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!