Plan: Visit Aurangabad and the Ellora Caves!
It's about 4:30AM when the bus stops and I suddenly wake up. I hear the driver scream something about a railway station so I quickly wake up Yan and tell him we should probably get off here (since we had scene that most hotels and sites were around this very station). Still half asleep, Yan and I head out of the bus only to be greeted by a douzen touts!! They all wanted to bring us to a different hotel (probably working on commission for those hotels!), and were relentless! They were all addressing themselves to Yan (I guess that was smart on their part since they probably realized I was much less likely to say yes to anything!) and after having heard him say "no thank you" for the sixth time, I decided to step in and get the job done ;) One "no thank you" from me would usually get them to stop. Yan's lesson No 1: learn to say no with assertiveness cause this will only get worse!!
Grant it I'm not used to this at all. I've never been harassed like that anywhere else I've travelled. Until you sounded angry when you said no (which Emilie did a spectacular job of conveying), they would not stop! We had one guy literally follow us several hundred meters, even entering a hotel with us (telling us the whole time how this was not a good place, too expensive, that he knew better much cheaper places), relentlessly offering to take us to hotels or the train station, etc. Not surprisingly though, after 2 days of non-stop offers of rides, hotels, souvenirs, taxis, tours, food, etc. etc., it's getting much easier to just say NO!
We walked along the route trying to situate ourselves while dodging these touts. We finally got an answer from some nice guys waiting near where we were dropped off and we headed down the street trying to find a hotel room for the next night (being on a student budget meant we weren't about to pay for a room just to sleep for a couple of hours!).
After finally reaching the train station, and having checked out the prices at a couple of hotels, we decided to hang out here until sunrise when shops would open! We found ourselves a nice little bench (far enough away from the smell of urine that seems to be prevalent in most of India) where Yan could read his book and I could try to get a bit of sleep. Unfortunatly, that didn't last long since Yan was being eaten alive by mosquitos (meanwhile I was bite-free for some reason!) so we decided to go find the MTDC hotel (which was close by) and hang out there. This hotel was going to be the starting point of our trip to Ellora since its tours where highly recommended. Once we got there, they of course tried to get us to rent a room there but the prices where a bit too high for our taste.
They generously offered to show us the rooms first, only to tell us after how much they cost before giving you a "real bargain" because you were their friend, or the first tourists of the day, or because it was the beginning of the season, etc. Unfortunately for them ,we're not picky about rooms and trying to maintain a reasonable budget.
The tour company only opened at 6:45am so instead of just waiting there, we decided to go to the restaurant and have tea...some of the best tea I've had so far! Yan had a quick breakfast, we had our tea and then headed to the booking office. We booked our tour for the day: Ellora and City tour, and since the bus only left at 9:30am, we walked to the next street over to find a hotel. We finally found one that was cheap and not that bad looking called Hotel Indradeep. We left one of our bags there, checked out the place and chilled a bit before heading back to MTDC for the beginning of our journey.
This tour was not only taking us to Ellora caves, but also to the major tourist sites in Aurangabad. Our first stop was Daulatabad Fort. This fort is surrounded by 5km of walls and the fortress itself stands on a 200m-high hill. This fort actually has interesting history. In the 14th century, it was renamed by sultan Mohammed Tughlaq, who not only wanted to build himself a new capital here but also decided to march the entire population of Delhi, the capital at the time, over to his new capital (the actual distance between both being 1100km!). Sadly, those who did not die on the way only had a short stay there as this new location proved untenable as a capital (lack of water) and were forced to march on back to Delhi only a couple of years later. We also got to see bats...lots of them!!! There were tunnels within the fortress that were completly dark but if you shined a light to the ceiling, you could see hundreds of bats hanging there...just looking at you...creepy!
Those tunnels were used to trap any invader, who would get lost in the darkness and die either from the hot liquids poured on them from above or by running out an exit from which they fell into the crocodile and snake filled moats below.
Our next stop was the famour Ellora caves! These caves are World-Heritage listed and are the pinnacle of Deccan rock-cut architechture...one of the most beautiful sites I have ever scene!! The escarpment where the caves are situated is 2 km long and includes Buddhist, Hindu and Jain caves. All in all, Ellora has 34 caves (we only got to see about 10): 12 buddhist (AD 600-800), 17 Hindu (AD 600-900) and 5 Jain (AD 800-1000). The masterpiece is the Kailasa Temple, dedicated to Shiva. It's what you would imagine an Indian temple to be like. This temple was built in AD 760 to represent Mount Kailasa, Shiva's home in the Himalayas. This undertaking entailed the removal of 200,000 tonnes of rock!! It actually covers twice the area of the Parthenon in Athens and is 1.5 times as high! Amazing and truly worth the visit!! Two other amazing caves we saw was Cave No 10 which is the Viswakarma (carpenter's) cave. It takes its name from the ribs carved into the roof, in imitation of wooden beams; it also includes a balcony and a decorative window gently illuminating and enourmous figure of the teaching Buddha. The detail included in these carvings are incredible and I'm positive our photos will not do them justice. We also saw a three story cave (cave 12). The walls of this cave are carved with various relief pictures like those found in the Hindu Caves. After our group had left, Yan went up so I could take a picture of him sitting at the top story of the cave. Once pictures were taken, while he was making his way back down, I was confronted by a group of very nice men who started talking to me and wanted to take pictures with me. Yan was surprised when he got to the bottom and could only see the crowd of guys!!
The Ellora caves were simply spectacular, especially the Kailasa Temple, and it is exactly the kind of sight you imagine when you think of India. The entire temple, and all the caves we visited, were carved straight out of the rock in the mountain. When you look at the size of the temple and some of the caves, coupled with the many intricate details found on the outer and inner walls, it really is amazing to think how much work and planning had to go into creating them, a thousand years ago!
After having a quick lunch at a restaurant near the caves, we made our way to Ghrishneshwar Temple for a quick visit. Then we headed off to Bibi-ka-maqbara, also know as "the poor man's Taj Majal". This imitation of the Taj was built in 1679 as a mausoleum for Aurangzeb's wife. Its nickname is a slightly ironic comparison though since it was Aurangzeb's father who had built the original shortly before being overthrown and imprisonned by his son on account of his extravagance! Although we have yet to see (in person) the real Taj, this is quite a comparison to our average gravestones back home!!
We then made our way to Panchakki, which means water wheel, that drives a mill. The wheel is driven by water carried through pipes from the river situated 6km away!! It used to gound grain for the pilgrims but is no longer being used. Exhausted from our day, we made our way back to the bus to drive back to MTDC hotel. From there, we went straight to a restaurant called Prashanth, ate a little something and headed back to our hotel for a somewhat restful sleep.
Somewhat because the beds felt like a slightly padded piece of wood and we even slept on top of our covers just to give it a little more padding! All in all, worth all 350 Rs we splurged on this hotel!
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Day 13: Getting out of Pune
Plan: Find a travel agency and book a trip out of Pune!
Today we hopped into a rickshaw and headed back to downtown Pune near the train station where our trusty Lonely Planet listed a traveling agency from which we hoped to book a ticket out of Pune. The reason we were so anxious to leave is that we found out that the municipal government was looking to shut down Pune (imitating what was done in Mexico City during its outbreak) and waiting only for state and national government approval. This would mean everything but essential buildings would be closed for the next 3 days at least. Clearly our time would be better spent visiting another area of the state! Finally finding the agency (which had relocated), we booked two bus tickets for an overnight trip (11pm to 4am) to Aurangabad, from where we could visit the historical caves in Ellora and Ajanta. Now that we knew where we were going and when we were leaving, this didn't give us much time to wander around the city. We made a quick stop for some sandwiches and an eclair pastry at a bakery and ate that lunch on the steps of a very poshy mall that was closed because of swine flu but nonetheless surrounded by SEVERAL security guards (12 at last count). After browsing a few stores and walking down a main street , we headed back to the hotel to get ready. After packing, we hopped online to let everyone know of our plans, ate DELICIOUS pizza at our restaurant, and killed the next hour chilling in our room.
I must say that after not having a decent pizza for the past 5 years, this was AMAZING! And Yan even confirmed with me that it was a great tasting pizza (I think he even preferred mine!)
When the time had come to leave, we notified the manager of our plans as well (so he wouldn't stay up worrying about us again), and stepped out. As we passed by the restaurant's hotel, our favorite waiter saw us and, seeing the big pack on my back, thought we were leaving. He quickly rushed down the stairs to say goodbye but we reassured him that we were only leaving for a few days. It was really very sweet of him and we walked away with big smiles on our faces!
We hopped into a rickshaw and made our way to the travel agency from which the bus was to pick us up. It was across from a main bus station and while we had hoped to walk around a little there, a wave of people asking us if we wanted rides, tickets, a hotel, etc. made us quickly retreat back to the agency where we waited patiently. Around 11:10pm we were told it was time to go and pointed towards a big white van. We were more than confused as we had been told we would be riding in an air conditioned big bus. Instead we were cramped into this van, filled to capacity, with our bags on top of us. Not looking forward to an overnight journey in such conditions, we were overjoyed when our van pulled over 10 minutes later on a street where the bus we were promised waited among others. We hopped in and tried to make ourselves comfortable for the journey (good practice for the traveling we'll be doing later) but despite the comfort, sleep was still hard to get by.
Today we hopped into a rickshaw and headed back to downtown Pune near the train station where our trusty Lonely Planet listed a traveling agency from which we hoped to book a ticket out of Pune. The reason we were so anxious to leave is that we found out that the municipal government was looking to shut down Pune (imitating what was done in Mexico City during its outbreak) and waiting only for state and national government approval. This would mean everything but essential buildings would be closed for the next 3 days at least. Clearly our time would be better spent visiting another area of the state! Finally finding the agency (which had relocated), we booked two bus tickets for an overnight trip (11pm to 4am) to Aurangabad, from where we could visit the historical caves in Ellora and Ajanta. Now that we knew where we were going and when we were leaving, this didn't give us much time to wander around the city. We made a quick stop for some sandwiches and an eclair pastry at a bakery and ate that lunch on the steps of a very poshy mall that was closed because of swine flu but nonetheless surrounded by SEVERAL security guards (12 at last count). After browsing a few stores and walking down a main street , we headed back to the hotel to get ready. After packing, we hopped online to let everyone know of our plans, ate DELICIOUS pizza at our restaurant, and killed the next hour chilling in our room.
I must say that after not having a decent pizza for the past 5 years, this was AMAZING! And Yan even confirmed with me that it was a great tasting pizza (I think he even preferred mine!)
When the time had come to leave, we notified the manager of our plans as well (so he wouldn't stay up worrying about us again), and stepped out. As we passed by the restaurant's hotel, our favorite waiter saw us and, seeing the big pack on my back, thought we were leaving. He quickly rushed down the stairs to say goodbye but we reassured him that we were only leaving for a few days. It was really very sweet of him and we walked away with big smiles on our faces!
We hopped into a rickshaw and made our way to the travel agency from which the bus was to pick us up. It was across from a main bus station and while we had hoped to walk around a little there, a wave of people asking us if we wanted rides, tickets, a hotel, etc. made us quickly retreat back to the agency where we waited patiently. Around 11:10pm we were told it was time to go and pointed towards a big white van. We were more than confused as we had been told we would be riding in an air conditioned big bus. Instead we were cramped into this van, filled to capacity, with our bags on top of us. Not looking forward to an overnight journey in such conditions, we were overjoyed when our van pulled over 10 minutes later on a street where the bus we were promised waited among others. We hopped in and tried to make ourselves comfortable for the journey (good practice for the traveling we'll be doing later) but despite the comfort, sleep was still hard to get by.
Day 12: The things you can see while exploring India!
Plan: Visit train station and backpackers district
Since school is now cancelled, we decided to explore the City of Pune, especially what they call the "backpackers district". We decided to wake up around 10am so we could sleep in a bit but have enough time for a full day of exploring. After a quick breakfast consisting of bananas and pastries, we head out the door and catch a ricskaw to the Pune Train Station. It turned out to be nothing much to look at but it gave us a good idea of what we will be faced with later on during our trip!! As we left the Train Station, we definetly got harassed by touts wanting to bring us somewhere and Yan also got his first taste of kids begging. One boy asked him for food and when Yan said no, he continued by grabbing him and asking him again...certainly not the last time this will happen!!!
I have to say I've had my share of travelling, sometimes in poorer places, but I had never been grabbed before. I'm sure it's something I will get used to quickly enough though.
North East of the train station is Koregaon Park, home of the backpackers district and where the more upmarket restaurants and bars can be found. We decided to walk there and make a pit stop to the Tribal Museum on the way. As we were trying to find our way around the area, we turned on one street and as we walked along, we saw our first woman peeing in the street!! Up until then, we had seen our fair share of men peeing on the side of the street but never a woman. This shocked Yan a bit...maybe even traumatized him!!
Let's just say that was a first too, but Emilie's exagerating with the trauma, DRAMA QUEEN! Although from that point on, I've been very careful to avoid walking in anything remotely wet on the streets or sidewalks. This is actually more difficult than it sounds because Indians are quite fond of spitting, pouring things on the street, and peeing. You can never be too sure which it is at any given wet spot (though sometimes the strong smell is a giveaway).
As we kept walking, we came upon a nice clock tower and decided to check it out...as we go into the grounds where the tower was situated, we realized it was a psychiatric hospital (a very nice one at that)! As we are walking out of the grounds, we saw a man pushing a cart with a white cloth on it...but as it approched, we realized that it's not only a white cloth, but actually a dead body lying under a white cloth!! The things you see in India! It really is a different world here! We kept walking towards the museum and Yan spotted our first Indian Pirate!!! Or the closest thing we'll come to an Indian Pirate!
To explain this one a little, as we walked down the street, this man stood with a stick, in the shadow of a tree, leaning against its trunk. He started walking our way and I kid you not, the man looked like a pirate! As he came closer, we realized he was a homeless man, which explained the raggedy clothing. We steered clear of him as he mumbled to himself and walked around aimlessly across the street...
Finally, we got to the Tribal Museum. This little quirky museum was filled with exhibits that depicted tribal life and culture in Maharashtra state. From masks to jewellery to tools, huts, and cuttlery, this museum gave us a good idea of the other side of India...the tribes that are rarely spoken of. According to the Anthropological Survey of India, there are 750 tribes in India who in total, account for 8.77% of the population (that's over 87 million people belonging to a tribe).
One thing of note here that I found different from previous visits to museums is that I got to turn on all the lights myself :) Apparently they don't get too many visitors and, good for them, they keep all the lights off in each room. So as we went from room to room, we'd switch on all the lights and fans just for the two of us.
