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!