123109: Kerala and back

Another one-stop flight later, Rabsi and I ended up in Kerala which I pronounce utterly wrong as “Kee Raa La”. Rabsi finally ended up pronouncing it my way too *She’s teaching me bad English now... like ‘make’ pictures instead of ‘take’ pictures!!*. Anyway. We arrived around 3 pm in our hotel, Le Meridien in Cochin, Kerala. When we arrived, we made plans and reservations for our stay until January, 2^nd 2010. After that; we grabbed lunch. At 5 pm, we had our first massage at the hotel and the first one for me in my life. It was pretty awesome and very cheap i.e. 1100 Rupees which is like 20 dollars. Then we relaxed for a bit in the hotel pool and sat on the couches in the terrace. We were tired from the traveling and after looking at the menu in the hotel restaurant, decided we would order food in and for one time, not Indian food. It was kind of funny, because the table fit right in between our two beds, so we ate sitting on our beds. *Day 1 was totally chilling, doing nothing at all but massages, getting pampered and taking a dip in the pool..As you can see we are ready for a luxurious pampering next 3 days *

We are now in our second day and second massage in Kerala. We can see everything being setup for tonight’s New Year’s dinner and party at the hotel from our balcony. It looks really pretty and we have our nice private balcony in our room where we can just sit and watch the backwater and poolside view from here. This morning, we had a great and elaborate breakfast at the hotel. After that, we took a 20 minute ride in a Rickshaw to Taj Malabar, a hotel famous for its spa. I had seen the rickshaws many times, of course, but never sat in one myself. I thought it was pretty neat, and it’s only about 10% the cost price of a normal taxi. Here in Kerala, Rabsi felt it would be safe for us to do and that’s why we decided to get one here for this relatively short ride. *I thought it’ll be a great experience for her to try and yes totally safe and so we actually ended up in one of those touristy rickshaws – it was all done up in pretty hues and colors from the inside for the tourists!!*. We both took an aroma massage at the Taj Malabar. Aah… I wish I could have this every day done. *Me too!!! It was funny the Thai woman doing my massage was born on the exact same day, date and year as me!* The rickshaw driver picked us up after our spa to bring us back to our hotel. In the afternoon, we went to Fort Kochi and Matacheri which is the old Jewish colony of India and is famous for its line of shops for jewellery and spices. We had lunch at a beautiful hotel called the Old Harbour Hotel in Fort Kochi, with a beautiful inner garden. It was the first time I think that I did not see something in the environment that was disturbing. Usually India is very beautiful; but to see a landscape entirely without trash, construction and/or a slump; is hard to find. We thoroughly enjoyed our lunch. After that, we took a rickshaw to Matacheri, a market with mostly Kashmiri people where we would be able to bargain a lot. We bought nice jewelry in a shop. I think Rabiya bargained so much that I got my piece close to cost price for the merchant! *He was also from Delhi and we ended up having a great conversation and he was really happy in the end so he promised to give us his jewellery at cost price and we later found out from visiting other shops that it was an extremely awesome bargain so yes, he was very generous.*

At night we had the New Year’s eve gala dinner organized by the hotel. There was a huge buffet; I have never in my life seen such a long buffet. You literally had to take a walk to see it all. There were also live Bollywood (Bollywood is the Hollywood industry of India; as Rabsi explained to me) performances and a DJ and an irritating woman doing raffles which were ridiculous (e.g. you have won a 3,000 rupee treatment in Le Meridien Malaysia so you basically need to spend like a lakh of rupees before you can use the 3,000 rupees!!). The music was kind of like American music but with Indian tones and house beats. The dance floor here in India is full of men instead of women. *This is more of a Kerala thing, from what I see the women are very conservative here and I rarely saw women in western attire so yes we were definitely standing out in our dresses* There were so many men and so little women, that it feels kind of strange to dance as a woman. I definitely didn’t feel as free to dance however I liked as the men obviously did. One of the things that have stricken me the most in this country is how different India must be experienced by a man versus a woman. As a man, I’m sure nobody would really pay attention to you and things must be easier to get by simply because you are a man. India is a man’s world. *But as a woman you are constantly under the limelight, it can get really annoying. I’m an Indian but I don’t have too much freedom to walk and dress like I want in all the places and this is my first trip with just another girl so I discovered how different it is when you’re travelling alone. But there is also something else I realized today. There are two sides to every coin, so the upside here is great too. For e.g. many a times people are more courteous and friendly and help you out with everything when you are a woman, which is not the same in the west given the equality. At every junction of our trip we’ve met people from our driver to tour guides to just random people who’ve super nice gone out of their way to be nice and help us out which maybe be different for men right!! Kerala has been very warm and receptive in that respect and not too many stares!!*