Once we were done visiting this small museum, we headed to Koregaon Park. On the way, we made a quick stop at the Osho Meditation Center. This center, located on one of the nicest street we've scene so far, is not what you'd expect from a typical meditation center located in India. Most of it's followers are Westerners and the facilities include a swimming pool, sauna, tennis and basketball courts, and a massage and beauty parlor. So what happenned to minimalistic centers where the focus truly is on finding your inner self???? As we read in our trusty Lonely Planet, if you actually want to visit the site for the day and meditate, you'll have to dish out Rs 1280 ($35 which is a LOT in India) which covers registration, a mandatory on-the-spot HIV test, an introductory session and your first day's meditation pass. What is even more curious about this place is that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (otherwise known as Osho) was one of India's most flamboyant export gurus and THE most controversial. He followed no particular religion or philosophy and outraged Indians with his advocacy of sex as a path to enlightenment...hence why he is also know as the "sex guru"!! In 1981, he set up an ashram in Oregon (USA) which was a blend of Californian pop psychology and Indian mysticism...Intrigued yet??? Eventually, with rumours and local paranoia about the ashram running amok, he was charged with immigration fraud, fined US$ 400,000 and deported! His followers and he, trying to find new grounds where to establish themselves, were denied entry to 21 countries!!! By 1987, he was back in Pune! Followers flock to Pune every year to follow his courses and prices are continually on the rise! And although Osho often commented on how nobody should be poor (you'd think he'd have a great understanding of this since he grew up in India where poverty is very much "in your face"), none of the money generated by this ashram (or better titled as a resort!) goes into helping the poor or disadvantaged of the community. So I guess, in the end, it's just wrong to refer to this place as an ashram since it really does go against everything an ashram stands for!
You could pay 10 Rs for a short visit of the place but unfortunately the tours weren't running at the time because of the swine flu epidemic. Maybe we'll check out this decadent sect later on during our trip.
We then headed to the German Bakery, which is apparently a favorite of backpackers and locals alike. We shared a vanilla pudding and both had tea (delicious) and they even had wheat free pastries (ok, actually I think they might of had just one cookie that was wheat free...but awesome nonetheless!!). We then wandered upstares to the hippie store and checked our prices for a trip to Goa. Since we had finished everything on our list of "things to see" we decided to walk across the bridge and take a look at the market.
As we left the bakery and walked up the street, we noticed (hard to miss) and elephant in the street!! We were both so excited to see our first Indian elephant wandering the streets!! :) We crossed the bridge (where it was hard to actually take a nice picture of the river since it was so polluted (as most of India is!) and wandered the streets of the market! You could find just about anything there! I ended up getting a beautiful sari and some nose rings, but they also sold live chiken (which they kill on the spot for you...I guess they're easier to bring home that way!), live fish... (which were still swimming in shallow pots) as well as jewellery, food and quite frankly, anything you could ever need! Let's not forget the random goats walking along the market!
The view of the river from the bridge is quite the contrast with the beauty you see in most if not all European cities. In Europe, the rivers are often at the center of a city's beauty, with many famous city landmarks found along its shore and boats filled with tourists and locals enjoying themselves. Here the river seem but an afterthought, another place to discard waste and litter, with pigs walk along the shore and a mini-slum on one end. By contrast, the market we stumbled upon made me draw parallels with Algeria. You really felt like you were entering another world, with its small long winding streets filled with different shops. And the live animals sold at little stands drive the point you're no longer at a North American grocery store!
As we were leaving the market to make our way back to the other side of the bridge, we saw a man walking with two monkeys on a leash...they did not look very happy to be there...let's just hope there was no animal cruelty going on there and that he was actually taking care of them...but I guess I shouldn't hold my breath! We had decided on a restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet, only to find out that it was closed...as was the second and third restaurant we had decided on! After the third attempt, we decided to head to Prems, a restaurant recommended by the guide book and which we both knew was open since we had scene it on our walk around the backpacker district early today! After a nice dinner on the patio (where every single waiter was now wearing a mask), we made our way back to the hotel to call it a day!
Day 11: School’s out for swine flu
Plan: Go to school and find out what the heck is going on.
We woke up bright and early today, ready to attend our 7:15am class. To get as much sleep as possible, we skipped out on any substantive breakfast and opted for a banana each to hold us over until after classes. We hopped into a rickshaw and made our way to school where the general lack of many students was a pretty good hint school was indeed closed. But it was also very early and we felt it was best to make sure. As we entered the central building, the gates to the upstairs were locked and a paper posted on the gates informed us that yes, classes would be cancelled until the 18th of August! From there, we wandered back home and after a significant nap, decided to explore more of the area around our hotel, looking for an ATM. A stop at the internet cafe, a lot of stuff about Swine Flu on TV, and a nice supper were the only other highlights of the day.
We woke up bright and early today, ready to attend our 7:15am class. To get as much sleep as possible, we skipped out on any substantive breakfast and opted for a banana each to hold us over until after classes. We hopped into a rickshaw and made our way to school where the general lack of many students was a pretty good hint school was indeed closed. But it was also very early and we felt it was best to make sure. As we entered the central building, the gates to the upstairs were locked and a paper posted on the gates informed us that yes, classes would be cancelled until the 18th of August! From there, we wandered back home and after a significant nap, decided to explore more of the area around our hotel, looking for an ATM. A stop at the internet cafe, a lot of stuff about Swine Flu on TV, and a nice supper were the only other highlights of the day.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Day 10: A day off from everything...except Swine flu as it gets more serious
Plan: Sleeping in and going back to our Hotel!
So I woke up this morning in a strange house with a strange man sleeping in a bed beside me....KIDDING! We actually woke up at Lazy Rock, the residence where most of the other Canadians (who take part in the OMG program) are staying...and the guy beside me is Julian...he was nice enough to share his room with me. We got back from the trip at about 2am, tried to get a rickshaw but they were still on strike...then tried to call Cool Cab (the company that picked us up from the airport) but they had no taxis available in Pune. Then Yan went to talk to the guard who tried to call someone but there was no answer...so our only option was to sleep over at their place! There was only one bed left so Yan was nice enough to leave it for me and he would “sleep” on the couch...although I think he surfed the...free...internet more than anything!!
We checked our email (one last time for Yan!) and then headed back to our hotel. There was a rickshaw outside the gates but he did not seem to know where our hotel was situated so we decided to walk a bit to try to find another one. We only walked for about 5 minutes when another one pulled up and we hopped in.
When we got back to the hotel, the manager asked us where we had slept!!! Seriously, it’s like travelling with parents!! He had called Vaishali cause he was a bit worried since we had left at 5am and didn’t come back until 11 am the next day! We promised him we would call him next time, so he wouldn’t worry.
We went back to our room and decided to take it easy today...movies, room service and a lot of sleep! So we put on a movie and did just that...fell asleep!! Woke up a bit later and ordered room service...a cheese sandwich for Yan and a Veg burger for me...although when they brought up the food, they brought up the cheese sandwich and a stuff paratha...We tried to explain to him that we had ordered a Veg burger but he did not seem to understand so we gave up and decided just to have the Parathas, paid the waiter and he was on his way. Two minutes later, the English speaking waiter showed up asking us if there was a problem! We explained what happened but told him that everything was fine and that we just needed the change from the 100Rs we had paid him. We had lunch (really good!), watched another great movie and then it was time for supper!!
We ate at the restaurant again...had a cheese paratha and Gobi paratha this time (cheese one was AMAZING) and then had ice cream for desert...although Yan went the extra mile and got a sundae. It definitely wasn’t your typical north American sundae but since I didn’t have any, I guess I’ll let Yan let you know how it tasted!
Well the sundae was less than thrilling actually. It looked cool but tasted so so. It had waffles on top, jello, green jelly, a fake cherry, nuts, little ice cream :p But you can’t know until you try right?! :)
All in all it was a nice relaxing day after yesterday’s adventure. Probably the most notable thing today is the tv coverage of the swine flu. The news channel has been speaking about it non-stop with headlines like “In the Grip of N1H1” and they ran a special tonight where people could call in and ask questions about the flu, how it works, how to stay safe, etc. 7 people have now died in India, all over the past few days I think, and Pune is at the center of it with 3 deaths so far and the most confirmed cases. Keep in mind Pune is a city of 3 million people so it’s not like we’re in any great danger, but we’re now seeing more and more people wearing masks and we may have to buy some too. Also an issue is school. We’ve seen on TV that all schools and colleges in Pune are to be closed for the next 7 days. We’re not sure if this applies to us because we haven’t heard anything about Pune University and our Colleges is affiliated to it. We’ve decided to show up at school tomorrow and see what’s going on. Vaishali called us today too to check up on us since we hadn’t returned last night and she mentioned her boy had a fever and she was getting him checked. Hopefully everything’s fine with him. We will of course continue to be careful so no need to worry! :)
So I woke up this morning in a strange house with a strange man sleeping in a bed beside me....KIDDING! We actually woke up at Lazy Rock, the residence where most of the other Canadians (who take part in the OMG program) are staying...and the guy beside me is Julian...he was nice enough to share his room with me. We got back from the trip at about 2am, tried to get a rickshaw but they were still on strike...then tried to call Cool Cab (the company that picked us up from the airport) but they had no taxis available in Pune. Then Yan went to talk to the guard who tried to call someone but there was no answer...so our only option was to sleep over at their place! There was only one bed left so Yan was nice enough to leave it for me and he would “sleep” on the couch...although I think he surfed the...free...internet more than anything!!
We checked our email (one last time for Yan!) and then headed back to our hotel. There was a rickshaw outside the gates but he did not seem to know where our hotel was situated so we decided to walk a bit to try to find another one. We only walked for about 5 minutes when another one pulled up and we hopped in.
When we got back to the hotel, the manager asked us where we had slept!!! Seriously, it’s like travelling with parents!! He had called Vaishali cause he was a bit worried since we had left at 5am and didn’t come back until 11 am the next day! We promised him we would call him next time, so he wouldn’t worry.
We went back to our room and decided to take it easy today...movies, room service and a lot of sleep! So we put on a movie and did just that...fell asleep!! Woke up a bit later and ordered room service...a cheese sandwich for Yan and a Veg burger for me...although when they brought up the food, they brought up the cheese sandwich and a stuff paratha...We tried to explain to him that we had ordered a Veg burger but he did not seem to understand so we gave up and decided just to have the Parathas, paid the waiter and he was on his way. Two minutes later, the English speaking waiter showed up asking us if there was a problem! We explained what happened but told him that everything was fine and that we just needed the change from the 100Rs we had paid him. We had lunch (really good!), watched another great movie and then it was time for supper!!
We ate at the restaurant again...had a cheese paratha and Gobi paratha this time (cheese one was AMAZING) and then had ice cream for desert...although Yan went the extra mile and got a sundae. It definitely wasn’t your typical north American sundae but since I didn’t have any, I guess I’ll let Yan let you know how it tasted!
Well the sundae was less than thrilling actually. It looked cool but tasted so so. It had waffles on top, jello, green jelly, a fake cherry, nuts, little ice cream :p But you can’t know until you try right?! :)
All in all it was a nice relaxing day after yesterday’s adventure. Probably the most notable thing today is the tv coverage of the swine flu. The news channel has been speaking about it non-stop with headlines like “In the Grip of N1H1” and they ran a special tonight where people could call in and ask questions about the flu, how it works, how to stay safe, etc. 7 people have now died in India, all over the past few days I think, and Pune is at the center of it with 3 deaths so far and the most confirmed cases. Keep in mind Pune is a city of 3 million people so it’s not like we’re in any great danger, but we’re now seeing more and more people wearing masks and we may have to buy some too. Also an issue is school. We’ve seen on TV that all schools and colleges in Pune are to be closed for the next 7 days. We’re not sure if this applies to us because we haven’t heard anything about Pune University and our Colleges is affiliated to it. We’ve decided to show up at school tomorrow and see what’s going on. Vaishali called us today too to check up on us since we hadn’t returned last night and she mentioned her boy had a fever and she was getting him checked. Hopefully everything’s fine with him. We will of course continue to be careful so no need to worry! :)
Day 9: A Fort Amongst Clouds
Plan: Visiting Raigad Fort
Today we woke up early, WAY early, 4:30AM to be precise. A rickshaw was waiting for us in front of the hotel at 5AM and we headed over to Lazy Rock, where the other students from the OMG exchange program are staying at the moment. Unfortunately, we didn't have the exact address, only the streen name and area. We circled around once and asked a few people awake at that hour before finally finding the place. After waking up the guard at the gate, we made our way in and said hello to everyone. They have a nice place for sure but we're definitely happy with our location: cheaper, closer to the college, and with more to see and do around us. We all headed to the gym where the bus was scheduled to arrive at 6AM. At 6:20AM, as other members of the trip began to arrive, we found out the bus was actually scheduled to arrive at 7:00AM... C'est la vie. We killed time chit-chatting and walking around. Inside the gym I saw a posting for the trip we were taking and finally knew where we were heading. Cara, one of the girls, had told us about this trip organized by the gym they attended, but they didn't know anything about the details of where we were going. It turns out we were headed to Raigad Fort, about 4 hours away to the north. The fort was Shivaji's capital during the 17th century. It could be reached either by hiking to the top for 2.5 hours over 1475 steps or by using what they call a ropeway (a gondola). The fort and its surrounding buildings was spread over several acres and there would be a lot to see. We all got as excited as the early hour would allow for. The bus finally arrived and we headed on our way!
I was definetly excited to be hiking again and Yan was more than willing to accompany me! It sounded like a perfect day :)
We were in a comfortable coach and had no complaints there. We slept some of the way and enjoyed the scenery the rest of the time. Along the way, we stopped at a mountainside waterfall to look down at the view of the surrounding countryside and take photos. We then had an unscheduled stop when one of the wheels of the bus began to loosen. Luckily there were more waterfalls and beautiful scenery to be had. I had the opportunity to get a little wet scaling one of the waterfalls and we also saw a wild monkey running across the road. After about 45 minutes the wheel was fixed and we continued on only to stop again soon after for a small lunch. Moving on from there, we stopped AGAIN in a little town for dinner! Surprisingly, these Indians seemed to eat more than us. We did take advantage of this stop to walk around the main street of the town we were in, where people were clearly not used to white tourists. We saw a little temple down a side street where there was a gathering of people and they kindly invited us in to take a look. A memorable moment came when Julian and I were snapping photos of the crowd and one of them pulled out his cell phone and took a photo of us. That would actually happen a lot today. For example, at the fort, two men were travelling together and one of them asked me if I could take a photo. I reached out for his camera assuming he wanted me to take a photo of them but he quickly clarified, no no, he wanted a photo of him and I together. The other members of our group would also ask us to pose in group photos with them.
