a river. I also bought the Meghaduta by the indian poet Kalidasa, in sanskrit. Don't ask why. I just did. So I'll have to start digging up my sanskrit again.

Now however, I am on my way into the jungle. At 14:30, my last indian nighttrain (it's daytrains and flights from then on) leaves Varanasi for Jhansi. Let's hope the cockroaches behave. From Jhansi, I'll catch a riksha (yesyes, in a net) to Orccha, where I mostly intend not to get eaten by tigers. I'll keep you informed. Btw: Thanks to everyone for commenting, here or via mail or sms, you're the best.

Intermezzo: Ode

I was gonna wait untill I got to Varanasi to post again, but sometimes, some emotions can be so overwhelming , that it feels like your heart might burst if you don't shout it out loud for all to hear. We all know what feeling that is (and if you don't, see a psychologist, seriously): It's LOVE, pyar hai.
I am in love with the Delhi Metro System. It's so shiny, and cool. There's Shahrukh Khan billboards as far as the eye can see. I feel I could lie safely in it's strong airconned arms for hours at a time. It gives so much, and only asks for a few Rs in return. It whispers in my ear: "next service to Central secretariat, arriving platform 2", and I think: "yes, this is it". Then it playfully ads: "change here for blue line". Yeah baby.. The efficiency of it all brings tears to my eyes... But, sadly, I'll be leaving it all behind in an hour and 40 minutes. Back to the everlooming overcharging rikshawala's. Wish me luck, and have some yourself while you're at it.

Day 5-10: Delhi: What's the hurry chicken curry?

I am beat. There must be some fatigue-forcefield around Delhi… But I’ve just had masala dosa with lemon soda and watermelon for dinner, so that should provide me with enough fuel to write a blogpost. I have been in Delhi for 5 days now. The city has some wonderful spots, and most people are really helpful and nice (as in most other places in India). The area I’m staying in, Paharganj Bazaar, is however filled with shopkeepers, annoying Indian boys, cows, hippies and Japanese tourists. I have nothing against shopkeepers (unless they happen to combine their profession with annoying boy-ness), cows, or Japanese tourists (unless they are Japanese hippy-tourists). The annoying Indian boys are a cultural feature, which can’t be helped without a new wave of die-hard colonialism (please don’t take me too serious here). Apart from being generally annoying, they also know their way around, so they can be used for my convenience. The hippies however, are really getting on my nerves. If I hear one more person say he/she is looking for him/herself, I’m gonna have to punch them. In the face. Repeatedly.

The shops here sell everything from Barbie dolls (bloody globalization) to two-metre long whips (why?). As I’m having trouble getting everything into my pack as it is, I try not to buy anything. Although the whips do look tempting, especially in combination with the hippies and annoyo’s. My room is quite bug-free and has a real mattress and soft fluffy blankets. Heaven. I’ve spent a lot of time lurking snuggly under my blankets. Perhaps a bit too much. I haven’t seen very much of Delhi yet, nor have I done very much studying. I think this is mainly due to the fact that my sleep is very interrupted (by singing sadhus and Indians with bells, mostly… I don’t know what they are getting at. Mad Indians…) I managed to arrange all my onward tickets (train, and plane), however. Yesterday I did my best to have an un-indian (in other words, silent and peaceful) day. To some extent I succeeded. I went to the Lodi Gardens in the morning. Very nice. Smelled just like my grandmothers backyard in summer when I was little. Same flowers. Then I went to the National Museum. Nice, if very expensive. Their Gandhara and Gupta collections are very good, and the moghul-section has some sweet swords and daggers. In the Harappa-section I found myself face to face with two oval white rocks, which only had a label in Hindi. I wondered what they were: Some kind of tool? A religious predecessor of the contemporary shivalingam?... I looked it up in my dictionary. Mongoose. I laughed out loud. After that I had a real espresso in a upperclass coffeelounge. They had trance on the musicsystem, non-pushy waiters, and the cleanest floors ever seen by human eyes. After about 10 days here, it was nice to have an deindianised day.

Yesterday evening I had dinner with Minna, and this morning we went to see the Bahai-lotustemple. This afternoon I had an appointment with the president of the hindu writers forum. It was a long way out of central Delhi, and it took me quite some time to find it, but the guy was nice enough, and gave me chai and some interesting books. On the way back I discovered the New Delhi Metro. Cheap, clean, fast, and lots of heavily armed soldiers around (I was gonna type safe, but the two are not the same). Now I’m in my office (which in Delhi equals the sikhi-internet-hut-nextdoor (god, I miss my illegal wifi)), trying to arrange more study-meetings and looking for more accommodation in Goa. I’ve changed my plans, and now I’m gonna fly into Goa, which gives me two more nights there (I hope to spend them in the state-capital, Panjim). So I better get to work, before I sink into laziness once more.