The next day, we took a taxi to Allepy famous for its backwaters. We took a three hour boat tour. I loved it because it was very relaxing and really the first time I saw pure nature in India. There were many people living along the riverside, but they lived in peace with nature. I could see them wash their clothes and utensils in the river, or bathe in it themselves. The people were kind; as they waved and smiled back to us. The backwater tours were a great experience. We then went to the beach, but there was nobody in bikini. Everybody was bathing in his/her normal clothes. There was also a lot of small trash on the beach. Not a very nice beach, hence. We took a ten minute walk but soon returned to the driver. What’s a beach if you can’t go bikini? We got back to our hotel and quickly dived into the pool. We ended up playing some pool volleyball with the other tourists staying in the hotel. And finally ended a perfect day with room service and movie and a deep blissful sleep!! Wish life would be like this forever!

Today we’ll be flying back to Delhi at 2 pm. One thing we have noticed during our stay together is that I’m definitely a morning person and Rabiya is an evening person. As my energy level decreases over the time of a day; Rabsi’s starts low but goes up during the day and is highest at night. Hence, I’m usually awake before her, doing my writing like now, and she’s usually still energetic when I start to feel sleepy. *I’m awake now!! And we had our last breakfast in the hotel, I kind of feel sad leaving it, I especially liked our place and  we’ve definitely had a super relaxing vacation with the steam, sauna, poolside, spas, nice dinners and lots of sleep. I’ve gotten used to this lifestyle and wish we could stay here for a bit longer… but c’est la vie!!*

*We’re sitting in the airport now waiting for our flight and it’s funny how even the seats are super comfortable sofa like chairs and not the regular metallic airport furniture. Heidike just came with the not so great news that are flights been delayed even longer. She’s curled up on the sofa reading a book while I’m sitting here writing our memoirs.* We are over half in our vacation; but we definitely already have gathered memories for life.

And so who would have thought that the most adventurous part of our tour still had to come? The initial plan was for the plane to leave at 2 pm. Hence, we arrived at the airport at 12 pm. We got a message in the car on the way to the airport saying that the flight was delayed until 4:20 pm; and in the waiting room we saw it was delayed even more until 5:15 pm. I had clearly caught a cold in 30 degree Celsius Kerala; I’m guessing from the AC in the car from the backwaters back to the hotel. I had gone for a long bathroom break since my stomach was slightly upset. Without my knowledge, they had started boarding for a 4:20 pm anticipated take off instead of the more recently announced 5:15 pm take off. Hence, we I came out of the bathroom, Rabsi and I managed to get on the last bus to the plane… She hadn’t known where I was and I did spend significant time in the bathroom. Anyways, a little later we’re on the way to our first stop on the flight to Delhi; Hyderabad. Conform Indian norms, the plane gets landed rather roughly. I must admit I’m not a fan of landing planes and certainly not of Indian landing planes! Happily we have no more interior flights to do in India after this one. When we are back in the air and about half an hour away from Delhi, the pilot announces that there is major fog in Delhi and the visibility is zero. Hence, they will land fully automated. I’m not really comfortable with that thought; I anyways thought all planes were landed fully automated already but over here it sounded more like an experiment! I started to feel a little anxious and the steward kept on reassuring everybody that they had done it before, etc, but it wasn’t really convincing to me. Then fifteen minutes later it was announced that they didn’t have the right equipment to do the fully automated landing (I’m so glad they realized that), and that we would land in Jaipur instead. Jaipur is about five hours by road transportation away from Delhi. After circling another half an hour above Jaipur, we made a landing at higher than normal speed (ugh… I hate landing!) but safely made it to Jaipur. We then had to pick up our luggage, and ours was amongst the last pieces so we were to take the last bus from Jaipur to Delhi. A couple which had put their luggage in the beginning than announced they would be going by private transportation; and hence they had to get all their luggage out again making everybody wait for an hour in the bus. It started to be colder and we did not have any jackets with us. Then, half an hour after we started driving (we did get a free tour of the inside of Jaipur and its ancient city parts that we couldn’t see on our visit to Jaipur because of the Islamic festivities – we even saw the beautiful pink palace), the bus driver stopped so people could grab a bite to eat. But people got off and sat their asses down and after 20 minutes still looked like they were going to take 20 more minutes to enjoy their fine dining. This really pissed me off since I was cold and wanted to get to Delhi and I would never expect other people to wait for me so I could sit down to eat. Just take the freaking food on the bus. So Rabiya and I started to complain and than an older man joined us and one minute later everybody was back on the bus. Thank God. The trip to Delhi was cold. We arrived at around 5.30 am. We managed to get our luggage ourselves and as we turned around, Kabir (Rabsi’s brother I had not met yet) and her driver were waiting in the car for us. The heating went on full force and one minute later we were enjoying being soaked in by the comfortable warmth of the car and the feeling of being home!