We continued on, stopping only one more time to pick up three men and their spare tire. We gave them a ride to their truck and our driver refused to take their money as they got off the bus. As the bus made its way up the mountains, we questioned whether the bus would make it, and based on the looks of our Indian friends, we weren't the only ones! Somehow, some way, the bus did survive the journey and we finally made it! We were a little disapointed that it was now too late to hike up the mountain, because it would be dark soon after we made the trek up, and then we wouldn't be able to see much. So instead we took the ropeway and were definitely glad to have done so as the views from the little cage we sat in were spectacular. As we made our way up, I didn't know which way to look, snapping photos of every view at every angle!
At the top, we had to pay once again, another foreigner fee, before visiting the fort. All these extra costs were well worth it though as we walked around, gazing at the ruins and surrounding mountains in wonder. What we saw made me think both of Macchu Pichu and Ireland, because everything was covered in green moss. Our guide told us a little about the history of this place but it we would often fall behind, snapping photos and taking a closer look at the view from various escarpments. We were in a truly unique place, sharing the space with the clouds passing through. In one moment, the view of a stone towers could be completely covered by clouds. Very challenging for photos, but also adding a certain serenity to it all. Finally, after several hours, as the sun began to fall and rain started falling on us, we started making our way down the mountain. We hurried a little as we didn't want to get caught in the dark (there was nothing to light the path and very few railings to keep you from falling off the mountain). The rain began falling harder than at any point so far on our trip and the steps became more and more slippery. Emilie slipped and fell on her knee at one point, leaving her with a big bruise. She marched on though and we made our way down just in time, walking back to our bus with only moonlight and fireflies to light our way. We all clambered unto the bus, wet and tired but very content, ready to sleep the whole way back to Pune.
Today we woke up early, WAY early, 4:30AM to be precise. A rickshaw was waiting for us in front of the hotel at 5AM and we headed over to Lazy Rock, where the other students from the OMG exchange program are staying at the moment. Unfortunately, we didn't have the exact address, only the streen name and area. We circled around once and asked a few people awake at that hour before finally finding the place. After waking up the guard at the gate, we made our way in and said hello to everyone. They have a nice place for sure but we're definitely happy with our location: cheaper, closer to the college, and with more to see and do around us. We all headed to the gym where the bus was scheduled to arrive at 6AM. At 6:20AM, as other members of the trip began to arrive, we found out the bus was actually scheduled to arrive at 7:00AM... C'est la vie. We killed time chit-chatting and walking around. Inside the gym I saw a posting for the trip we were taking and finally knew where we were heading. Cara, one of the girls, had told us about this trip organized by the gym they attended, but they didn't know anything about the details of where we were going. It turns out we were headed to Raigad Fort, about 4 hours away to the north. The fort was Shivaji's capital during the 17th century. It could be reached either by hiking to the top for 2.5 hours over 1475 steps or by using what they call a ropeway (a gondola). The fort and its surrounding buildings was spread over several acres and there would be a lot to see. We all got as excited as the early hour would allow for. The bus finally arrived and we headed on our way!
I was definetly excited to be hiking again and Yan was more than willing to accompany me! It sounded like a perfect day :)
We were in a comfortable coach and had no complaints there. We slept some of the way and enjoyed the scenery the rest of the time. Along the way, we stopped at a mountainside waterfall to look down at the view of the surrounding countryside and take photos. We then had an unscheduled stop when one of the wheels of the bus began to loosen. Luckily there were more waterfalls and beautiful scenery to be had. I had the opportunity to get a little wet scaling one of the waterfalls and we also saw a wild monkey running across the road. After about 45 minutes the wheel was fixed and we continued on only to stop again soon after for a small lunch. Moving on from there, we stopped AGAIN in a little town for dinner! Surprisingly, these Indians seemed to eat more than us. We did take advantage of this stop to walk around the main street of the town we were in, where people were clearly not used to white tourists. We saw a little temple down a side street where there was a gathering of people and they kindly invited us in to take a look. A memorable moment came when Julian and I were snapping photos of the crowd and one of them pulled out his cell phone and took a photo of us. That would actually happen a lot today. For example, at the fort, two men were travelling together and one of them asked me if I could take a photo. I reached out for his camera assuming he wanted me to take a photo of them but he quickly clarified, no no, he wanted a photo of him and I together. The other members of our group would also ask us to pose in group photos with them.
We continued on, stopping only one more time to pick up three men and their spare tire. We gave them a ride to their truck and our driver refused to take their money as they got off the bus. As the bus made its way up the mountains, we questioned whether the bus would make it, and based on the looks of our Indian friends, we weren't the only ones! Somehow, some way, the bus did survive the journey and we finally made it! We were a little disapointed that it was now too late to hike up the mountain, because it would be dark soon after we made the trek up, and then we wouldn't be able to see much. So instead we took the ropeway and were definitely glad to have done so as the views from the little cage we sat in were spectacular. As we made our way up, I didn't know which way to look, snapping photos of every view at every angle!
At the top, we had to pay once again, another foreigner fee, before visiting the fort. All these extra costs were well worth it though as we walked around, gazing at the ruins and surrounding mountains in wonder. What we saw made me think both of Macchu Pichu and Ireland, because everything was covered in green moss. Our guide told us a little about the history of this place but it we would often fall behind, snapping photos and taking a closer look at the view from various escarpments. We were in a truly unique place, sharing the space with the clouds passing through. In one moment, the view of a stone towers could be completely covered by clouds. Very challenging for photos, but also adding a certain serenity to it all. Finally, after several hours, as the sun began to fall and rain started falling on us, we started making our way down the mountain. We hurried a little as we didn't want to get caught in the dark (there was nothing to light the path and very few railings to keep you from falling off the mountain). The rain began falling harder than at any point so far on our trip and the steps became more and more slippery. Emilie slipped and fell on her knee at one point, leaving her with a big bruise. She marched on though and we made our way down just in time, walking back to our bus with only moonlight and fireflies to light our way. We all clambered unto the bus, wet and tired but very content, ready to sleep the whole way back to Pune.
Day 8: Swine flu hits ILS Law College, douche tourists still at school
Plan: Attend classes, walk home, enjoy time off!
We wake up again...way too early for a Saturday morning! We quickly get ready and head out to grab a rickshaw from the corner. Once at school, we have our usual breakfast of spicy omelettes and toasts (which Yan really enjoys cause he gets to eat half of mine!) and then head to class. When we get to our hall, we find about 3 students sitting in the class, and it’s 8:50... when class is scheduled to start at 8:45am...weird.
We sit and wait, a couple more students show up and then the professor walks in. He greets us and asks how many students are currently in the class...a quick count reveals we are only 8...when yesterday we were about 30-35 students...where did everybody go??!! He starts his lecture and finishes about 45 minutes later. Weird thing #2...the professor did not take any attendance... I wonder why?!
Once he leaves, we ask this really nice girl in our class about books and stuff and she explains to us that there has been 2 cases of swine flu at the college and because of this, attendance will be optional until August 14th, followed by a holiday (National Day) on August 15th...so when exactly do we go to school?!?! Not sure when or how they actually get an education, but it works for us!! :)
After class, we wander around school a bit waiting for Mrs. Sakahlkar (from the International office) to ask her about that problem with our timetable (environmental class). Thankfully, she is here today...and early too!! We speak to her about the schedule and the flu outbreak.
She told us that because of the 2 confirmed cases of swine flu at the College, they had been asked to close. Lucky for us, because they are affiliated to Pune University, they won’t close unless the University does. For now they’ve made classes voluntary!
She was really nice and even suggested good restaurants nearby...but most importantly, she tells us that our exams will be OPEN BOOK and specially written for us (to the GREAT relief of Yan and I!)!!! Turns out we get special treatment because we’re foreign. You gotta love exchanges!!
She simply acknowledged that it is more difficult for exchange students to get accommodated in a foreign country to a different legal system! Seems fair to me! :) Besides, she said there was no point to us memorizing thing, it was important instead to understand! We’ll also likely do a written project and presentation in each class that will consist of a comparative analysis between Indian and Canadian law.
We leave her office feeling even more confident of actually being able to pass our classes and head to the library to get our ID cards. We ask the guards sitting in front of the library about the librarian and one of them gets up and walks away (we thought he went to get the librarian...but we were wrong!). He comes back and sits down...we wait...he gets up and says something in Marathi to the other guard while pointing to us...we wait...he comes back, Yan asks again about the librarian and he says something we just don’t understand. Finally, we get tired of waiting and head out. Ahhhh India!
We decided to walk back to the hotel and take in the sites on the way. On the way, a man (who speaks English) stops us and hands us his business card. Turn out he’s into sport medicine and would love to have a conversation with others interested in the subject and possibly even come teach in Canada. We speak to him a bit and then head back on our way.
We stop by the internet café and then get home and as soon as we get to our room, the really really nice waiter from the restaurant downstairs shows up with a menu and asks us if we want anything. Yan decides that he doesn’t want anything so, we say no to the waiter and he goes off. But Yan is hungry (no surprise there!!) so I convince him to look at the menu cause it’s only 1:30pm and we still have a long way to go before supper. He agrees, looks at the menu and decides to order a Veg Burger. Since one of the workers from at the hotel was just outside our room, we asked him but he told us to call reception. Yan asks to be transferred to the restaurant but the man at the reception decided to take the order himself. A couple of minutes later, the waiter who speaks English shows up at our door. He asks us: “did you order a veg burger?” Yan responds “yes, just one please”. As the waiter turns to walk away, he laughs and says: “Nobody here understands your language!!”
After lunch, we just chilled until supper. Before leaving, we asked about getting a rickshaw at 5 am since we had to meet the other Canadians at their place for 6am in order for all of us to walk to the gym where we would be leaving for tomorrow’s adventure!! The reception told us that there would be a rickshaw strike as of 8 am but that he would make sure there was a rickshaw waiting for us at 5am but that we would not be able to take a rickshaw back. We decide to get it anyways and we would try and get a taxi (or walk) when we got back from the trip.
We then went to buy food supplies for the next day since we were going to be gone all day and then went to the outdoor restaurant in front of hotel and had soup, headed back to our room and watched a movie on TV. We’ve been noticing the commercial a lot more lately and two of them really surprised us. We saw at least 2 different commercials for “the morning after pill”, and three different commercials about skin lighting creams. One was by Garnier and promised to lighten you skin by up to 2 tones!!! We saw the same product advertised for men...but then we say one that I found even more offensive. It was for the same type of product by L’OREAL called “White Perfect”!! I guess for them, this is equivalent to our tanning lotions, except that the history behind it is a bit different. Here, skin color is or was also associated to the caste system. The lighter you were, the richer you were since you didn’t have to work outside...I guess these products help everyone achieve this, just like our tanning lotions permit us to look a little more like models.
We wake up again...way too early for a Saturday morning! We quickly get ready and head out to grab a rickshaw from the corner. Once at school, we have our usual breakfast of spicy omelettes and toasts (which Yan really enjoys cause he gets to eat half of mine!) and then head to class. When we get to our hall, we find about 3 students sitting in the class, and it’s 8:50... when class is scheduled to start at 8:45am...weird.
We sit and wait, a couple more students show up and then the professor walks in. He greets us and asks how many students are currently in the class...a quick count reveals we are only 8...when yesterday we were about 30-35 students...where did everybody go??!! He starts his lecture and finishes about 45 minutes later. Weird thing #2...the professor did not take any attendance... I wonder why?!
Once he leaves, we ask this really nice girl in our class about books and stuff and she explains to us that there has been 2 cases of swine flu at the college and because of this, attendance will be optional until August 14th, followed by a holiday (National Day) on August 15th...so when exactly do we go to school?!?! Not sure when or how they actually get an education, but it works for us!! :)
After class, we wander around school a bit waiting for Mrs. Sakahlkar (from the International office) to ask her about that problem with our timetable (environmental class). Thankfully, she is here today...and early too!! We speak to her about the schedule and the flu outbreak.
She told us that because of the 2 confirmed cases of swine flu at the College, they had been asked to close. Lucky for us, because they are affiliated to Pune University, they won’t close unless the University does. For now they’ve made classes voluntary!
She was really nice and even suggested good restaurants nearby...but most importantly, she tells us that our exams will be OPEN BOOK and specially written for us (to the GREAT relief of Yan and I!)!!! Turns out we get special treatment because we’re foreign. You gotta love exchanges!!
She simply acknowledged that it is more difficult for exchange students to get accommodated in a foreign country to a different legal system! Seems fair to me! :) Besides, she said there was no point to us memorizing thing, it was important instead to understand! We’ll also likely do a written project and presentation in each class that will consist of a comparative analysis between Indian and Canadian law.
We leave her office feeling even more confident of actually being able to pass our classes and head to the library to get our ID cards. We ask the guards sitting in front of the library about the librarian and one of them gets up and walks away (we thought he went to get the librarian...but we were wrong!). He comes back and sits down...we wait...he gets up and says something in Marathi to the other guard while pointing to us...we wait...he comes back, Yan asks again about the librarian and he says something we just don’t understand. Finally, we get tired of waiting and head out. Ahhhh India!
We decided to walk back to the hotel and take in the sites on the way. On the way, a man (who speaks English) stops us and hands us his business card. Turn out he’s into sport medicine and would love to have a conversation with others interested in the subject and possibly even come teach in Canada. We speak to him a bit and then head back on our way.
We stop by the internet café and then get home and as soon as we get to our room, the really really nice waiter from the restaurant downstairs shows up with a menu and asks us if we want anything. Yan decides that he doesn’t want anything so, we say no to the waiter and he goes off. But Yan is hungry (no surprise there!!) so I convince him to look at the menu cause it’s only 1:30pm and we still have a long way to go before supper. He agrees, looks at the menu and decides to order a Veg Burger. Since one of the workers from at the hotel was just outside our room, we asked him but he told us to call reception. Yan asks to be transferred to the restaurant but the man at the reception decided to take the order himself. A couple of minutes later, the waiter who speaks English shows up at our door. He asks us: “did you order a veg burger?” Yan responds “yes, just one please”. As the waiter turns to walk away, he laughs and says: “Nobody here understands your language!!”
After lunch, we just chilled until supper. Before leaving, we asked about getting a rickshaw at 5 am since we had to meet the other Canadians at their place for 6am in order for all of us to walk to the gym where we would be leaving for tomorrow’s adventure!! The reception told us that there would be a rickshaw strike as of 8 am but that he would make sure there was a rickshaw waiting for us at 5am but that we would not be able to take a rickshaw back. We decide to get it anyways and we would try and get a taxi (or walk) when we got back from the trip.