Day 3-4.5: mumbai to Delhi

After my last blogpost I went for a hike through Mumbai maximum city. I promptly got myself lost. But no worries, I've got maps and there are about 26 million people in Mumbai to ask directions from. Yet it seems a strange thing to do, naming all streets in Mumbai Mahatma Gandhi Rd... But in a fit of sheer pathfinding genius, I followed some guys carrying cricket equipment, and in no time I found myself at the Oval Maidan. After that I saw the university and the courthouse (both very hogwartsy). Still looking to spot Professor Snape behind one of the windows, I got myself lost yet again. This time I ended up in front of a whitewashed building that turned out to be St. Thomas' Cathedral, the oldest British-built building in Mumbai. It was a very nice find, mainly because it was quiet, cool and free. It also has a cannonballproofroof, which is... well... the kind of thing I like. In the evening, I went to have a last look at the gateway, and saw a SRK-bollywood on my laptop... sweet...

Yesterday was a very idle day, with much time spent hanging in couches, bantering. Checkout was at 9, but my train didn't leave 'till 16:40. Let's just say I ate and talked. My trainticket was a 3T-AC-Sleeper. That means 6 people in a compartment, 3 berths above each other on both sides, and meals and blankets included. I love trains, I also loved this one. My fellow-compartment-people were 2 Kashmiri sikhs from Goa on their way to a wedding, a young hindu-couple on their way home after a trip to Indonesia, and a devout muslim. After all my studies about communal violence in India, it was very nice to see how everyone got along great, even when discussing religion. I even (finally) started speaking Hindi. You wouldn't believe the amount of food Indian railways gives its passengers. It's sick. It's really good too. But anyway, I had the top berth, so I had to dig up my long-forgotten rock-climbing-skills. Why is down always easier than up? stupid gravity...

So since this morning, I am residing in Delhi. My hotel is a bit fishy, but nothing I can't handle. I'm keeping a low profile today, but since I could find no wireless networks prowling the edges of my (bath)room, I snuck out to the nearest internethut to type you guys this. Sweet dreams!

Day 2 and 2,5 - Bombay - Stardom

First: Happy Valentines day! (Late, I know, sorry)
I had breakfast yesterday, accompanied by my rough-guide. This resulted in the plan to go and have a look at the cathedral, the museum and the oval maidan, and spend the afternoon sending mails to delhi and studying. I had, however, only set foot out of the hostel when the tigerprint-scarf-wearing lady that approached me on my first morning popped up and asked me again: would you like to be in a bollywood movie? Well duh… So after making sure other people where coming as well I set off on a Mumbai-transportation-tour: taxi-suburban train-bus-riksha. The set we worked on was a reproduction of colva beach in Goa. It was really classy, and in the real goa, there would have been less puma-commercials and more cows, but that said: It rocks! I’m in a bollywood movie! It’s called golmaal returns. Have a look on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golmaal_Returns.

There were a few strange features though: The most remarkable was a bellewaerde-giftshop rebuilt. The second was a sign at the entrance reading: Please leave your ego at the gate, you can safely collect it on the way out. Also strange: lots of Indians dressed as cowboys… It’ll take me some time to get over that. I mean what’s next? Kilts? We got lunch (aloo-matar with roti) and chai, and our transport (yes all of it) was paid. On top of that we got 500 rupees a person… how cool is that. On my second day in India, I succeeded in making money instead of spending it! On our way back we went through the remaining means of transport: on foot, bus (again) and tourist bus (in mumbai rushhour… oy vavoi, as anke would say). On the tourist bus I had an interesting conversation with some Walloon from Charleroi about Belgian politics. He and his friend are biking trough India. Madmen…. It was a twelve hour day, and consequently very tiring. A finnish girl from my hostel, Minna, was my co-star for the day, and there was also a Canadian couple on the set. I met with them for breakfast at Leopolds this morning, and afterwards we went to Elephanta island by boat. It takes an hour to get there, but as most of you know, I love the sea, and I hadn't met the Arabian sea before. So I had a brilliant time. On the island there's a labyrinth of caves (2nd century B.C. to 8th A.C.) carved out of a hill. In the biggest is a wellpreserved, beautiful 8th century statue of the trimurti (the three faces of Shiva) (and some other reliefs which are in bad condition, since the portuguese used them for target practice). It was wonderfull, as was the reward of the fresh lime soda when we had climbed down.

I might meet up with Minna in Delhi next week. She’s travelling to Rishikesh, in the north. (ooh, and she actually gave me a valentinesday bouquet, because I let her use my internet. How sweet is that?) My home-office apparently only works until 21:30, so I didn't get any mails sent yesterday. So that's what I'm gonna do right now. Afterwards, I plan to go and run through mumbai to see all the things I planned to go see when my acting career suddenly came up. Tomorrow afternoon I'm off to Delhi, by train. O, and I have had a change in animals. The pigeon is out, the lizard is in. You're never alone in Mumbai... I've also taken some pictures, but it takes my free-internet connection too long too upload them, so you'll all just have to wait, at least 'till I find broadband internet. Untill next time: Love, peace and understanding (and not too many hippies) for all!