It’s interested that right at this moment I realized that I had started to love India. I had liked it from the beginning; but let’s say I had to get used to its own ways and give in to its charms. But here I was, finally entirely embracing this country of contrasts!

122909 & 123009: Delhi and leaving to Kerala

As we get comfortable on our exit seats on the Jet flight to Kerala, I have a thousand thoughts racing through my head and I’m hoping I pen them down before I forget it all. I already have Heidike sitting right next to me asking me if I’m writing a fresh piece or just going through all the hard written work she’s been doing over the past 4 days. I almost feel a little guilty for slacking but I think I want to write a bit right now before I’m going through our earlier work. For maybe the nth time I’m wondering if this is really for REAL... I mean is she really here? Did we really spend the most awesome four days of vacation? Why is it that the good time flies like it does? I mean we’re already done with our Udaipur vacation and on our way to Kerala and very soon all of this will be a memory and as the time passes become a fond blur of one of the best vacations I had with my best girlfriend. So yes I’m very grateful of her idea of writing small memoirs on our journey so maybe we can look at it with time to come with fondness and laughter. When you think about it as we grow older and all our needs have been met the only thing we look forward to is bliss and happiness and I have a very strong feeling that one day we’ll look at this and feel happy. It just feels so great to have her here and to spoil her that I can’t stop ranting about it.. But what makes me truly happy is how she’s taking it all in. *Oh yes, bring it on!* She’s loving the food and I know she’s not just saying it to be polite (she’ll definitely complain if she doesn’t like something – no really!!) but because she’s eating more than I am. And everyone sees that at home too and maybe I’m even a little jealous coz of that!! Well, because I can see my mother has taken a true liking for her and is cooking delicacies for her that even I haven’t gotten to eat in the past 8 monhts. *:-)* Well well, I guess she is just so easy to love no one can help but spoil her. *I wish that was always true.”

So yesterday we spent a quiet day in Delhi with absolutely nothing to do. We went to our Ashram in our morning which is like a personal family temple. *This was such a great experience for me as I felt part of the family. We all went in the temple and after we sat down, Rabiya and aunty started to sing. It was so touching and beautiful to me I almost started to cry.* Since yesterday was last day in Delhi before the New Year, my mom and dad wanted to keep a “langar” in the ashram. *Basically they packed up food and distributed it to the poor people.* So we spent a quiet morning there just chilling and chatting about life in general and post lunch we went for our pampering session to the salon. We got red manicures *My first ever manicure!* and even if I say this myself it looks hot!! And we got a nice warm olive oil head massage, hmmmm… *This was freaking awesome!* I think we were super happy we didn’t meet our friends for lunch as planned earlier because it was just so relaxing and now we are ready to take on the next lap of our trip – Kerala here we come!! For those of you who don’t know, Kerala is super famous for its original ayurvedic massages. In fact the ayurvedic form of treatment (which is a purely natural treatment about a 1,000 years old) originated from Kerala!! I’ve never tried it (thankfully, I’ve never had the need to) but its seemingly worked wonders for people that I know have tried it. So yes, we are already booked for our first ayurvedic massage at our hotel this evening.