We then went to buy food supplies for the next day since we were going to be gone all day and then went to the outdoor restaurant in front of hotel and had soup, headed back to our room and watched a movie on TV. We’ve been noticing the commercial a lot more lately and two of them really surprised us. We saw at least 2 different commercials for “the morning after pill”, and three different commercials about skin lighting creams. One was by Garnier and promised to lighten you skin by up to 2 tones!!! We saw the same product advertised for men...but then we say one that I found even more offensive. It was for the same type of product by L’OREAL called “White Perfect”!! I guess for them, this is equivalent to our tanning lotions, except that the history behind it is a bit different. Here, skin color is or was also associated to the caste system. The lighter you were, the richer you were since you didn’t have to work outside...I guess these products help everyone achieve this, just like our tanning lotions permit us to look a little more like models.
Day 7: First day of school!!!
Plan: Attend our first day of classes!
We woke up much earlier than usual and quickly wondered how we’ll manage to do this 6 days a week... One day at a time. Hoping for a quick breakfast, we stopped by our usual place across the street but the guy who speaks English wasn’t there. The little boy sweeping the floor handed me a menu but when I pointed out the usual, a single and a double omelette, he said something I couldn’t understand... So much for breakfast here! We hopped into a rickshaw and made our way to school. At our arrival, we noticed the canteen there and thankfully, I was able to have breakfast there! With the help of a couple of students who spoke very well in English, I ordered two egg omelettes and soon the place filled up with students. A few big bites later, we walked to our first classroom.
And by a few big bites, he means after eating his, and half of my omelette...it’s our new routine it seems.
A girl/woman (it was hard to pinpoint her age and she was facing away from us) was writing on the board. A few other students were already there and others trickled in but to our surprise, 10 minutes after class was scheduled to start, she just kept on writing and the class was not very full. Finally, at 9:05am, 20 minutes after the scheduled start, most students had made their way in and we expected the girl to start teaching (we were surprised how young she was), but just then the professor finally walked in, escorted by another man. Most students rose and waited until the professor sat down before regaining their seats. Now here's the really interesting part: our professor is blind! The girl who had been writing on the board got up at that point and started presenting her subject, the United Nations Commission for International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). As she spoke for the next 20 minutes and we scrambled to understand and takes notes as best we could, we realized that between the echo in the room, the open doors and windows that let in all the sounds from outside (barking dog and kids playing), and the Indian accent, we would really really have to sit closer from now on! Meanwhile, almost no one else took notes. One girl in front of us read a novel and listened to music while another filled out a sodoku. A couple of others slept the entire time. Not sure how much of this behaviour is explained by our professor’s blindness but it’s gotta be a factor! When the girl finished presenting, the professor gave a little speech about respect and the fact some were talking. He then proceeded with his lecture. We had a hard time understanding him as he spoke quickly and not very loudly. He had notes in Braille and read them as he went. It was really cool! At around 9:50am the professor’s escort came back and he stopped his lecture. The escort rattled down the list of students (we all have a roll number, ours are C-112 and C-113) and you have to quickly say “present” before he calls out the next one. We chatted up one of the other students and got some answers as to how school works, what the schedules are like, how attendance works, etc. But as we found out the next day, the rules are different for us so I won’t bother with these details.
We walked to our next class and talked to a few students there as well. We were surprised by how rowdy the students were, laughing and yelling. They applauded as the professor walked in. Unfortunately, the students had informed us that while we were in the right hall and it was the same professor as indicated by our timetable, it was not Environmental Law but Administrative Law (no way we’re taking that again!). We quickly asked the professor about this mistake and she just referred us to Ms. Sakalkar, the coordinator we first met at ILS. So much for our second class of the day! We walked to Ms. Sakalkar’s office but the woman there told us Ms. Sakalkar was in class and would be back later. We sat there waiting for a little over an hour playing on the ipod touch and updating this journal until the admin teacher we had seen earlier came by and told us Ms. Sakalkar wasn’t there today. We tried another office next where we were directed from one person, to another, to a third who finally referred us back to Sakalkar. Ahhhh India! We next went to the library to get our ID card, were directed to another office but no luck there either, it seems are cards were not ready yet...
Next we walked back par t of the way to our hotel, rickshawed the rest of the way, relaxed a bit and then walked around the neighbourhood. Close by we have nicer apartments for what I assume is the upper-middle class. But even here there are small shacks like those in the slums, randomly located here and there on the side of the road, possibly for servants. Further out we found our first grocery store and were pretty excited about it. We also walked down a few streets where all the signage was written in Marathi (the language in Maharashtra) and none of it in English. People were clearly not used to seeing white people around and we got a lot of looks here :)
Back from our walk, we ate at the veggie restaurant again and called it a night!
We woke up much earlier than usual and quickly wondered how we’ll manage to do this 6 days a week... One day at a time. Hoping for a quick breakfast, we stopped by our usual place across the street but the guy who speaks English wasn’t there. The little boy sweeping the floor handed me a menu but when I pointed out the usual, a single and a double omelette, he said something I couldn’t understand... So much for breakfast here! We hopped into a rickshaw and made our way to school. At our arrival, we noticed the canteen there and thankfully, I was able to have breakfast there! With the help of a couple of students who spoke very well in English, I ordered two egg omelettes and soon the place filled up with students. A few big bites later, we walked to our first classroom.
And by a few big bites, he means after eating his, and half of my omelette...it’s our new routine it seems.
A girl/woman (it was hard to pinpoint her age and she was facing away from us) was writing on the board. A few other students were already there and others trickled in but to our surprise, 10 minutes after class was scheduled to start, she just kept on writing and the class was not very full. Finally, at 9:05am, 20 minutes after the scheduled start, most students had made their way in and we expected the girl to start teaching (we were surprised how young she was), but just then the professor finally walked in, escorted by another man. Most students rose and waited until the professor sat down before regaining their seats. Now here's the really interesting part: our professor is blind! The girl who had been writing on the board got up at that point and started presenting her subject, the United Nations Commission for International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). As she spoke for the next 20 minutes and we scrambled to understand and takes notes as best we could, we realized that between the echo in the room, the open doors and windows that let in all the sounds from outside (barking dog and kids playing), and the Indian accent, we would really really have to sit closer from now on! Meanwhile, almost no one else took notes. One girl in front of us read a novel and listened to music while another filled out a sodoku. A couple of others slept the entire time. Not sure how much of this behaviour is explained by our professor’s blindness but it’s gotta be a factor! When the girl finished presenting, the professor gave a little speech about respect and the fact some were talking. He then proceeded with his lecture. We had a hard time understanding him as he spoke quickly and not very loudly. He had notes in Braille and read them as he went. It was really cool! At around 9:50am the professor’s escort came back and he stopped his lecture. The escort rattled down the list of students (we all have a roll number, ours are C-112 and C-113) and you have to quickly say “present” before he calls out the next one. We chatted up one of the other students and got some answers as to how school works, what the schedules are like, how attendance works, etc. But as we found out the next day, the rules are different for us so I won’t bother with these details.
We walked to our next class and talked to a few students there as well. We were surprised by how rowdy the students were, laughing and yelling. They applauded as the professor walked in. Unfortunately, the students had informed us that while we were in the right hall and it was the same professor as indicated by our timetable, it was not Environmental Law but Administrative Law (no way we’re taking that again!). We quickly asked the professor about this mistake and she just referred us to Ms. Sakalkar, the coordinator we first met at ILS. So much for our second class of the day! We walked to Ms. Sakalkar’s office but the woman there told us Ms. Sakalkar was in class and would be back later. We sat there waiting for a little over an hour playing on the ipod touch and updating this journal until the admin teacher we had seen earlier came by and told us Ms. Sakalkar wasn’t there today. We tried another office next where we were directed from one person, to another, to a third who finally referred us back to Sakalkar. Ahhhh India! We next went to the library to get our ID card, were directed to another office but no luck there either, it seems are cards were not ready yet...
Next we walked back par t of the way to our hotel, rickshawed the rest of the way, relaxed a bit and then walked around the neighbourhood. Close by we have nicer apartments for what I assume is the upper-middle class. But even here there are small shacks like those in the slums, randomly located here and there on the side of the road, possibly for servants. Further out we found our first grocery store and were pretty excited about it. We also walked down a few streets where all the signage was written in Marathi (the language in Maharashtra) and none of it in English. People were clearly not used to seeing white people around and we got a lot of looks here :)
Back from our walk, we ate at the veggie restaurant again and called it a night!
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Day 6: 5 hours of registration and 6 bank stops later, this still beats Ottawa U bureaucracy
Plan: Meeting Vaishali at ILS Law College to register, get our timetables, etc.
No diva or movie starlet dream this time. Instead I dreamt we were raising money at school for a good cause by making wine and selling it at a profit (yeah totally borrowing Joanie’s idea here). Part of my dream involved me transporting wine crates and dropping a few crates, wasting sweet precious wine (did I say dream, this was clearly a nightmare!). But the funny part of the dream was that Sandra and I thought of asking people at Heenan to donate and Jean Chrétien liked our idea so much that he and his friends donated over $5 million to our cause! I’ll be expecting a cheque when I come back from India...
This is why Yan is never in charge of carrying anything fragile....especially not wine...such a waste!
We took a rickshaw to the College and met with Vaishali who was our saviour in what was to come (speaking to people and driving us around). First we met with a coordinator at the College. Then we followed a man to another office where we picked up paperwork and were told we would have to pay fees of $700 each. We weren’t too thrilled with that though we had been warned it would probably happen... Under the OMG Exchange Program we’re not supposed to pay any fees but the ILS Law College is new to this process since we are the first law students to take part in it. Usually students attend Pune University, but the Law College has a much better reputation and quality of education in terms of law courses. Probably not worth the nearly $6,000 we’re paying between Ottawa tuition for this semester and these fees but whatever, we’re in India and still get to graduate at the end of the year! :)
So I guess it turns out that we’re actually paying $6000 dollars so we can skip a semester and still get our credits...I still thing we’re getting a deal!!! A whole semester + out of Ottawa and Fauteux Hall is priceless!!
Back to our bureaucratic adventure... We still needed to get our hands on $700 (26,450 Rs). Vaishali first drove us to a bank, where we were told we couldn’t withdraw that money but were instead directed to a Thomas Cook office in the next building over (which of course turned out to be a ways further). On the way we saw an ATM and tried our luck there. The limit was 15,000 Rs a day and only Emilie’s card worked. Only 37,450 Rs to go! We couldn’t take out money at the Cook office either and they recommended a money transfer instead. Unfortunately it was 3:30 in the morning in Canada and we needed the money now if we wanted to start classes tomorrow. Next we rickshawed it to a Citibank ATM where Emilie couldn’t take out more money (apparently reaching the limit on one ATM precludes you from withdrawing at another, even if that ATM has a higher limit)! Fortunately my card worked and the limit was 400 notes (not a lump sum but the number of bills you choose to withdraw) and I was able to withdraw the other 37,450 Rs. Thing is, the college wouldn’t take such a large sum in cash and we had to return to the first bank to get a demand draft, which is basically a cheque prepared by the bank that we give to the College. Because we weren’t Indian and didn’t have an account with the bank, Vaishali had to get the demand draft for us. So basically we handed over all our money to her and she deposited it into her account, after which they could issue the draft. Thankfully, she didn’t try to make a run for it. We had another hiccup though because the bank could only issue one such draft given the high amount of money involved, so we drove to another bank, waited in line, received the other draft, and next stopped at a Kodak store (the forms we had to fill out required special sized photos). Another 120Rs later, we stopped for a stick of glue (for the photos in case the College didn’t have any) and headed back to pay and hand in our forms. After signing every form and handing over our money, we are now more or less officially students of ILS Law College with our very own timetable and we’ll even get shiny ID cards to boot!
It would’ve been entertaining to actually see Yan and I try to navigate all this bureaucracy without Vaishali’s help!!! What took 5 hours for her would’ve taken DAYS for us!!
Timetable: 2 classes a day, 6 days a week: Monday-Wednesday from 7:15-10:00am and Thursday to Saturday from 8:45-11:20am. Those early mornings are going to kill us!!
But at least we get the afternoons off to sightsee....I mean study!! :)
After confirming the locations of our classrooms (all in the same building), we drove to a stationary store and bough ourselves a binder, pens, and paper for our first day of school (Some pretty exciting stuff... but in all honesty, we felt some of those first day of school jitters!). Vaishali then dropped us off at the hotel. We ate some yummy soup at a place across the street, spent an hour on the internet and another ten minutes trying to erase our passwords (stupid old versions of msn!!) before retiring for the night so we could be somewhat coherent for our first morning class!
We had actually wanted to eat a HUGE meal since we had only had a banana for breakfast and were now starving...we headed to the restaurant where we were greeted by a gate and a guard who told us the restaurant is closed. Yan tries his best to ask him at what time the restaurant opened but to no avail. So I tell Yan that I was going to ask reception and a look of glee now showed on the guard’s face as he clearly agreed with me. Turns out the restaurant only opened at 7pm...and it was now 4:45pm...we were too hungry to wait so we headed to the restaurant where we normally have our breakfast. I originally wanted to have the Hot and sour egg soup but Yan mistakenly ordered the Hot and Sour chicken soup (he had ordered a noodle soup for himself). The boy who serves speaks NO word of English and just gave us our soups so we ate whatever was in front of us...after realizing that I was eating the noodle soup (and not wanting to chance eating wheat for a third night in a row...but really, would it make a difference at this point??!) we switched soups. It’s then that I realized that this was a chicken soup...CHICKEN!! The one meat everyone tells you NOT to eat cause it will make you sick...but since it was so delicious, I ate it anyways...and, thank god, did not get sick!!! Would actually eat that soup again!! So yummy!
Interesting India tidbits we learned today:
No diva or movie starlet dream this time. Instead I dreamt we were raising money at school for a good cause by making wine and selling it at a profit (yeah totally borrowing Joanie’s idea here). Part of my dream involved me transporting wine crates and dropping a few crates, wasting sweet precious wine (did I say dream, this was clearly a nightmare!). But the funny part of the dream was that Sandra and I thought of asking people at Heenan to donate and Jean Chrétien liked our idea so much that he and his friends donated over $5 million to our cause! I’ll be expecting a cheque when I come back from India...
This is why Yan is never in charge of carrying anything fragile....especially not wine...such a waste!
We took a rickshaw to the College and met with Vaishali who was our saviour in what was to come (speaking to people and driving us around). First we met with a coordinator at the College. Then we followed a man to another office where we picked up paperwork and were told we would have to pay fees of $700 each. We weren’t too thrilled with that though we had been warned it would probably happen... Under the OMG Exchange Program we’re not supposed to pay any fees but the ILS Law College is new to this process since we are the first law students to take part in it. Usually students attend Pune University, but the Law College has a much better reputation and quality of education in terms of law courses. Probably not worth the nearly $6,000 we’re paying between Ottawa tuition for this semester and these fees but whatever, we’re in India and still get to graduate at the end of the year! :)
So I guess it turns out that we’re actually paying $6000 dollars so we can skip a semester and still get our credits...I still thing we’re getting a deal!!! A whole semester + out of Ottawa and Fauteux Hall is priceless!!
