There She Goes Again

Hi all,

Just arrived in Bangkok this morning at 630am, but couldn’t check into my hostel bed until 2pm, so took the time to upload all of my pictures from India and Nepal. All of the new links are in the blogroll (named Karnataka, Goa, Mumbai, Jaipur, Taj Mahal, & Nepal) so enjoy!

xox

Jillian

It’s only been 15 days since I last posted, but it feels like so much more time has passed. India is a crazy, crazy land.  I have learned the true meaning of never knowing what to expect from one minute to the next.  From taking rickshaw drivers for their first slice of pizza to having my chakras read by a guru to getting nudged by a cow in the middle of traffic whilst wagging my head to the tunes of The Venga Boys- every second is an unexpeceted adventure.

I’ve visited quite a few destinations in these past days- usually never spending more than 3 days per city. It would be fantastic to linger longer, but that’s not a luxury that I’m afforded being in India for only 2 months. I’ll describe the places, but really the best thing to do is look at the pics (if I can ever find an internet cafe fast enough to upload them!). First was Hampi, where the accomodation was AWFUL at best, but the sights were magical. The town rests between these gigantic rounded boulders that are actually very similar to the Devil’s Marbles in the Australian outback. The difference is these boulders have 500 year-old temple ruins set in them. One morning we got up ridiculously early to go on a bike ride to see the temples outside the town limits, but had to turn back by 11am because the heat was already too much. It was HOT in Hampi, man. Boiling! We spent most lazy afternoons in the shade at this place called The Mango Tree, just absorbing chai after chai and journaling. 

We couldn’t get a train from Hampi to Goa, so instead we had to take a ’sleeper’ bus. I figured that this bus would be like all of the overnighters in South America, but NO SIREE! The bus was just a little taller than a normal bus and was filled with bunk beds- not a seat in sight. Dee and I had to SHARE a bed that was smaller in width than a twin sized bed, completely filthy, and we couldn’t even come close to stretching out our feet because our stuff had to all go by our feet.  We had no choice but to cuddle all night long during the 13 hour journey. We were lucky that we knew each other- some of the beds were filled with two strangers! Can you imagine how awkward that would be?! To make matters worse, the road from Hampi to Goa was seriously the BUMPIEST road that exists in the entire universe. Every five minutes, I would be flung into the air- literally like a foot off the bed. Not pleasant- let me tell you. However, it was all worth it when we arrived in Candolim, Goa on my 26th birthday.

When we were in Costa Rica at the very beginning of our adventure, Dee and I discussed how we wanted to spend our birthdays. For mine, I said I wanted to get a room at a nice hotel and watch Seinfeld episodes on DVD and eat junk food all day long. That’s exactly what I did! I booked us the least expensive room at the Lemon Tree Resort and they upgraded us to a HUGE suite for no extra cost. It was SO fancy pants and had a DVD player and movies to rent from the front desk. They didn’t have Seinfeld, but we managed to rent Aladdin and The Sound of Music, even though the speakers were messed up and everyone sounded like chipmunks. My birthday consisted of watching movies, ordering room service, drinking Bacardi Bay Breezers at the swim-up pool bar, and napping in the oversized king-size bed in the freezing cold A/C! I mean, really, what a fantastic vacation from my vacation. Unfortunately, that night I started feeling some tummy rumblings and I haven’t been 100% since. A few days before I got sick, I definitely jinxed myself by saying aloud, “If we’ve made it a month in India without getting sick, I bet we’re in the clear.” Stupid!

After our glorious two nights at the Lemon Tree, the Menezes family picked us up from Anjuna to take us to Madgao. Our friend Susan from The College of Wooster is marrying the nephew of this family, so his Indian uncle Desi took on the responsibility of doing EVERYTHING for us while in Goa. He set us up in a beachside apartment (for free) and took us out and paid for every meal and everything we needed- including medicines (which we needed a LOT of)! Our days out with Desi consisted of visiting some sights and then sitting and sitting and sitting…for multiple hours at a time. We got pretty bored, but Desi seemed to be enjoying himself doing nothing, so we endulged him as our host. In the sitting time, we did a lot of chatting. His family has a lot of money for Indian standards and I found his tolerance for lower class people extremely low. He hated a lot of things, but I think Russian tourists and people from South India topped his list. He also won’t let his children (ages 11 and 16) read Harry Potter or swim in the ocean. He went to NYC and didn’t leave his hotel room because he was scared of being shot. Obviously, he was in complete disbelief of how Dee and I’s parents would actually let us TRAVEL AROUND THE WORLD at age 25. Obviously we butted heads a lot, but we managed to keep our mouths shut in respect.  I don’t usually spend a lot of time with such conservative people, so it was fascinating to listen to him. The fact that his kids weren’t allowed to read Harry Potter beyond KILLED me!!! Painful. Goa is known as the party state of India, but Dee and I didn’t experience that side at all. Partly due to being sick and partly because we only did stuff with the Menezes. Clearly from the above description, partying wasn’t on their agenda.

