They see white, they see money

It has been frustrating the past few days being in Mumbai. I’ve recently had a lot put into perspective. This happened plenty of times on the trip and it was one of the first things I noticed here in India. 

Being white, you get treated differently. They see white, they see money. I hate this… Yes I do realize I have been very privileged being born into the family I have and being born in Canada. I am very lucky and realize that more than ever. With the troubles I’ve been going through recently trying to get my new laptop out of customs, it has really thrown this all into perspective. The troubles I’m going through are nothing compared to trying to provide for a family and make a living while living on the streets. 

In Mumbai and else where in India, as soon as a beggar sees a white person they run after them and harass them to try  to get money from them. Honestly, I would love to help everyone who asks, but you just can’t. How do you pick who to give money too and who not too? I really dislike this. It makes me feel like an ass. It makes me hate the hierarchy that shouldn't exist. You’re also treated differently here, they put you on a pedestal. DON’T, I am not better than you, I am the same as you. We are both human.

Udaipur

Sylvie is currently on her own little adventure doing Vietnam, Thailand, India, and China. She landed in India on February 15th and on February 16th we took a bus from Pune to Udaipur. The bus was 20 hours, luckily we had a sleeper bus. The bus wasn’t too bad until the last 5 hours. At around 3 am I woke up feeling nauseous and I’ve NEVER gotten car sick. I popped some gravol and went back to sleep. At 8am (30 minutes before we were scheduled to arrive) I woke up abruptly and slammed open the window and puked my guts out down the side of the bus! Luckily all the other windows were closed otherwise it would have been bad… Sooo not a great start to Udaipur. Felt nauseous for most of the day, until around super time. That day we did the city palace, chilled on various roof tops, and wondered the city. 

Udaipur is a little city built on a lake in the state of Rajastan which is North of Pune. One of the things the town is famous for is the fact that Octopussy was filmed there. We spent three nights, 4 days there. We ate at some incredible restaurants on the waterfront. They were pricy but the atmosphere and the views of the city palace at night were worth. Honestly you have to be there. That is a common thing in India. Words, videos, and photos do not do this place justice what so ever! We spent our days wondering the twisting ally ways and shopping. It’s not as bad as it sounds cause we bought our stuff from this guy who could talk for hours. We learned so much from him about the area and what to see, where to eat, and what to do. It wasn’t your normal shopping experience. 

On Monday we were leaving at 5pm for Mumbai for a few nights. We wondered for a while to different parts of the city and then sat at a hookah bar for a few hours waiting for our bus. Very relaxing last few hours in Udaipur. 

The bus ride to Mumbai was 16 hours of bumpyness. FUN! Haha. Didn’t get sick this time though. We were suppose to stay in Mumbai for 1 night which turned into 2 for Syl and 3 for me. Long story and that will be in the next post. Syl left her passport in Pune and a hotel wouldn’t let her stay so she had to leave early and well my reason is infuriating but as I said I will get to it. Syl was suppose to fly from Pune to Delhi on Friday morning, never happened. Again another long story. I got back to Pune Friday evening. Was there for 2 nights and now back in Mumbai where I am currently writing this post. Wellllll until the next post.. Which may be in all caps due to anger. 

So long folks! 

Ps. Will add photo's to this post later. 

MUSE ICKITY ICK

Currently listening to Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2011 and loving 90% of the songs! Highly recommend to download it! But here are a few songs from it. Enjoy...

and finally...

Running in Mumbai

Morning run in Mumbai = Running away from stray dogs, running through train stations, dodging traffic, running through questionable smells, and running through what appears to be fog but is in reality pollution.

After India...

Also in February, I decided what I am going to do after India AND.....drum roll please... Mt. Everest Base Camp Trek! I amazingly stoked for this! It's a two week trek and it will take me about 300 m above base camp which sits at 5200m above sea level! The peak of Everest is 8000m above sea level so I am almost 3/4 of the way up! Can't efffing wait. I will be going to Nepal May 16th and be there just under a month! 