Back to our bureaucratic adventure... We still needed to get our hands on $700 (26,450 Rs). Vaishali first drove us to a bank, where we were told we couldn’t withdraw that money but were instead directed to a Thomas Cook office in the next building over (which of course turned out to be a ways further). On the way we saw an ATM and tried our luck there. The limit was 15,000 Rs a day and only Emilie’s card worked. Only 37,450 Rs to go! We couldn’t take out money at the Cook office either and they recommended a money transfer instead. Unfortunately it was 3:30 in the morning in Canada and we needed the money now if we wanted to start classes tomorrow. Next we rickshawed it to a Citibank ATM where Emilie couldn’t take out more money (apparently reaching the limit on one ATM precludes you from withdrawing at another, even if that ATM has a higher limit)! Fortunately my card worked and the limit was 400 notes (not a lump sum but the number of bills you choose to withdraw) and I was able to withdraw the other 37,450 Rs. Thing is, the college wouldn’t take such a large sum in cash and we had to return to the first bank to get a demand draft, which is basically a cheque prepared by the bank that we give to the College. Because we weren’t Indian and didn’t have an account with the bank, Vaishali had to get the demand draft for us. So basically we handed over all our money to her and she deposited it into her account, after which they could issue the draft. Thankfully, she didn’t try to make a run for it. We had another hiccup though because the bank could only issue one such draft given the high amount of money involved, so we drove to another bank, waited in line, received the other draft, and next stopped at a Kodak store (the forms we had to fill out required special sized photos). Another 120Rs later, we stopped for a stick of glue (for the photos in case the College didn’t have any) and headed back to pay and hand in our forms. After signing every form and handing over our money, we are now more or less officially students of ILS Law College with our very own timetable and we’ll even get shiny ID cards to boot!
It would’ve been entertaining to actually see Yan and I try to navigate all this bureaucracy without Vaishali’s help!!! What took 5 hours for her would’ve taken DAYS for us!!
Timetable: 2 classes a day, 6 days a week: Monday-Wednesday from 7:15-10:00am and Thursday to Saturday from 8:45-11:20am. Those early mornings are going to kill us!!
But at least we get the afternoons off to sightsee....I mean study!! :)
After confirming the locations of our classrooms (all in the same building), we drove to a stationary store and bough ourselves a binder, pens, and paper for our first day of school (Some pretty exciting stuff... but in all honesty, we felt some of those first day of school jitters!). Vaishali then dropped us off at the hotel. We ate some yummy soup at a place across the street, spent an hour on the internet and another ten minutes trying to erase our passwords (stupid old versions of msn!!) before retiring for the night so we could be somewhat coherent for our first morning class!
We had actually wanted to eat a HUGE meal since we had only had a banana for breakfast and were now starving...we headed to the restaurant where we were greeted by a gate and a guard who told us the restaurant is closed. Yan tries his best to ask him at what time the restaurant opened but to no avail. So I tell Yan that I was going to ask reception and a look of glee now showed on the guard’s face as he clearly agreed with me. Turns out the restaurant only opened at 7pm...and it was now 4:45pm...we were too hungry to wait so we headed to the restaurant where we normally have our breakfast. I originally wanted to have the Hot and sour egg soup but Yan mistakenly ordered the Hot and Sour chicken soup (he had ordered a noodle soup for himself). The boy who serves speaks NO word of English and just gave us our soups so we ate whatever was in front of us...after realizing that I was eating the noodle soup (and not wanting to chance eating wheat for a third night in a row...but really, would it make a difference at this point??!) we switched soups. It’s then that I realized that this was a chicken soup...CHICKEN!! The one meat everyone tells you NOT to eat cause it will make you sick...but since it was so delicious, I ate it anyways...and, thank god, did not get sick!!! Would actually eat that soup again!! So yummy!
Interesting India tidbits we learned today:
- The street lights are apparently turned off at 1pm for several hours, not sure how long, in order to save on electricity! During those hours, everyone just zig zags through intersections while dodging the following, in order of size from largest to smallest: trucks, buses, cars, rickshaws, motorcycles, mopeds, bicycles, people pushing carts of foods, pedestrians, and dogs (and at least one mule).
- The cost of a trip in a rickshaw works as follows: Each rickshaw has a meter with 4 numbers, the first 2 are black and the next two are in red. If the meter indicates 0100 it is 1.00. If it indicates 1245, it means 12.45. When you arrive at destination, you multiply whatever number you are at by 7 and add 3. This is how many Rupees you should pay. So 0150 is 1.5x7+3. It’s as simple as that! Most drivers also carry a little card with a conversion table though it only goes up to 15 or so. The nice thing with understanding the meter system is that you really can’t get cheated and the drivers have even let me do the calculation for them using my ipod touch and just taken me at my word. The only thing is to make sure they use the meter as some prefer bartering and that’s when you’re taking a pretty big chance if you don’t know the route. Then again, if you don’t know the route and you use the meter, he could take you on a little joyride along the way to add to the reading! Basically it’ best to act like you know where you’re going to they don’t get tempted. The only thing I’m not sure on is that at night, when traffic is absolutely crazy and the trip can take much longer, the drivers seem much less willing to use the meter or just want to charge more regardless (which does make sense actually). Our Lonely Planet indicated rides were more expensive at night as well but Vaishali told us they should always use the meter and the calculation should always be the same. Finally, to correct what we said earlier then, our accidental tour of the city was not 51km but probably more as the meter seems to go up less than 1 per km.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Day 5: We did it and then “I did it!”
Plan: Trying to register at the International Center for the second time and maybe meeting Vaishali at ILS Law College
This time, I dreamt that Julia Roberts, wearing her red dress and white long gloves from Pretty Woman, was singing the national anthems during the Stanley Cup playoffs in a Montreal vs. Toronto or LA match. Except she forgets the lyrics and out of nowhere, Commissioner Gary Betman, Don Cherry, and a host of children and others walk over with microphones and help her finish the anthem. Feel free to interpret this for me... And I can’t wait to see what diva with issues I dream of next!
So this is what I hear first thing in the morning after waking Yan up... that’s right, he sleeps with ear plugs and I’m stuck listening to the honking and dogs outside cause if not... nobody will hear the alarm and wake up!! We started our day like most days, taking a quick shower, eating fruits and going to the small restaurant in front of the hotel for our omelettes. Morning tasks being done with, we hopped on a rickshaw and made our way to the International Center of Pune University in the hopes that today ISN’T a holiday and that we’ll be able to register.
We get there around 12:30, walk in and get the forms that we need to fill out so that they can register us at the University and provide us with a letter of admission that we will be able to give to ILS Law College so they can register us with the college...long process I know!! But it’s because the University has a large international student community and it’s easier to process everything from there. So in this sense, the college is affiliated with the University but does not have the same rules (like International students at the University of Pune do not have to pay tuition). We had two papers to fill out, one was a white form with usual information such as name, address etc... This was the form for our registration. The second paper was a pink form that was to be brought to the bank so we could pay our $80 US fee for the registration. As we are filling it out, a man walks up to us, tells us to give him the pink form so he can sign and stamp it (this even though we’re not done filling it out!) so he can go to lunch and then tells us to go to the bank and pay. We take our pink sheet and head to the bank which was just across the street. We needed to go to the manager’s office since we were paying in US currency. We found the door for the ATM, kept walking a bit, found another door that was locked...but one nice student told us we had to go around the building... so we walk around the building and go through another set of doors...ask another woman who tells us that we have to go to the back of the building!! We walk over to the back and see a long line up of students waiting to pay fees. As we stand there, looking a bit confused, two girls walk up to ask us if we’re Canadian!!! Turns out they’re here on exchange on the same program as us! They help us find the manager’s office and wait for us outside as we pay.
The line up at the manager’s office was naturally much shorter than the line Indian students have to go through, but still we were about 20 students from various countries waiting to pay with our American money. About 6 students would wait in the manager’s office at the same time, with the rest waiting outside, as everyone would move from seat to seat, first the 3 seats on the couch and then 2 chairs in front of the manager’s desk. To pay, you had to fill out that pink sheet Emilie mentioned where 4 identical sections, each destined for a different department, would have to be filled identically. On the back we also had to write the numbers on each American bill. The manager would review the numbers, sign the form and stamp all four sections. He would then keep 2 sections and give 2 back that had to be brought back to the International Office.
As for the other exchange students, from what we’ve seen so far, most exchange students here in India are from neighbouring countries, the Middle East (many from Iran) and more from the Pacific. Europeans are VERY few and far between and aside from us 8 Canadian students here in Pune from the OMG program, we have not seen or heard of any other North Americans. I think most students coming from North America are also of Indian descent, which would explain why we don’t notice them.
Once we paid, we all headed back together to the International Office to go drop off our registration form. The office is not open since they’re still on lunch so we chat and wait...once the office opens, we form a line but soon realize the other students don’t bother with such formalities. We learn quickly and push through the crowd, drop off our forms and head back out. Yan and I had planned on going to Crossword (bookstore) in order to buy a map and asked the girls if they wanted to join us! They agreed, although they were hungry, so we told them we’d find someplace along the way. We walk through campus, and halfway through, Kara says that she knows a German guy who now works here whom she was supposed to have coffee with and asks us if we mind a change of plans....being the easy going people that we are, we agree and we all set off to find 2 rickshaws that would take us there. A short rickshaw ride later, he drops us off by the side of the street, no coffee shop in site...the girls finally show up and they don’t seem to know where it is either...but as we’re discussing with the rickshaw driver, her friend pulls up on a motorbike and tells us that the coffee shop is just up the street.
I don’t think he knew what her friend even looked like but I’m sure he just figured the group of lost white kids were very likely the ones he was going to meet.
So he heads off and we pay the drivers and walk to the coffee shop. This was no side shop...it’s called Coffee Days...and is much like Starbucks or Second Cup...very snazzy!!! I ordered a chocolate mocha and originally did not want the whip cream or chocolate sauce but was tired of arguing with the guy so I decided to just go with it...Yan ordered a strawberry milkshake with the works (ice cream, whip cream and strawberry sauce!!!). Having calculated that it would cost us a little over Rs 100, we thought it was a bit expensive but went with it anyways because we were chatting with the girls....after about an hour, we get our bill...Rs 212!!!! What?!?!?! Turns out the reason why the guy really really wanted me to get the whip cream and chocolate sauce is that they charge you extra for it!!! Guess I’ll know for next time!! We all decide to walk and explore this part of the city. They walked with us for a bit, but then got tired (one of the girls had gotten in at 4am that same day!) and so they decided to take a rickshaw back. Yan and I kept on walking since we wanted to go to the bookstore to find a map of Pune city. We walked to the Campus (we were on the other side and it was quicker to cut through). All of a sudden, Yan tells me he needs to go to the toilet....NOW....Ok!!! We walk to an engineering building where Yan tells me: “if there’ no toilet here...I’m going behind the building!” LOL!! But we see a guard and I tell him to ask him...lucky for him...it turns out they have one!!! He hands Yan the keys (since the toilet was behind the building) and tells me to sit down on a chair outside. As Yan walks out, I see him reach into his bag and grabbing one of the travelling toilettes that I had brought (and which just an hour ago he was making fun of at the coffee shop!!). He walks up to me, throws his hands in the air and screams “I did it!”. This can only mean one thing...the left hand is no longer a virgin!! :) I snap a picture as Yan continues to wipe his hands (he wiped them for what seemed like forever!!).
Ok so not that you need all the gory details but as we were walking and I felt perfectly fine, all of a sudden, my stomach begins acting up. After about 4 minutes, I realize I’m in trouble here. We’re walking down a road of the campus with little hope of a decent toilet in sight. I start looking the trees warily and realize we forgot to pack toilet paper. We see a building down a road on our left and I realize time is of the essence. We rush over to the building and as the guard appears, I’m worried about whether I can still hide behind the building as option B in case there is no toilet there. I ask the guard if there is a toilet and, naturally, he has no idea what I’m talking about. Thank full y another man understands and though he gives me a quizzical look, he probably sees the fear in my eyes and tells the guard to hand me the keys. The toilet is back there he tells me. I walk behind the building and there is a little structure with two doors, just large enough for two toilets. I struggle with the lock but finally manage to open the door. And there it is, my first Indian toilet... consisting of a hole in the ground, no toilet paper, and just that damn little bucket and faucet. Well, with little choice, it was time to embrace the real Indian travel experience. As for the “I did it!!” comment, it’s a reference to the show Heroes and one of its main characters, a Japanese man with a strong accent who yelled “I did it!” in triumph when he travelled back in time.
We keep going and walk all the way to Crossword (without getting lost). We spent about 30 minutes choosing a map and finally found one we could work with, pay, grab a rickshaw and head back to the hotel.
We went up to our room, dropped our stuff and went to the internet cafe for 30 minutes to catch up on a couple of emails and then to the hotel restaurant where we had a Mushroom and Pea Masala with Roti....DELICIOUS!! Once we were done, we headed back to the hotel, put on a movie and tried to fall asleep. Another great day in India!!
This time, I dreamt that Julia Roberts, wearing her red dress and white long gloves from Pretty Woman, was singing the national anthems during the Stanley Cup playoffs in a Montreal vs. Toronto or LA match. Except she forgets the lyrics and out of nowhere, Commissioner Gary Betman, Don Cherry, and a host of children and others walk over with microphones and help her finish the anthem. Feel free to interpret this for me... And I can’t wait to see what diva with issues I dream of next!
So this is what I hear first thing in the morning after waking Yan up... that’s right, he sleeps with ear plugs and I’m stuck listening to the honking and dogs outside cause if not... nobody will hear the alarm and wake up!! We started our day like most days, taking a quick shower, eating fruits and going to the small restaurant in front of the hotel for our omelettes. Morning tasks being done with, we hopped on a rickshaw and made our way to the International Center of Pune University in the hopes that today ISN’T a holiday and that we’ll be able to register.
We get there around 12:30, walk in and get the forms that we need to fill out so that they can register us at the University and provide us with a letter of admission that we will be able to give to ILS Law College so they can register us with the college...long process I know!! But it’s because the University has a large international student community and it’s easier to process everything from there. So in this sense, the college is affiliated with the University but does not have the same rules (like International students at the University of Pune do not have to pay tuition). We had two papers to fill out, one was a white form with usual information such as name, address etc... This was the form for our registration. The second paper was a pink form that was to be brought to the bank so we could pay our $80 US fee for the registration. As we are filling it out, a man walks up to us, tells us to give him the pink form so he can sign and stamp it (this even though we’re not done filling it out!) so he can go to lunch and then tells us to go to the bank and pay. We take our pink sheet and head to the bank which was just across the street. We needed to go to the manager’s office since we were paying in US currency. We found the door for the ATM, kept walking a bit, found another door that was locked...but one nice student told us we had to go around the building... so we walk around the building and go through another set of doors...ask another woman who tells us that we have to go to the back of the building!! We walk over to the back and see a long line up of students waiting to pay fees. As we stand there, looking a bit confused, two girls walk up to ask us if we’re Canadian!!! Turns out they’re here on exchange on the same program as us! They help us find the manager’s office and wait for us outside as we pay.