 

 

 

I think I now want to talk about a little bit of the silly stuff that we’ve been up to. But for now our plane is taking off so I need to pen off and more to come later. Heidike is reading at this stuff and giving her silly smile. Yes, she’s been amazing at soaking it in till now and Kerala should be equally awesome!!

And we’re back. In the air settled in our super cosy awesome seats but starving. We got some crap food at Costa Coffee in the airport and I can see Heidike is also waiting for a good breakfast. I must say after super low super small domestic flights this flight is finally flying high enough so I can get a really pretty view of the clouds below. Our previous flights to Udaipur, Jaipur, Jodhpur were all on these small little jets (can’t really call them planes) which were only like 20 minute flights and hence flying so low that we could see the ground the entire time – imagine flying from New York City to like Philadelphia (no really!!) that’s like Delhi – Jaipur! But yes, Kerala is the south of India so this is a good 4 hour flight I believe. Heidike’s got this nice tourist book on India from Jess and we’ve been checking out the places we want to visit in Kochi. Hmmm this should be a really chilled out new years with beaches, natural beauty, coconut palms and the sun!!! Yes, we can’t wait to shed off the winter layers.

If anyone is reading this you’re probably bored by now and honestly I’m too hungry and I see our food arriving so have a good day and you can check this space out for late.

I’m back – you see our flight made a quick stop at Hyderabad and for a moment we were really worried because we didn’t remember seeing this on our ticket printouts *We later saw the printouts did say 0 stops.* – we thought it was a non-stop flight and with the plane doing these summersaults and wobbling a bit too much we wondered what was going on!! When we realized it was a regular stop over, that’s when we Heidike started wondering how many times we will be going up and down on the flight on her two week trip. We did a quick count and realized it’s a large 9 times and for her 11 times considering her flight to and from the U.S. It sounds a bit too much. So we settled back into our seats sighing, she’s taking a short nap and I pushed my seat back *like always!* and cozied up to write a bit more when I suddenly heard a boy seated behind me ask his mother “Mom, how do you push this seat back”. I had a sudden realization that this is probably the first time on a flight for him and what we were considering a pain (to be on flights so much) is probably something he’ll never do in his lifetime. This one flight may just be a big luxury for him. And then it struck me once again how fortunate we are. We don’t choose where we are born, and yes we can work hard and make a better future but still it’s just so humbling and fortunate for us to be born where are needs have always been met. Anyways, that was just a random thought I wanted to put down. We’ll finally be reaching Kerala in an hour and I’m going to go back on putting my smartass comments on the stuff that Heidike has written at the time we were in Udaipur. Ciao for now!

122809: Jaipur

 

 

 

 

So we’re on our flight back from Udaipur and we decided to keep a day for Jaipur.

We always have this plot wherein if the nice cosy exit seats are not available; Heidike makes a crying face and they immediately comply to our request. Another advantage of being women I tell you! So at the airport we’re checking in for Jaipur and I’m a little wary of the way Heidike has her passport in her hand. I tell her to take care of it and she gives me the “Ya I will, don’t be silly look” and guess what: she almost leaves her passport at the security check. Good going Heidike!! And if that’s not enough we’re stopped because she has tweezers and scissors all packed in her backpack! I start the negotiating and make the sorry sad faces and tell the officials to please let us take our stuff, we are harmless etc and yes you got it right, they comply *Rabiya basically told them that in Delhi we got through without problems; but when we left Delhi my toiletry bag was in the suitcase and not my carry-on luggage!* So we are all set for our 20 minutes short flight to Jaipur.