Fractured Harmonies

The following weekend after Hampi, the group of us decided to go to Goa! Time for a beach vacation. Well all I have to say is that it was beautiful, sunny, hot, and relaxing. Nothing really exciting happened, because the elections were going on so bars closed at 11pm :( However, alcohol is amazingly cheap there. For instance a 26 of rum costs $2 !!!! And it’s delicious rum at that! I got a lot of reading done and drank throughout the day chilling on our beach chairs. We did yoga in the mornings and went for walks along the beach watching the sun rise. One day we decided to swim to the island. It was a lot further than it appeared to be! But made it one piece and got some great exercise at the same time. Another morning we went dolphin watching on a boat during the sunrise. It was an extremely relaxing time. Others went cliff jumping and repelling down waterfalls. Sadly I couldn’t join them because the day I was able to go was booked full and Crystal, Marnie, and I had to leave a day earlier than everyone else due to school work. Oh well. I am planning a trip there very soon specifically for the cliff jumping and repelling! So no worries! 

All of our meals were eaten at tables directly on the sand and by candle light. There I also tried shark one night. I asked what fish had been caught that day and then I have a tray of fresh fish in front of me. I picked the baby shark. 30 min later the shark is cooked and sitting on the plate in front of me. YUM! 

There is this party at this beach called the “Silent Disco” which is a headphones party. We were going to go, only to find out it’s been cancelled due to the elections :( Oh well, we bought a bottle of Old Monk and drank it under the stars on the beach. Some skinny dipping may have been involved.. Shhh 

Goa, can’t wait to go back!

ENJOY IT!!! 

Goa

The following weekend after Hampi, the group of us decided to go to Goa! Time for a beach vacation. Well all I have to say is that it was beautiful, sunny, hot, and relaxing. Nothing really exciting happened, because the elections were going on so bars closed at 11pm :( However, alcohol is amazingly cheap there. For instance a 26 of rum costs $2 !!!! And it’s delicious rum at that! I got a lot of reading done and drank throughout the day chilling on our beach chairs. We did yoga in the mornings and went for walks along the beach watching the sun rise. One day we decided to swim to the island. It was a lot further than it appeared to be! But made it one piece and got some great exercise at the same time. Another morning we went dolphin watching on a boat during the sunrise. It was an extremely relaxing time. Others went cliff jumping and repelling down waterfalls. Sadly I couldn’t join them because the day I was able to go was booked full and Crystal, Marnie, and I had to leave a day earlier than everyone else due to school work. Oh well. I am planning a trip there very soon specifically for the cliff jumping and repelling! So no worries! 

All of our meals were eaten at tables directly on the sand and by candle light. There I also tried shark one night. I asked what fish had been caught that day and then I have a tray of fresh fish in front of me. I picked the baby shark. 30 min later the shark is cooked and sitting on the plate in front of me. YUM! 

There is this party at this beach called the “Silent Disco” which is a headphones party. We were going to go, only to find out it’s been cancelled due to the elections :( Oh well, we bought a bottle of Old Monk and drank it under the stars on the beach. Some skinny dipping may have been involved.. Shhh 

Goa, can’t wait to go back!

Hampi (sorry I've been lazy)

SO it has been far too long since I’ve posted on the blog but now it seems I have some down time in Mumbai (and I don’t want to write an essay) so I am going to try to bring this blog up to date.

HAMPI

INCREDIBLE… Probably my favorite place thus far. Think of an amazing geographical landscape that has ancient ruins littered all over. Funny thing is the essay I am suppose to write atm is on Hampi. Maybe this can be my introduction.

So Hampi is located south of Pune about a 10 hour bus ride away. It is in the state of Karnataka. When Crystal and I arrived Friday morning, we ate our breakfast in a roof top restaurant over looking an incredible temple. We found a guest house to stay in and proceeded to rent scooters for the day. We heard of this rock climbing place and wanted to do it. Hope on our scooters and just start driving in the direction of rock climbing. The drive included passing through ancient gates and driving past ruins. There were literally ruins EVERYWHERE. So we get lost, no surprise. We decided to make the best of it. Crystal noticed a little temple a top of a hill. Pull over, lock up the bikes and start blazing our own trail up the hill. It took some time and involved a little bit of bouldering and walking through thorns. It made us wonder when was the last time someone ventured up to this temple. We were greeted with amazing views of the surround area. For the rest of the day we should happily rode our bikes around without caring or knowing where we were heading. We stopped at the temple which is still used. Outside the temple was a Giant tree with monkeys it. First time I’ve seen monkeys in the wild. Well one peed on me. Bastard. But they’re still cute and we got some nice photos of them. We ate dinner at this restaurant where you sit on the ground in this hut overlooking the river. BEAUTIFUL. I decided after dinner that I wanted to go for a swim. I asked and they said it was safe. I walk into the water and want to get to this rock in the middle of the river. Well the current was a lot stronger than I thought and I got swept off my feet and brought down stream. I wasn’t worried due to my river tubing skills I’ve acquired with Jessica over the years. I grab a rock and pull myself out and start to hope along the rocks to try to get back to where I was. Where I entered the river was the only place that you could get out without walking through thorns. At one point you have to jump back in the water to swim to the next rock, against the current. Well got swept away again. This happened once again. Finally the third try I made it out. So my swim consisted of being swept away and than trying to get out of the water. 