The line up at the manager’s office was naturally much shorter than the line Indian students have to go through, but still we were about 20 students from various countries waiting to pay with our American money. About 6 students would wait in the manager’s office at the same time, with the rest waiting outside, as everyone would move from seat to seat, first the 3 seats on the couch and then 2 chairs in front of the manager’s desk. To pay, you had to fill out that pink sheet Emilie mentioned where 4 identical sections, each destined for a different department, would have to be filled identically. On the back we also had to write the numbers on each American bill. The manager would review the numbers, sign the form and stamp all four sections. He would then keep 2 sections and give 2 back that had to be brought back to the International Office.
As for the other exchange students, from what we’ve seen so far, most exchange students here in India are from neighbouring countries, the Middle East (many from Iran) and more from the Pacific. Europeans are VERY few and far between and aside from us 8 Canadian students here in Pune from the OMG program, we have not seen or heard of any other North Americans. I think most students coming from North America are also of Indian descent, which would explain why we don’t notice them.
Once we paid, we all headed back together to the International Office to go drop off our registration form. The office is not open since they’re still on lunch so we chat and wait...once the office opens, we form a line but soon realize the other students don’t bother with such formalities. We learn quickly and push through the crowd, drop off our forms and head back out. Yan and I had planned on going to Crossword (bookstore) in order to buy a map and asked the girls if they wanted to join us! They agreed, although they were hungry, so we told them we’d find someplace along the way. We walk through campus, and halfway through, Kara says that she knows a German guy who now works here whom she was supposed to have coffee with and asks us if we mind a change of plans....being the easy going people that we are, we agree and we all set off to find 2 rickshaws that would take us there. A short rickshaw ride later, he drops us off by the side of the street, no coffee shop in site...the girls finally show up and they don’t seem to know where it is either...but as we’re discussing with the rickshaw driver, her friend pulls up on a motorbike and tells us that the coffee shop is just up the street.
I don’t think he knew what her friend even looked like but I’m sure he just figured the group of lost white kids were very likely the ones he was going to meet.
So he heads off and we pay the drivers and walk to the coffee shop. This was no side shop...it’s called Coffee Days...and is much like Starbucks or Second Cup...very snazzy!!! I ordered a chocolate mocha and originally did not want the whip cream or chocolate sauce but was tired of arguing with the guy so I decided to just go with it...Yan ordered a strawberry milkshake with the works (ice cream, whip cream and strawberry sauce!!!). Having calculated that it would cost us a little over Rs 100, we thought it was a bit expensive but went with it anyways because we were chatting with the girls....after about an hour, we get our bill...Rs 212!!!! What?!?!?! Turns out the reason why the guy really really wanted me to get the whip cream and chocolate sauce is that they charge you extra for it!!! Guess I’ll know for next time!! We all decide to walk and explore this part of the city. They walked with us for a bit, but then got tired (one of the girls had gotten in at 4am that same day!) and so they decided to take a rickshaw back. Yan and I kept on walking since we wanted to go to the bookstore to find a map of Pune city. We walked to the Campus (we were on the other side and it was quicker to cut through). All of a sudden, Yan tells me he needs to go to the toilet....NOW....Ok!!! We walk to an engineering building where Yan tells me: “if there’ no toilet here...I’m going behind the building!” LOL!! But we see a guard and I tell him to ask him...lucky for him...it turns out they have one!!! He hands Yan the keys (since the toilet was behind the building) and tells me to sit down on a chair outside. As Yan walks out, I see him reach into his bag and grabbing one of the travelling toilettes that I had brought (and which just an hour ago he was making fun of at the coffee shop!!). He walks up to me, throws his hands in the air and screams “I did it!”. This can only mean one thing...the left hand is no longer a virgin!! :) I snap a picture as Yan continues to wipe his hands (he wiped them for what seemed like forever!!).
Ok so not that you need all the gory details but as we were walking and I felt perfectly fine, all of a sudden, my stomach begins acting up. After about 4 minutes, I realize I’m in trouble here. We’re walking down a road of the campus with little hope of a decent toilet in sight. I start looking the trees warily and realize we forgot to pack toilet paper. We see a building down a road on our left and I realize time is of the essence. We rush over to the building and as the guard appears, I’m worried about whether I can still hide behind the building as option B in case there is no toilet there. I ask the guard if there is a toilet and, naturally, he has no idea what I’m talking about. Thank full y another man understands and though he gives me a quizzical look, he probably sees the fear in my eyes and tells the guard to hand me the keys. The toilet is back there he tells me. I walk behind the building and there is a little structure with two doors, just large enough for two toilets. I struggle with the lock but finally manage to open the door. And there it is, my first Indian toilet... consisting of a hole in the ground, no toilet paper, and just that damn little bucket and faucet. Well, with little choice, it was time to embrace the real Indian travel experience. As for the “I did it!!” comment, it’s a reference to the show Heroes and one of its main characters, a Japanese man with a strong accent who yelled “I did it!” in triumph when he travelled back in time.
We keep going and walk all the way to Crossword (without getting lost). We spent about 30 minutes choosing a map and finally found one we could work with, pay, grab a rickshaw and head back to the hotel.
We went up to our room, dropped our stuff and went to the internet cafe for 30 minutes to catch up on a couple of emails and then to the hotel restaurant where we had a Mushroom and Pea Masala with Roti....DELICIOUS!! Once we were done, we headed back to the hotel, put on a movie and tried to fall asleep. Another great day in India!!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Day 4: “Today is a holiday” and a 51km cab ride
Plan: Meeting Vaishali (our contact) at the International Center in Pune University so that we can pay our fees and register for our courses.
Emilie wakes me up and interrupts my Celine Dion dream. Seriously, Quebec City is holding a concert and I dream that poor Celine, as she struts her way down the stage shaking her derrière, stumbles twice but recovers admirably. Now if I can only get a dream book to interpret this...
So I drag myself out of bed, very very slowly, and make my way to the shower. I haven’t spoken about the shower yet, so let’s describe our entire washroom. It’s small, about 6’x5’. Basically you can get everything done at once, shower, toilet, and sink all within reach. It’s all open, so you’re showering beside the toilet and good luck not getting everything wet. Aside from the toilet and sink, there are 2 other faucets, 2 shower heads, and 3 buckets (one large, two small). Why the abundance of washing equipment you may ask? Well you have your regular shower head and faucet for showering of course. You can fill up a little bucket and rinse yourself off with it as the water falls into the larger bucket. How many of you sickos are picturing me showering right now?!
And the water... oh yes, there are two levers, but don’t let these deceive you. One is for cold water, and the other is for cold water also, in case you can’t get enough of that cold water! I have to admit though, it’s a thousand times more effective than coffee to wake you up in the morning and it feels pretty darn good when it gets hot and humid out (i.e. all the time).
He sounds all cool and collected right now, but let me tell you, he screamed pretty loudly when he turned the water on!! I was thinking maybe a Psycho had come to stab him while in the shower...but yes, he was pretty awake after that!!
That leaves another shower head, this one detachable, and a faucet and little bucket. Those are for toilet necessities. You see, there is no toilet paper, only water. So what does that leave you with? That’s right, your hand, the left one being the only choice (they have something against lefties apparently). Actually we were talking about that and can you imagine yourself being a leftie in India? The only thing you can do with your god given left-handedness is to wipe your own ass?!? Anywho, everything else must be done with the right hand, for obvious reasons! That includes shaking hands and eating with only one hand. In addition to your left hand, you can use the bucket, detachable shower or faucet in any combination you like... the possibilities are endless!
So after showering and getting dressed, we visit the reception to ask about laundry service and the drinking water. I’m a little surprised at how difficult it is to communicate here. Not everyone speaks English where we are, but there usually will be someone around willing to try. But even for those who do, I have a really hard time understanding them. Now I know what my cousin Sebastian from Germany felt like when he was here visiting. When my friends would say something, he would often turn to me with a puzzled look. Well now I turn to Emilie, hoping she understood something the man just said. And somehow she does most of the time. So there is laundry service. And we do have drinking water that comes from the kitchen, through their only filter. I was asking whether we could fill our water bottles there and I think the man understood that I wanted to see the filter for myself, thinking I didn’t believing him at his word... Great, now he thinks I’m an untrusting jackass. Anyway, he sends one of the boys to the kitchen. A couple of minutes later he comes back down and it is safe for us to visit the kitchen. Why he needed to go first, only the rats will know... (actually the hotel is really great with super service and no complaints to be had! They’re even super sweet. Yesterday they noticed we flipped through a newspaper that was at the reception and so this morning they bring us one ). So anyway, there is indeed a filter of some sort, and we’ve been drinking that water all day. We’ll soon know if the filter works properly (and I’m happy to say, so far so good)!
It’s actually really funny cause since I’m travelling with a man (that would be Yan) he gets to do everything from paying to ordering food (yay for feminism!!) yet he always turns to me with quizitive eyes having no idea what has just been said. So when I answer them, they tend to keep talking to him...even though he clearly does not understand them!!
Breakfast consisted of a spicy double omelette and 2 slices of white bread, for about 50 cents, from this place just across the street. It was yummy! Just don’t mind the flies buzzing around you.
After having lived in a Masaai village, the flies aren’t that bad...but I’m still waiting for the day Yan will open his mouth and swallow one along with his food...I promise to take a picture if he ever does!!!
Then we hopped into our first cab, one of those motorbike ones (a rickshaw), and went on our way to Pune University. Turns out it’s further than we thought, maybe 15-20 minutes zig zagging through traffic, and 90 rupees later (less than $3 dollars), we get dropped off on campus. Only a little wandering around later, we arrived at the International Office. A guard sits on a chair by the door, turning away confused international students. On the door is a lock, and hanging above it is a sign that reads: “Today is a holiday”. For the next hour or so, we sat there pretty amused in the hopes Vaishali would show up, as we watched international student after international arrive to find out that today is a holiday. So we killed some time writing this update before heading off on a walk across campus, bumping into a demonstration along the way. It turned out today is actually not a holiday but instead a strike of most university employees (guess they don’t have a “Today we are one strike” sign handy). Judging from the very long line of demonstrators, this really is a HUGE university with a very large staff.
It was less “bumping” into the demonstration and more like “chasing it”!! We heard it across a field and decided to cross it to go see what was going on...what is it again that all those travel books tell you about avoiding huge crowds and demonstration?? Meh, clearly it doesn’t apply to us!
We walked across campus (several kilometres of sprawling vegetation and buildings here and there from the various departments) and made our way out the gates. With a general idea of which way home was, we decided to walk, checking out the sites along the way. We saw our first glimpse of India’s sometimes extreme poverty as two little naked girls bathed in water coming out of a loose pipe under an overpass of a busy road, as cars zoomed by and they were largely ignored by all but us two Canadian tourists. We also experienced our first children begging for food or money. But this is nothing like what you see in Slumdog Millionaire. They playfully pushed each other out of the way, reaching out to Emilie for something, laughing the entire time. And in all our wanderings so far, we’ve only run into those 3 girls, a boy, and one mother with her child in her hands. I think one reason for this is that we’re not in a touristy area, where I’m sure we would get more attention. And the other is that Pune is actually part of the “New India”, developing and modernizing every day of the week.
At first, it seemed that poverty wasn’t that obvious in the area where we are but the more you look around and the more you try and notice the small things, you realize that there are slum houses everywhere. Families just camped out by the side of a road with small tin roofs and walls. It’s the part of India most people try to ignore but it is still a huge problem here that is propagated by a growing population and lack of water, electricity and jobs. Those 2 girls will not be the last we will encounter on our journey and it is hard to walk away without giving them anything, but sometimes it is better that way. When the mother came up to us carrying a small child in her arms and a boy by her side, we did decide to give her some bread we had so she could feed her children, although ultimately, she wanted money, we decided we were better off sticking to food instead of money.
We walked by a temple on a hill that caught our attention. We decided to visit and though we preferred not to disturb the worshipers inside the temple, we did climb the hill at the top of which we could look down on the entire city. It was a beautiful view and we weren’t the only ones to appreciate it, although some people were more concerned with other things... I suppose in a city of 3.8 million, it can be difficult to find privacy at times. So I wasn’t all that surprised when, as I gazed down at the city, I noticed a young man, about 20 meters down, standing there between two rocks, smiling at me, as he enjoyed a moment of... “self indulgence”. Not surprisingly, we decided to move on, glancing back every few meters to make sure that particular fellow didn’t follow us around! We then interrupted another couple... but all and all, aside from dodging fornicating locals, the hill was a very pleasant experience!
After the temple we made our way down and checked out a few stores: Levi’s, Nike, and Crossword (think Chapters). Something that’s been puzzling me a lot is the vast popularity of Hitler’s Mein Kampf. There are dozens of copies of it in the store, in English and Hindi, in various editions. A man selling books on the side of the road even had a copy. I’m sure I’ll ask someone about this at some point but it’s probably not the first thing you want to bring up in conversation :).
And Yan did end up asking Vaishali but she did not know...although from her answer, it almost seemed as if she simply did not want to answer the question.
After the bookstore, we continued on our way in the general direction of the hotel, when all of a sudden... BOOM. Two motorcycles had crashed into each other. My first reflex, to Emilie’s amusement, was to whip out my camera and take a photo. In my defence, there were plenty of people to help them and it wasn’t all that serious an accident. Aside from some bruised and bleeding elbows and a few pieces of motorcycle, one couple got back on and rode off while the riders of the other bike walked to the side and checked out their bike. I guess the locals do get into accidents too despite their prowess at weaving through traffic... Which isn’t very comforting though, but it does makes us quite happy to have some protection in the frame of our rickshaws!
Justin, this just shows you the level he is still at...training is definitely not over! :)
Continuing on, we run upon ILS Law College. As you’ll be able to tell from the photos, it’s a pretty nice campus. It has a little gym (that could seemingly be used as a bomb shelter), a lovely pool (boys and girls have their own times to swim), a cricket field, and of course, two buildings with classrooms! We tested out the seats and mentally prepared for what is to come. Naturally the toilets have no paper or soap (I will be carrying around profuse amounts of hand sanitizer), and that is something I have to mentally prepare for a lot too! We also ran into a dog sleeping on a box in the central hallway of the main building. We’re not sure but perhaps he works as the receptionist?