Turns out that our day in Jaipur coincides with a really big Islamic festival called Moharram so the inner city where the city palace is located is totally packed and the gates to go in it are closed in lieu of all the celebrations that are happening there. Thankfully we have a driver which is such a huge relief because getting a driver and car from the airport and making sure it’s safe for two women can be stressful. So one of our family friends sent their driver and car to pick us up and show us around the city and drop us back for our flight in the evening which was great. He took us to what anyways is the best touristy place to visit in Jaipur called the Amber Fort. It’s a huge fort dating 1,000 years back and the walls run 10 km long around the city. Imagine building all of that brick by brick by hand. When we reached, our driver told us we don’t really need a guide but we disagreed. We are over-enthusiastic travelers who always want the best and hence we don’t want to miss on any stories. So when we arrived, this guide spotted us and followed us around for 15 minutes before we finally hired him. I just didn’t like him *neither did I*, sometimes you get that feeling, but he was just so persistent that it became really annoying and we thought we’ll hire him just so that he can stop the “I’m the best guide, see my services, then pay me, I’m like your brother… blah blah blah” Arrghh!! Anyways, we were short on time otherwise we would’ve really told him off and found someone else. So he showed us around the fort but his stories were more focused on us rather than the fort. I mean he showed us all this really beautiful Belgian crystal and then started off with how we were princesses and therefore would meet our prince etc *I can’t stand stupid stories like this* Though I must admit he did do all the work for us like stand in line, get the tickets, be super enthusiastic about taking *making* pictures, send us to this really nice Emporium for shopping where Heidike got beautiful jewellery and told us not to visit certain places etc. And yes, he even made us hold the snakes from the snake performers. If only he would talk less, but in the end I guess shouldn’t really complain!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After our trip to the fort and shopping for jewellery we went to visit this absolutely magnificent temple called the Birla Mandir. It’s a pity photography from inside the temple was prohibited. The whole place is made up of tons and tons of marble and really beautiful carvings on the marble. The outside pillars have pictures of various Indian Gods and Godesses carved on them and inside the temple there are colored paintings carved on the marble. With all the white marble work it was a beautiful site. In the evening we decided to head back in time for our flight because we had been warned by our driver and earlier guide that Jaipur traffic is crazy and cannot be trusted. We’re back in the airport now waiting for our flight and we both our impatient travelers who hate waiting and flights!! We’re waiting for the day the super fast jets are built and will whisk to our destination in a matter of seconds.

We are now back in Delhi and waiting for Dad to pick us up. He was having his alumni dinner in a hotel very close by so he was very kind to pick us up himself instead of sending the driver. We arrived home and wohooo warm home cooked food was ready. *Yummy!* After hearing about her last episode with banging her nose on the door, mom had left the light on the porch outside my room on so there was a little bit of light filtering in the room in case she would wake up in the middle of night and feel like doing the same thing again *I thought that was so sweet and thoughtful*!

122709: Day II in Udaipur

 

 

We’re up feeling really fresh and energized looking forward to a great day. Today we would get to spend the whole day in Udaipur. Rabsi had literally planned it from morning to late night.

We started our day with a guided tour of the City Palace. We had a magnificent guide who also turned out to be a great picture taker so he definitely scored bonus points with that. It took 22 generations to build City Palace, starting with Maharana Uday Pratap Singh in the 16th century, who founded Udaipur as the new capital of the Mewar region (because the previous capital Chittorgarh was constantly under attack and Udaipur, given its location (surrounded by hills), was much more difficult to conquer). The royal family fled there after the previous capital had been captured by the Mughals. Udaipur is unique in India’s history because the Sisodia Clan, to which the Maharana belonged, is the oldest living dynasty on earth. It is also unique for its continuous fight for independence. Neither the Mughal nor the British were able to subdue the people of Udaipur to their power and conquer the state. Hence it is the only state in India that was always independent. When the royal family came under attack… the wife Maharani Padmini of one of the Maharana’s asked permission to re-instigate the fires of Udaipur to save the females honor. Under threat of being taken by the enemy, the women could hence choose to jump in a fire (mostly with their children) to save their honor in stake of their lives. In one era, one of the Hindu Maharani’s made a Muslim – Akbar her brother by tying a sacred thread which reflects the bond of a brother and a sister. While waiting for him, she finally ended up jumping in the fire… even though he did come but sadly not in time to save her. Nevertheless he saved the city from being conquered. The women in the palace were not allowed to come outside the palace or to be seen by the public. There were several locations however, where they could watch what was going on outside the palace and inside the palace when there were guests without being seen themselves. The women also had a gossip room in the palace which Rabsi and I immediately tested.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the 2 hour tour in the City Palace, we went on a boat ride from which we could enjoy the entire lake scenery of the city. On our way to the boat ride, we saw these pashmina shawls which we liked however our guide promised us he would be waiting for us on our way back and would take us back to the shop and negotiate for a good price. *I agree, he was super nice and was just not cheating on us by trying to sell us the stuff in the shop* We made a stop at Jag Mandir, one of the palaces on one of the islands in Udaipur where the affluent can still get married. They were actually having a marriage the night of our visit. *We checked out for the prices, it would be a dream to get married there, under the sky, by the lakes, amidst friends and family surrounded by beautiful nature, flowers, candles and yes, yes… I should shut up now!!!*