The next day everyone else arrives (the other Canadians). Crystal and I decided that we want to check out and stay on the other side of the river (Only way across is on a small little boat.) We find a guesthouse which has a hammock in the front! SCORE! We rented  scooters again and decided to go our separate ways. My day resulted in making my own road through the desert going from ruin to ruin. At one point these kids came out of no where and so I gave them I ride on the scooter. They then demanded gum or money and wouldn’t let me leave until I gave them some gum. Luckily I had some. At one temple I met this guy from England and these two Girls from Austria. We talked a bit and they seemed like awesome people. We went our separate after that but through out the rest of the day I kept running into them everywhere. Small world. I had a late lunch at the place where had dinner the previous day. There I ran into Jon (another exchange student.) Jon, Ali and Liv were going up to the top of a mountain, on top of a temple to watch the sunset. So I joined them. Awesome hike. All the exchange students met for dinner later on at this restaurant called the Mango tree. Words cannot describe the atmosphere. Super chill terraces all facing the river (which you couldn’t see, but you could hear because it was pitch black out.) You sat on the ground at these low tables and ate by lantern light. Awesome! SO the last ferry across the river is at 630 and well when I wanted to go back over (Crystal was already there and didn’t join us for dinner) it was 1030. What you do to get back across is you stand by the shore and try to signal to people on the other side. They paddle over in this “boat” that is a circle made of bamboo and palm leaves covered in some sort of resin. They then paddle you across and charge 200 INR when in the daytime it cost 20 INR. Oh well I got across and apparently it’s illegal to cross the river at night. I’m a rebel. That night I slept on the hammock outside. 

Crystal and I rented bicycles at 6 am to try to make it to this monkey temple for sunrise.. Well we got lost instantly. By the time we found our way the sun had already risen. We still climbed the crazy amount of stairs up to the monkey temple and still had amazing views of the sun climbing higher into the ski. We then proceeded to bike to Anagundi where the rock climbing was, only to find out it didn’t open until 10 am. It was our last day and we had to catch a bus at 5 pm and we still wanted to go to these waterfalls. So we turned around disappointed. Had lunch with everyone again at the Mango Tree and then biked to the water falls. To get to them you park your bike at the entrance to the trail and then walk through a banana plantation. As you approach the falls it feels like you are on a different planet. Amazing rock formations. There are these cliffs you can jump off of that are around 7m high. Sick times! 

Hampi is a must see if you ever find yourself in India!

Bribes

And this is what I've been dealing with. Be thankful the west is not like this. This has been the most frustrating 3 weeks of my life. It has made me hate this country and want to return home. I have been going through this just because I had laptop sent to me VIA FedEx because the computer labs in the school here are severely out of date and my laptop is too old to support programs required. I wish no one ever has to go through what I have been, especially over a fucking Laptop. Back to Mumbai tomorrow.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13616123

Very accurate...

You know you're an architecture student on exchange when...

... you decide now is the best time to read "The Fountainhead."

... your living room has no furniture, however, it is a great place to lay out your drawings.

... you have a copy work station set up in your living room.

... your analog SLR becomes a decoration because you have nothing else to "decorate" your flat with.

... you have model supplies in the hallway.

... your kitchen counter becomes a cutting board.

... your kitchen table is your "drafting table."

... your shelves not only hold your food and dishes but its a great place to put your camera, books, and models. 

Mevabi Wood this is my shout out to you!

Look what I found when I was backing up my laptop. Miss you!