Or maybe he’s the mascot!! Either way, he scared us cause he didn’t make a sound! Sleeping away the heat I guess.
The tour of the college over and done with, we decided to catch a rickshaw back to the hotel. Unfortunately, we really weren’t sure which way to go from there to get home and we didn’t want to get screwed over by a cab driver. Thinking better safe than sorry, we dropped by an internet place and googled directions to Rudra Hotel. We found ourselves a driver, negotiated a price (or pretty sure we had... it can sometimes be difficult to understand what they’re saying) and hopped in. Pretty soon, Emilie thought he was taking us the wrong way but she wasn’t recognizing anything. Don’t worry, I assured, it’s night, things look different, and I know we’re going in the same general direction as google maps pointed too. We continued on... and on... and on... Our driver stopped at times, asking other drivers for directions to Hotel Rudra... Great... this is not looking too good... what kind of scam is this... Our improvised and unexpected tour of the city continued... nearly running over a dog crossing through traffic and seeing the outskirts of bonafide Indian slums were notable highlights. On and on we went... Where the heck is he taking us? No need to worry, we won’t pay him until he brings us to the right hotel! And no way we’re going to let him pull a fast one on us! We agreed to a price and we’re sticking to it! And if there’s a problem, we’ll get the hotel manager to help us when we get there! At one point, the driver even had to stop for gas! FINALLY, about 40 minutes later, our driver stops in front of the Rudra Hotel!!!!!
I may not be the best at giving directions but if there’s one thing I can do is keep a mental map of where things are so I can recognize where I am...and I could definitely not recognize anything...but since Yan usually has a better sense of direction than me, I decide to let it go and trust him...little did we know, we were both right in our own way!!
There’s only one problem, this is not OUR Rudra Hotel! And where the hell are we?! We point to the address: This is where you were supposed to take us! It is at that point that we realize we actually have a second problem: this IS the address on our paper! It’s also at that point we realize that our driver has not been trying to scam us at all, and in a way, we were actually scamming him... He had led us to Hotel Rudra, the one on the Internet, but not the one we were staying at! Well we have only one way to get out of this, calling Vaishali. Our driver finds a man who speaks English and is willing to call the number. Thankfully she answers her phone and it turns out she’d been worrying about us all day and had called the hotel 5 times. That’s right, we now have our very own Indian mother to worry about us too! Well she tells the driver where he’s ACTUALLY supposed to go and we head back, back to Pune City, back by ILS Law College, and in the completely other direction from where we’d first headed!
Thank goodness for Vaishali!! We had actually driven out of Pune City and were on the outskirts where, according to Vaishali, it isn’t so safe...ahhhh the life of an adventurer!!
About an hour and a half of rickshaw driving and 51 kilometres later (the meter ends at 30 km and he had to reset it), we finally made it back to our hotel, where the manager was waiting for us. Negotiations ensued between our manager, 2 employees, and the driver. I resisted the urge to take a photo, and finally, after our driver sulked and pouted, we paid him a very fair price (and probably one that was well earned after putting up with us two tourist douches!).
Well that tour sure did help build up an appetite! A restaurant is attached to the hotel, a really nice place with a large selection. It turns out the manager had warned the hotel of our approach and they were ready, eager to make a good first impression. A manager and two servers dedicated only to our table watched our every move, making sure our glass was never less than ¾ full, refilling masala onto our plates as we ate and generally making us feel like deities. I wondered at one point if they would hand feed me. But no time, I had to master eating with just the right hand all by myself! All in all, the food was delicious and cost less than 3 dollars between the two of us and it was a great way to call it a day
He says he’s mastered it...but if you ask the server who has to pick up all the crumbs after he’s finished eating, he’ll tell you otherwise!
Emilie wakes me up and interrupts my Celine Dion dream. Seriously, Quebec City is holding a concert and I dream that poor Celine, as she struts her way down the stage shaking her derrière, stumbles twice but recovers admirably. Now if I can only get a dream book to interpret this...
So I drag myself out of bed, very very slowly, and make my way to the shower. I haven’t spoken about the shower yet, so let’s describe our entire washroom. It’s small, about 6’x5’. Basically you can get everything done at once, shower, toilet, and sink all within reach. It’s all open, so you’re showering beside the toilet and good luck not getting everything wet. Aside from the toilet and sink, there are 2 other faucets, 2 shower heads, and 3 buckets (one large, two small). Why the abundance of washing equipment you may ask? Well you have your regular shower head and faucet for showering of course. You can fill up a little bucket and rinse yourself off with it as the water falls into the larger bucket. How many of you sickos are picturing me showering right now?!
And the water... oh yes, there are two levers, but don’t let these deceive you. One is for cold water, and the other is for cold water also, in case you can’t get enough of that cold water! I have to admit though, it’s a thousand times more effective than coffee to wake you up in the morning and it feels pretty darn good when it gets hot and humid out (i.e. all the time).
He sounds all cool and collected right now, but let me tell you, he screamed pretty loudly when he turned the water on!! I was thinking maybe a Psycho had come to stab him while in the shower...but yes, he was pretty awake after that!!
That leaves another shower head, this one detachable, and a faucet and little bucket. Those are for toilet necessities. You see, there is no toilet paper, only water. So what does that leave you with? That’s right, your hand, the left one being the only choice (they have something against lefties apparently). Actually we were talking about that and can you imagine yourself being a leftie in India? The only thing you can do with your god given left-handedness is to wipe your own ass?!? Anywho, everything else must be done with the right hand, for obvious reasons! That includes shaking hands and eating with only one hand. In addition to your left hand, you can use the bucket, detachable shower or faucet in any combination you like... the possibilities are endless!
So after showering and getting dressed, we visit the reception to ask about laundry service and the drinking water. I’m a little surprised at how difficult it is to communicate here. Not everyone speaks English where we are, but there usually will be someone around willing to try. But even for those who do, I have a really hard time understanding them. Now I know what my cousin Sebastian from Germany felt like when he was here visiting. When my friends would say something, he would often turn to me with a puzzled look. Well now I turn to Emilie, hoping she understood something the man just said. And somehow she does most of the time. So there is laundry service. And we do have drinking water that comes from the kitchen, through their only filter. I was asking whether we could fill our water bottles there and I think the man understood that I wanted to see the filter for myself, thinking I didn’t believing him at his word... Great, now he thinks I’m an untrusting jackass. Anyway, he sends one of the boys to the kitchen. A couple of minutes later he comes back down and it is safe for us to visit the kitchen. Why he needed to go first, only the rats will know... (actually the hotel is really great with super service and no complaints to be had! They’re even super sweet. Yesterday they noticed we flipped through a newspaper that was at the reception and so this morning they bring us one ). So anyway, there is indeed a filter of some sort, and we’ve been drinking that water all day. We’ll soon know if the filter works properly (and I’m happy to say, so far so good)!
It’s actually really funny cause since I’m travelling with a man (that would be Yan) he gets to do everything from paying to ordering food (yay for feminism!!) yet he always turns to me with quizitive eyes having no idea what has just been said. So when I answer them, they tend to keep talking to him...even though he clearly does not understand them!!
Breakfast consisted of a spicy double omelette and 2 slices of white bread, for about 50 cents, from this place just across the street. It was yummy! Just don’t mind the flies buzzing around you.
After having lived in a Masaai village, the flies aren’t that bad...but I’m still waiting for the day Yan will open his mouth and swallow one along with his food...I promise to take a picture if he ever does!!!
Then we hopped into our first cab, one of those motorbike ones (a rickshaw), and went on our way to Pune University. Turns out it’s further than we thought, maybe 15-20 minutes zig zagging through traffic, and 90 rupees later (less than $3 dollars), we get dropped off on campus. Only a little wandering around later, we arrived at the International Office. A guard sits on a chair by the door, turning away confused international students. On the door is a lock, and hanging above it is a sign that reads: “Today is a holiday”. For the next hour or so, we sat there pretty amused in the hopes Vaishali would show up, as we watched international student after international arrive to find out that today is a holiday. So we killed some time writing this update before heading off on a walk across campus, bumping into a demonstration along the way. It turned out today is actually not a holiday but instead a strike of most university employees (guess they don’t have a “Today we are one strike” sign handy). Judging from the very long line of demonstrators, this really is a HUGE university with a very large staff.
It was less “bumping” into the demonstration and more like “chasing it”!! We heard it across a field and decided to cross it to go see what was going on...what is it again that all those travel books tell you about avoiding huge crowds and demonstration?? Meh, clearly it doesn’t apply to us!
We walked across campus (several kilometres of sprawling vegetation and buildings here and there from the various departments) and made our way out the gates. With a general idea of which way home was, we decided to walk, checking out the sites along the way. We saw our first glimpse of India’s sometimes extreme poverty as two little naked girls bathed in water coming out of a loose pipe under an overpass of a busy road, as cars zoomed by and they were largely ignored by all but us two Canadian tourists. We also experienced our first children begging for food or money. But this is nothing like what you see in Slumdog Millionaire. They playfully pushed each other out of the way, reaching out to Emilie for something, laughing the entire time. And in all our wanderings so far, we’ve only run into those 3 girls, a boy, and one mother with her child in her hands. I think one reason for this is that we’re not in a touristy area, where I’m sure we would get more attention. And the other is that Pune is actually part of the “New India”, developing and modernizing every day of the week.
At first, it seemed that poverty wasn’t that obvious in the area where we are but the more you look around and the more you try and notice the small things, you realize that there are slum houses everywhere. Families just camped out by the side of a road with small tin roofs and walls. It’s the part of India most people try to ignore but it is still a huge problem here that is propagated by a growing population and lack of water, electricity and jobs. Those 2 girls will not be the last we will encounter on our journey and it is hard to walk away without giving them anything, but sometimes it is better that way. When the mother came up to us carrying a small child in her arms and a boy by her side, we did decide to give her some bread we had so she could feed her children, although ultimately, she wanted money, we decided we were better off sticking to food instead of money.
We walked by a temple on a hill that caught our attention. We decided to visit and though we preferred not to disturb the worshipers inside the temple, we did climb the hill at the top of which we could look down on the entire city. It was a beautiful view and we weren’t the only ones to appreciate it, although some people were more concerned with other things... I suppose in a city of 3.8 million, it can be difficult to find privacy at times. So I wasn’t all that surprised when, as I gazed down at the city, I noticed a young man, about 20 meters down, standing there between two rocks, smiling at me, as he enjoyed a moment of... “self indulgence”. Not surprisingly, we decided to move on, glancing back every few meters to make sure that particular fellow didn’t follow us around! We then interrupted another couple... but all and all, aside from dodging fornicating locals, the hill was a very pleasant experience!
After the temple we made our way down and checked out a few stores: Levi’s, Nike, and Crossword (think Chapters). Something that’s been puzzling me a lot is the vast popularity of Hitler’s Mein Kampf. There are dozens of copies of it in the store, in English and Hindi, in various editions. A man selling books on the side of the road even had a copy. I’m sure I’ll ask someone about this at some point but it’s probably not the first thing you want to bring up in conversation :).
And Yan did end up asking Vaishali but she did not know...although from her answer, it almost seemed as if she simply did not want to answer the question.
After the bookstore, we continued on our way in the general direction of the hotel, when all of a sudden... BOOM. Two motorcycles had crashed into each other. My first reflex, to Emilie’s amusement, was to whip out my camera and take a photo. In my defence, there were plenty of people to help them and it wasn’t all that serious an accident. Aside from some bruised and bleeding elbows and a few pieces of motorcycle, one couple got back on and rode off while the riders of the other bike walked to the side and checked out their bike. I guess the locals do get into accidents too despite their prowess at weaving through traffic... Which isn’t very comforting though, but it does makes us quite happy to have some protection in the frame of our rickshaws!
Justin, this just shows you the level he is still at...training is definitely not over! :)
Continuing on, we run upon ILS Law College. As you’ll be able to tell from the photos, it’s a pretty nice campus. It has a little gym (that could seemingly be used as a bomb shelter), a lovely pool (boys and girls have their own times to swim), a cricket field, and of course, two buildings with classrooms! We tested out the seats and mentally prepared for what is to come. Naturally the toilets have no paper or soap (I will be carrying around profuse amounts of hand sanitizer), and that is something I have to mentally prepare for a lot too! We also ran into a dog sleeping on a box in the central hallway of the main building. We’re not sure but perhaps he works as the receptionist?
Or maybe he’s the mascot!! Either way, he scared us cause he didn’t make a sound! Sleeping away the heat I guess.
The tour of the college over and done with, we decided to catch a rickshaw back to the hotel. Unfortunately, we really weren’t sure which way to go from there to get home and we didn’t want to get screwed over by a cab driver. Thinking better safe than sorry, we dropped by an internet place and googled directions to Rudra Hotel. We found ourselves a driver, negotiated a price (or pretty sure we had... it can sometimes be difficult to understand what they’re saying) and hopped in. Pretty soon, Emilie thought he was taking us the wrong way but she wasn’t recognizing anything. Don’t worry, I assured, it’s night, things look different, and I know we’re going in the same general direction as google maps pointed too. We continued on... and on... and on... Our driver stopped at times, asking other drivers for directions to Hotel Rudra... Great... this is not looking too good... what kind of scam is this... Our improvised and unexpected tour of the city continued... nearly running over a dog crossing through traffic and seeing the outskirts of bonafide Indian slums were notable highlights. On and on we went... Where the heck is he taking us? No need to worry, we won’t pay him until he brings us to the right hotel! And no way we’re going to let him pull a fast one on us! We agreed to a price and we’re sticking to it! And if there’s a problem, we’ll get the hotel manager to help us when we get there! At one point, the driver even had to stop for gas! FINALLY, about 40 minutes later, our driver stops in front of the Rudra Hotel!!!!!
I may not be the best at giving directions but if there’s one thing I can do is keep a mental map of where things are so I can recognize where I am...and I could definitely not recognize anything...but since Yan usually has a better sense of direction than me, I decide to let it go and trust him...little did we know, we were both right in our own way!!
There’s only one problem, this is not OUR Rudra Hotel! And where the hell are we?! We point to the address: This is where you were supposed to take us! It is at that point that we realize we actually have a second problem: this IS the address on our paper! It’s also at that point we realize that our driver has not been trying to scam us at all, and in a way, we were actually scamming him... He had led us to Hotel Rudra, the one on the Internet, but not the one we were staying at! Well we have only one way to get out of this, calling Vaishali. Our driver finds a man who speaks English and is willing to call the number. Thankfully she answers her phone and it turns out she’d been worrying about us all day and had called the hotel 5 times. That’s right, we now have our very own Indian mother to worry about us too! Well she tells the driver where he’s ACTUALLY supposed to go and we head back, back to Pune City, back by ILS Law College, and in the completely other direction from where we’d first headed!