 

 

 

 

 

 

How long Udaipur is to remain the Venice of the East is only a matter of time. It could be easily seen that the lakes were drying out; and it is still five months to the Monsoon (i.e. the rain season) which covers May, June and July. *One of the best hotels of the world – Taj Lake Palace is a floating hotel in the middle of the Lake Pichola and our guide promised us he would send us pictures of the hotel when the lake dries up – that would be quite a pity, really.*

We had lunch at a place called Garden – which was a part of the Vintage Car Gallery Museum which we visited next. We saw the vintage cars (Mercedes as old as the 1940’s still used occasionally by the current Maharana’s during royal festivals) and later we went to a local festival in Shilpgram. We were soon to figure out that we were the only non-locals there; hence we again received a lot of attention i.e. constant stares especially by women which we until today cannot figure out why. *This was definitely a new experience for me, I’ve never see a village festival like this before and it seemed like everyone from the surrounding villages was here for the lack of having anything better to do.* The whole of Udaipur was at the festival! We decided we would see the festival safely and high up from the top of a camel and to not stay at the place too long. The camel ride was a great experience, especially when the camel moved from sitting down to standing and vice versa. Rabsi had ensured my safety by asking the camel guy which was the safest place. *The camel guy was stupid enough to think I was asking that for myself and kept telling to sit in the front!!* Hence, I sat in front and Rabsi took the place with most fall off’s. *I was literally clutching on to her for my life!!!* After we felt like the locals had stared and cheered enough at us, we walked back to where the driver had parked the car. As we passed four bulls, one seemed to be interested in us as well, but we were able to avoid a confrontation. Luckily! *Thank God we were not wearing red otherwise I don’t think you would be reading this anymore!!*

 

 

 

We decided to go sit at the pool for an hour and order a drink before going back to City Palace for the light & sound show & dinner at a purely Rajasthani authentic place called Apni Dhani. For some reason, the driver tried to talk us out of taking a break at the hotel. I think he thought we should be on the roads forever, since he was super enthusiastic about showing us around too! But we persisted. Hotel it would be. No more locals, no more camel rides, and no more shopping.

The light and sound show at City Palace was truly awesome – they gave us the entire history of the palace with light effects; although my jet lag kicked in a little. *I have to mention that we ended up getting tickets here in the morning, normally they only sell the tickets in the evening and it’s hard to get them because there isn’t much seating available and it’s always sold out, but we got super lucky for they made an exception and gave us the tickets when we were touring the palace – advantages of being two girls especially when one is a pretty Belgian foreign girl* The show covered the entire history of Udaipur.

When we first entered the dinner place in Apni Dhani, we were not entirely sure whether it was a good idea. As we walked in, it did look rather rural. They had some kind of a zoo as well and I wondered what was in there (we were to find out later). But we decided we would try it; and if we didn’t like it we could still walk out and order room service back at the hotel. Hence, a little later we were seated on the ground with a group of people in a rectangular shape. In front of us was a very low wooden “table”. The extremely enthusiastic local people then came around and gave us a spoon out of every pot they had prepared, which we looked at apprehensively. Rabsi reminded me not to eat any raw vegetables or touch the water. All the cooked food should be fine. And so we ate; and it was pretty good and a great experience. After the dinner, we watched a little boy doing tricks on a rope… It was quite amazing because there was no protection indeed and I wasn’t sure what the consequences of a fall would be. However, having seen in Udaipur the largest hospital of the state Rajasthan, as proudly announced by our driver, I don’t think I would enjoy ending up there. It looked neglected. Neither do I believe there are funds in this boys’ family for hospitalization. Anyways, it was spectacular. We then spent some time with the magician who did some pretty neat tricks. As we were walking back to the car, Rabsi decided she wanted to go into the local zoo! Oh my... It hosted white ducks and rabbits!

   

 

As Rabsi was packing (we’re leaving back for Delhi to tomorrow), I had already left to dreamland on our last sleep over at the Trident hotel in Udaipur.