Day 1 - Bombay - huh?

I appear to be in bombay... How I got here I can't really remember, but it is now 18h30 here, and outside it's starting to get dusky. I find myself in a very strange position, in front of the toilet. In front of the toilet, you'll probably exclaim, why? are you sick already? Rest assured, I am not sick. It's just that after pacing through my room wall-to-wall corner-to-corner, it turned out this was the only place where I could steal some wifi. So now, I've made my bathroom into a little en-suite office. It is not ideal though... the shower is 'indian style', which means a tap, a bucket and some tupperware (which means wet floors after use). The second problem with this office is that it has a small window missing. I just spent 10 minutes trying to chase a pidgeon out of here (and I don't mean to brag, but it worked (feeling very independent right now...)). Third problem is that sitting here, lights-on, window missing, near water, greatly increases my chances of getting eaten my mosquitoes. But appart from these three tiny inconveniences: I'm in bussiness.

My flight was very smooth, with very good food, and a bollywood movie with SRK. The moneychanging and taxi-getting went, all things taken into account (I just can't haggle after 12h travel), very well too. I reached my hostel by 2:30 at night. It took some waving of reservationpapers to convince the nightguard to let me in, but around 3 I had snuck into a dark dorm, and thrown myself (fully dressed) onto an empty bed (lucky guess, in the dark). Due to all this, and gargantuan ravens and the indian habit of blowing their carhorn on sight (of anything at all) made my first hours of Indian sleep somewhat unfulfilling. At 9 in the morning I had, however found myself a nice private room, in which I promptly crashed 'till one in the afternoon. Bombay is a very strange city. It's actually more or less like a 150 year old victorian-style upperclass english neighbourhood, but with some jungle thrown in for good measure. Which, come to think about it, is exactly what it is. I didn't go far into the city today. But I saw the gateway, arranged a trainticket to delhi, and explored the neighbourhood fruit-stalls. Tonights plan is getting started on some research. The regionalism-nationalism-maffia-vortex in Bombay is very complicated, but extremely interesting, though I will not bother you with that just now.
Goodnight from all of us here at the office!

Got my ticket, got my suitcase, got my leaving-smile, ...

Yes, it's Phil Collins (the title, not the picture). Sitting on the bed under a gigantic heap of clothes, books, and other irrelevant stuff, I begin to wonder why I wanted to go travel the world in the first place. But I figure even Ibn Battuta had packing-dilemmas before setting out on his expeditions on the Silk Road. I can just imagine Sir Hillary getting all worked up over the question which type of underwear would be the most appropriate for climbing mount Everest. Even Marco Polo (see picture, not title) probably spent a few nights jumping up and down on his pack, trying to get that damned thing to close...This type of thoughts are some comfort in these last days of travel preparation.

Every time I look at my backpack, it seems to get smaller and smaller. I have hidden it under the bed for now, otherwise it might just disappear altogether by Tuesday. I don't think everything I need can ever fit in there. But that is not what worries me most. It's everything I don't need that bugs me: high heeled shoes, little black dresses, black lace-things, my hipflask, piles of books, the senseo coffee machine,... One does not take these things to India... But I might have a severe mental breakdown if I have to go without them for a month. I'm just gonna have to cope... somehow...

Paper-wise, everything is more or less in order. I've got my passport, tickets, hotel confirmations, ... I'm going for my follow-up-shot against hepatitis tomorrow. Billy the Bank-Boy (his name is probably not really Billy, though) promised me he'd have my new card sorted out by Monday. As I walked out of the bank, I granted him a broad radiant smile and an 'I-am-going-to-eat-your-liver-on-toast-with-onion-confit-if-you-fail- to-fix-this'-look over my shoulder. Since he promptly fell off his chair and hid under his desk, I think he got the general idea. So that shouldn't pose too many problems. There is, however, still a gaping hole in my travelplans. I am still accomodationless for 4 nights, in the beginning of March... It appears the South-Indian hotel-people are plotting against me, and made collective arrangements not to return my emails. I'll get them for that. It won't seem so funny when they're halfway down a tiger. Not to them anyway. But I guess I better pack a large cardboard box (see picture), just in case...

So, that's about it for the travelplan-update. I'm going to spent the remainder of my pre-india time in Belgium enjoying the cockroachfreeness of my bedroom, the availability of alcohol, the relative efficiency of everything, and the generally low degree of Indians per square meter. Next post will be from India, unless I get really really nervous or bored or both before Tuesday, of course. So I'll see you then.