Thank goodness for Vaishali!! We had actually driven out of Pune City and were on the outskirts where, according to Vaishali, it isn’t so safe...ahhhh the life of an adventurer!!
About an hour and a half of rickshaw driving and 51 kilometres later (the meter ends at 30 km and he had to reset it), we finally made it back to our hotel, where the manager was waiting for us. Negotiations ensued between our manager, 2 employees, and the driver. I resisted the urge to take a photo, and finally, after our driver sulked and pouted, we paid him a very fair price (and probably one that was well earned after putting up with us two tourist douches!).
Well that tour sure did help build up an appetite! A restaurant is attached to the hotel, a really nice place with a large selection. It turns out the manager had warned the hotel of our approach and they were ready, eager to make a good first impression. A manager and two servers dedicated only to our table watched our every move, making sure our glass was never less than ¾ full, refilling masala onto our plates as we ate and generally making us feel like deities. I wondered at one point if they would hand feed me. But no time, I had to master eating with just the right hand all by myself! All in all, the food was delicious and cost less than 3 dollars between the two of us and it was a great way to call it a day
He says he’s mastered it...but if you ask the server who has to pick up all the crumbs after he’s finished eating, he’ll tell you otherwise!
Monday, August 3, 2009
Day 3: Why not start the journey off with the one thing people and travel books tell you not to do!
At about 5:30pm...we finally wake up for good and are ready to start our day...yup, 12 hours later!!! I guess we really needed the sleep!! Not having heard from Vaishali, I give her a call to ask her what the plans are. She tells me that she figured we would be so tired that it was better to let us sleep and recuperate today and do the registration on Tuesday...such a sweetie!!! So Yan and I decide to take our showers and go walk around the area where we live! We walk up to the main road, exploring the shops and decide to stop at a street shop that sells milkshakes!! We order 2 mango milkshake and as we watch the guy making it, we realize that he is rinsing the blender with tap water....OH OH!! This might spell trouble!! We decide to have it anyways (being the adventurous people that we are!) but tell him to hold off on the ice!! We enjoy the milkshake while sitting outside and enjoying the sounds (which some people would perhaps call noise!) and the colourful scene being displayed before us: Indians of all ages walking down the streets buying fruits and veggies from the street vendors! A great start to our journey (especially since neither of us was sick from that shake!!). We decide to do as the locals and buy some bananas for the next morning since we weren’t sure where we would be eating. Taking a look at all the fruits they had, we decide to buy some apples as well! We ask the vendor for the price and he responds to us: 300 k-g...HUH?!? Yan and I are trying to figure out what k-g means and we figure it must be a lower type of currency so we decide to hold off and ask Vaishali tomorrow...but as we’re walking, we have a genius moment and finally realized that Kg was kilograms....Wow!!
In our defence, when an Indian mumbles a number and two letters to you and you’re in a new country trying to figure things out for the first time, k-g was NOT that obvious!
We really do have a university degree, I swear!! Laughing, we make our way back towards the hotel and feeling a bit hungry (and still on our adventure high) we head to a local coffee shop for soup. We buy a (very small) bowl of tomato soup hoping it will hold off hunger until the morning. We then head to the internet cafe to let everybody know we made it safely and then head back to the hotel for another night’s sleep so we’ll be ready to tackle our first “real” full day in India!!
In our defence, when an Indian mumbles a number and two letters to you and you’re in a new country trying to figure things out for the first time, k-g was NOT that obvious!
We really do have a university degree, I swear!! Laughing, we make our way back towards the hotel and feeling a bit hungry (and still on our adventure high) we head to a local coffee shop for soup. We buy a (very small) bowl of tomato soup hoping it will hold off hunger until the morning. We then head to the internet cafe to let everybody know we made it safely and then head back to the hotel for another night’s sleep so we’ll be ready to tackle our first “real” full day in India!!
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Days 1 and 2: 2 days, 3 planes and a 4 hour cab ride later...WE’RE IN INDIA!!!
Yan and I met up at the Ottawa airport to depart on our 5 month journey to South East Asia. We said goodbye to our families, checked our baggage and headed over to security check. As Yan is emptying his pockets, he suddenly realized that he still has his apartment keys...keys that he was supposed to hand in to my parents in order for them to transfer them to Anne who is subleasing his apartment!! As we both look at each other trying to figure out exactly what to do, I tell Yan to run and try to catch up with my parents before they leave to go to the cottage and let the guard know what is going on. I’m left at the security check with my bags as well as Yan’s bag as I wait for him to come back. As I’m waiting, the security guard tells me to go through and wait for Yan on the other side. He passes all our bags through the x-ray machine and since more people are coming through, I grab everything, including Yan’s boarding pass and bag and run to the nearest phone to call my parents in order to make sure they don’t leave the airport without the keys. In the meantime, Yan’s parents were still waiting on the upper level so he handed them the keys and called my parents from his cell phone, explained that he had forgotten to hand them the keys and asked them to come back to the upper level. He decided to leave the keys to his parents since we had about 20 minutes left before boarding time, who, in turn, would hand them over to my parents. Yan ran back downstairs to security but started panicking when he noticed that I was nowhere to be found...as well as his bag and other items no longer being there!! He looks around to see if he can find the security guard that we spoke to before he left, but it turns out that 5 minutes after I passed through security, they had a shift change and so none of the guards know what the heck is going on!! They refuse to let him through since he doesn’t have his boarding pass, and tell him to call me...alas, none of us have cell phones on us!! Finally, as I’m hanging up the phone with my parents, a security guard taps my back and says: “he needs his boarding pass”. Just realizing that I’m holding his boarding pass, I hang up with my parents, grab our stuff and head back to security. I give Yan (who has a freaked out look on his face) his boarding pass and he finally goes through security, but still feeling a bit frazzled and probably hating me (although he will never admit to this!!) :).
Hate is such a strong word... No but really, I’m all about the easy going travelling, but imagine this: As you know people are boarding, you’re running out of security, up stairs and outside, finding your family THANKFULLY, and this only because you have young nephews that need to be placed into car seats or else they’d be long gone! You hand over the keys to your sister-in-law with instructions as to what key is for what, think to call Emilie’s parents and say what happened (btw, your dad is taking photos of you from his car the whole time, now you know where I get it from!) and then run back to security where Emilie is NOT there, they’re asking you for your boarding pass which you do NOT have, and you don’t recognize ANYONE who is working there!!! You’re told you cannot under any condition go over there, they don’t know what you’re talking about because they just changed shifts and they’re probably looking around for their tazers already, and all they suggest is that you call her (though neither of you has a phone) or make a general announcement from upstairs when the plane is already boarding!! Many things were running through my head... Thankfully Emilie decided to show up with my boarding pass and belongings and I was allowed to go... All in all, a hell of a start to the trip! :)
As soon as we get to our boarding gate, passengers have already begun boarding. We decide to sit down so Yan can get over what just happened (and get his heart rate down!) and board when the line up has died down. As we are boarding the plane and walking through first class in order to get to our seat, Yan turns to me and says: “Isn’t that Alexandre Despatie?” to which my only answer is: “ I don’t know but he’s hot!!”. Laughing, we both keep walking and get to our seat. At this point, Yan is STILL talking about Alexandre Despatie and trying to figure out if we can catch up to him once we land in Montreal and take a picture with him. The rest of the flight to Montreal (about 25 minutes) was uneventful!
We get to Montreal ahead of schedule and decide that since we have A LOT of time to kill, we should walk around and explore the airport and get a bite to eat. We walk along going towards our gate and end up at a door where a security guard is standing by, verifying people’s passports and boarding passes. We look through the gates, where more stores are lining the hall and decide to go through. After having contemplated our food choice on this side of the door (and trying on multiple hats at one of the stores!!), we decide to head back to the other side. We head towards the door but our exit is blocked by the same guard who tells us once we are on this side (which turned out to be the side where all international flights leave from and where the duty free is situated), we can no longer leave...doh!!! You can’t buy from the duty free if you’re not going on an international flight...so we decide to just go buy some water, newspapers and magazine and eat the granola bars we had brought!
We conveniently find a seat (at our gate) in front of a TV. Yan, being exhausted from not having slept the night before (not that I had more sleep than he did ;) ) decides to lay down for a nap. I watch the TV while he’s laying down on my lap and quickly realize that they’re playing the same 25 minutes of video...but not wanting to wake Yan from his much needed sleep...I decide to just watch and daydream of the trip that is to come. After Yan finally wakes up, I try my best to try and get some shut eye but to no avail...I’m way too excited to be sleeping at this point!! We pass the rest of our time chatting, reading and sleeping (for some!) and before you know it, it’s boarding time!! We are finally boarding our Air Canada flight to Paris, settling into our seats (with no superstars to distract Yan) and getting ready for a 6 hour flight to Paris, definitely looking forward to being able to watch a ton of movies!! As they start the video on flight safety, our (yes, only our row from what we can see around us) TVs are defective and we cannot see the video. Worrying that we won’t be able to watch movies, Yan calls the stewardess over. She tells us that she is required to demonstrate to us (the old fashioned way) how everything works and assures us that she will reboot the system so that we have access to the TV. After the video finishes, and the system is rebooted, we are made aware by the head stewardess that there is a problem with the TV system and that we will not have access to the system for the whole flight!!! What are we supposed to do on this 6 hours flight if not watch movies?!?! I decide to try and get some rest and quickly fall asleep. Hours later (really, I think I sleep about 2 hours! Miracle!), being a bit bored, we decide to get my laptop and watch a movie. I open the computer and just as it opens, an error message pops up saying that I need to reboot my computer!! I decide to wait till Yan comes back so he can try to figure out what’s wrong with it....did I mention this was a brand new computer with which I had never had problems and which I bought for this trip? Yeah, I was not impressed!! After trying everything for 20 minutes to get Windows to load again, and getting it to work once but only for a moment before the computer crashed again in the same way, Yan resigns and we put the laptop away. What else could go wrong on this flight you ask?!? Besides me being fully impressed with the Gluten Free meals I had requested (which included bread with my supper and a muffin for breakfast...good ones too!!), as the breakfast is served, they run out of muffins about half way through the cabin...so yes, this means Yan is left without food!! Oh my, what to do, what to do?!? I offer him part of my breakfast (which not only consisted of a yummy muffin, which Yan had half of, but also fruits, a juice and a water bottle) as the stewardesses franticly look for something to offer the other half of the passengers. Finally, they raid the first class kitchen where they find a bunch of croissants....enough to feed half the plane!! Why did they need that many croissants for first class is something I guess I will never know!!
Because one day I may fly first class and on that day, I will eat all those croissants!
We finally get to Paris ahead of schedule, disembark and head to the immigration line up they told us EVERYONE needed to go through. Not being quite sure why we would need to go through immigration in Paris, we wait in line for a bit before Yan heads off to find a toilet.
I was looking for a toilet for you!
He comes back to the end of the line, we check out tickets and realize we need to be at another terminal!! We head downstairs to see if we can find this terminal, check on the TV to see from what gate our flight is leaving and notice that it is not there...did they cancel our flight??? We ask an agent sitting at a booth and he tells us we need to take the shuttle to the other terminal. With uncertainty, we walk through the doors leading outside to the shuttle as a guard is watching us do so. Only once on the other side of the door does the guard get up and asks us what we are doing? We tell him that we need to get to Terminal 2C and so he tells us, not so nicely, that we need to sit down and wait. WELCOME TO PARIS!!! So we do, as does he and we wait. About 10 minutes later, the shuttle shows up and we hop on. We get off at our terminal, go upstairs where the terminal should be and we are greeted with another line up! At this point, we only have about 10 minutes left before boarding and so we ask a woman where our gate is, and she kindly directs us to the line up. We wait in line...again...to go through security and once through, quickly walk to our gate where boarding had already begun. Yan and I both needed to go to the bathroom so I stay with the bags as Yan runs off to find one. When he comes back, I head over and once I get back, we board...with no one left behind us!!
To make this washroom story a bit more interesting, this particular terminal was crazy packed from end to end at every gate from the gate to the other wall where the shops were. And you needed to navigate through this crowd to reach the washroom which, of course, is at the very end of the terminal! The ladies line up was insane and one woman even snuck into a stall in the men’s washroom. What should have taken 5 minutes took at least 3 times that. Basically, if ever you travel through Paris, leave yourself LOTS of time and prepare for the craziness that will surely ensue!!
We find our seats, settle in and are excited, once again, at the possibility of watching tons of movies on this 9 hour flight!!! Guess what???!!!! The TV’s were defective again...but thankfully, after rebooting the system, everything is back to normal, TV’s working, and we are happy!!
Sadly, I must say the gluten free food offered on this Air France flight wasn’t that great and my consumption was minimal...although Yan seemed to not mind it at all since he ate most of it...on top of his own meal! :) The rest of the flight was divided between sleeping and watching movies (probably more sleeping than watching movies) and we arrived at destination on time.
As we disembark the plane, the humidity difference from Canada and here is obvious...especially after being in an air conditioned plane for the past 9 hours!! We line up again to get our H1N1 medical sheets stamped and to get our baggage. As we passed through the line, we were scanned by a heat detector in order to make sure we didn’t have a fever...passed that test...thank god!! We pick up our baggage, head out the doors of the airport and are greeted by tons of taxi drivers and family members, all holding signs, here to pick up passengers. Overwhelmed, we decide to walk around and try to find our driver. Walk around once, but we can’t find him...walk around twice, and we finally find him!! He takes our bags and shows us the way to the car. As we’re walking over, a tout (of course we bump into one straight off the airplane!) is following us, talking in Hindi to the driver and trying to get him to find a way to get us to pay for him...he offers to carry our bags, opens the door to the car, rolls down the window, etc!! We get in the car as he is asking us for money but we firmly refuse and go on our way. We call Vaishali who tells me that she will call us on Monday to meet up with us for registration...great...no sleeping in I guess?!?
Being overwhelmed from actually finally being in India, we take in the sights and sounds from our taxi ride. About 2 hours in, our driver decides to stop at a food mall (Yan’s heaven I’m sure!) to get a coffee because he is getting tired! No wonder...he drove 4 hours to come pick us up at the airport and now, at midnight, he needs to drives another 4 hours back to Pune...where he also lives!! He grabs a coffee and we head back on the road, where I finally fall asleep. I wake up, about 30 minutes to destination and am told by Yan that our driver is falling asleep at the wheel!! GREAT!! Yan talks to him to try and keep him awake while contemplating how long it would take him to grab the wheel if he ever did fall asleep! Luckily, we make it to the hotel safe and sound at about 4 am!! Being excited again from actually being in India, we check into our room and take out the camera!! We chat till about 5:30 am at which point we both fall asleep after and exhausting journey!
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