Next up was Mumbai/Bombay 12 hours north of Goa in the next state- Maharashtra. We only had two and 1/2 days there and one goal- to be an extra in a Bollywood movie.  On our first day, after breakfast, I announced to Dee “we NEED to find a phone to call this casting agent to book us on a shoot.” Literally, not more than 5 seconds later, a young guy approached us with a business card for Cute Look Productions asking us to be an extra! He was heaven-sent. He told us to meet him at 3pm at McDonald’s (since obviously all westerners should know where it is) and we’d be in a song and dance scene. He said they’d do our hair and make-up and provide us with costumes and we’d get paid 500Rupees (about $12.50) for working from 3:30-8pm. We couldn’t wait! We spent the morning doing the recommended Lonely Planet (the backpacker’s bible) walking tour and met up with him at 3. The shoot was set-up at an abandoned old factory and we found out it was for a music video, not an actual Bollywood movie. The video was the first for this boy band called F4*- the winners of last years’ Indian Idol! The cheesiness factor was at a solid 12 out of 10. I’ve never seen anything like it. I will be dying until it comes out on youtube so you can see for yourself. The group consisted of four boys in their early 20’s (typical of a boy band), but they could NOT dance- they just basically moved their arms around and did strange rap video-type moves. One scene, for example, had them dressed all in white against a white background with a giant dove painted on it. Then, two ‘animal handlers’ (I’d call them animal abusers actually) were throwing doves across the camera frame so it looked like they were flying. In case you couldn’t figure it out, the song is about peace and freedom. Obvious and cheesy much!?! Finally, at 10pm, two hours after we were supposed to have finished, we began our scene. At the beginning of the day there were about 10 white girls, but by scene-time Dee and I were the only token white girls left! In our scene, the boys just exited their car (license plate F4* with neon F4* sign hanging from aboveof course) and we played their REALLY EXCITED fans. I had a poster with Abhi’s face on it covered in lipstick kissies and I had to hug him and have him autograph it- screaming and jumping up and down all the while. After 10 takes, it was exhausting work!!! It’s going to look beyond ridiculously cheesy on film too. CANNOT wait to see it!!! We received our promised $12.50 for 8 hours work. Oh India.

I had just finished reading this AMAZING book called SHANTARAM, which takes place in Bombay. The author describes the city so well that after 900 pages, I felt like I’d been there and knew everything I wanted to see just from the book. We ended up hiring a driver to taxi us around on Bombay Day 2 because of the heat and our limited time. First stop was the Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat where hundreds of men wash thousands of pounds of laundry every day. Each man has his own ‘cubicle’ with dirty looking water and a large rock that he uses to pound the dirt out of the clothes. I asked why only men are allowed to work there and the women said it’s because laundry is such backbreaking labor. Next, we went to the Mahalaxmi Temple, which is a Hindi temple dedicated to Laxmi- the Goddess of Good Fortune. I’ve found that the temple scene in India is very similar to my experiences at temples in China, in that EVERYONE pushes to get to the front. I had to throw a few elbows just to get my puja (blessing) from the priest. The people going to worship are RUDE! It’s just such a contradiction, being that it is a holy site with a holy purpose. I am learning to greatly value the order that we have in the US of A! We Americans sure do know how to wait patiently in lines and exit airplanes and busses in an orderly fashion. Anyway, next we went to the Haji Ali floating mosque, which was the first mosque either of us had ever visited. We both felt very uncomfortable inside for a variety of reasons. A of all, Dee was wearing cut-off denim shorts and neither of us had head coverings and B, we simply didn’t know the procedure or where to stand or what to do as it was prayer time. We left in a hurry, though it was an interesting place for sure. Bombay has a large Parsi population- a religious sector originated in Persia, who believe that the earth is sacred. Therefore, instead of burying or cremating their dead, they leave them out to corrode while vultures eat the flesh. The place where they pile the bodies in Bombay is within the Towers of Silence. We tried to go see these Towers, but it is off limits to everyone except Parsis.

After Bombay, we flew to Jaipur up in Rajasthan. It was semi-miserable because there was no air-conditioning for most of the flight- being in a confined space 40k feet in the air with NO air flow in the hot weather is not enjoyable. It was Women’s Day (did you know March 8th is International Women’s Day?!) so all of the ladies on board received a free sandwich and lychee juice! I felt bad for the man next to me who was staring longingly at my paneer sandwich. I don’t know too much about how women are treated here, but I’ve mostly talked to men and NONE of their wives actually worked in a job- just tended to household duties. I can’t imagine just making chapattis all day long. Ugh. Jaipur is a REALLY busy place- it’s the capital of Rajasthan- and known at the ‘Pink City,’ though everything is actually more salmon-colored. We hired drivers for both days– it’s really just the only way to get around to see everything as public transportation doesn’t seem to exist. Today, our driver Vicky (he is a boy with a girl’s name- very common), took us to see his Guru. He read our chakras and energy. He said he disliked me from the instant I walked into the room- meanie! He did say some very interesting stuff though, including that I shouldn’t go back to the city where I was living before this trip because bad energy was there. He also stated that I need to do creative work, I have lower back and knee pain, and low iron (all true). He said my throat chakra (communication skills) was blocked and I need to lower the mask I tend to put up. Great. Other than all that, he said I have fantastic energy. I don’t necessarily believe everything he said at all, but there were some points of good insight.

Off to Agra to see the Taj Mahal tomorrow at 6am and then moving on to the very holy city on the Ganges River- Varanasi- tomorrow night!

Love,
Madam Jillian
** Everyone here calls me madam – I feel as if I run a brothel! **