Bangalore was really great. We made a video blog about it, but couldn't find a reliable connection to upload it.
We're leaving for Mysore in a few minutes, and from there heading to Coorge, which is known as the Scotland of India (though we have no idea what they mean by that).
We're in a rush now and we'll update later.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Bye Bye, Mumbai!
Left Mumbai this morning for Bangalore via Spicejet (yes, it's really called that). Very sleepy, so I'll get to explaining Bangalore tomorrow.
Our last day in Mumbai was a varied experience. I had a really hard time sleeping the night before and so our plan was to take it easy. We started out trying to go to the big museum in Colaba thinking it would be air conditioned, and it wasn't, so we didn't. Instead we spent the day wandering around south of Colaba, through some busy side streets. A few of you have requested more picture posts, so here is what the area we were in looks like:
and here is a man sharpening a knife using the power of a bicycle:
After hours of wandering we turned in to the hotel for our regular midday strip-down-and-hang-by-the-air-conditioner session. Since it was our last night, and Mumbai is one of the few cities we're going to that has a real night life, we decided to do our best to take advantage. It was, however, Sunday, so that made it fairly difficult.
Eventually we found some club through a website called burrp (Indian Yelp, basically) that was hosting a free show of a local band called Split Unplugged (or, the band was called just Split and this was their unplugged set --- we're still not quite clear about it). The bar, called the Bluefrog, seemed touristy from descriptions (and from the fact that it was listed in the Lonely Planet Guide) but we hadn't really met anyone at all in Mumbai and figured that if nothing else it would be nice to get some feeling of youth culture and the local music scene.
The Bluefrog is in an area called Lower Parel, about 20 minutes north of Fort. The journey there has been one of the most memorable so far. As always, getting into a cab in Mumbai is reliable brush with death (or, at least that's how it seems, though the drivers apparently all have fairly good track records). On the ride we passed through some of the slums of Mumbai, which are sprawling networks of shacks built from corrugated scrap metal and other reused materials. We also had some very intense encounters while stopped at intersections. One man, an older man, held a baby's gangrened arm into the cab, inches from Yotam's face. We had encountered begging people before, but this instance was particularly horrific. The situation of the poor in Mumbai is difficult to describe, especially when coming from our stance as tourists and I'm not sure that anything I could write here could convey the visceral reaction that interactions like this one produce. I think, after spending only four days in Mumbai, it would be irresponsible of me to give my uninformed explanation of the issue of the slums or the street people. Still, it's important to note poverty is an ever present and emotionally stirring aspect of India, and I'll leave it at that for now.
We got out of the cab to find ourselves in a somewhat seedy area, and we were both feeling pretty solemn, and the night was starting to look like a failure. But we had already gone all the way out there, and were starting to get hungry, so we decided we'd find the Bluefrog and stick it out.
After much searching we arrived. The place was an abandoned warehouse, converted to an ultramodern lounge with an enormous soundsystem, six projectors, and not a soul around. The menu was all American style food, and corny classic rock was being blasted at us. It looked like it could have been a bar in California-- a bar that we would be very unlikely to visit. To top it off, it was also expensive, and not just by Indian standards. But we were hungry, and held out hope that if we stayed we would at least meet the musicians, which would satisfy our thirst for some interaction.
The food, while presented beautifully, tasted really, really bad. We would have left, but other people-- young, Indian people--started to trickle in ,which renewed our hope and helped us ignore the strange discomfort caused by being Americans in an American-style bar. By the time the band came on, it was an impressive crowd for a Sunday night. And while Split (unplugged?) played a pretty offe set consisting of badly played Metal, a basically arhythmic cover of a Police song, and an endearingly delivered yet downright awful Pearl Jam song, the night didn't turn out to be a total failure: as we were leaving, we made friends with an Indian guy named Rahul, who, like me, had quit his job to travel around India. He has hopes of going to grad school at USC. He was friendly, and funny, and told us some stuff about India, and thanks to him our night turned out okay. So we stuck around for a bit longer, and drank a round of Tuborgs, because the Bluefrog most certainly does not sell Kingfisher.
All in all, an odd day, and when we woke up this morning, I think we were both ready for a change of scene. And Bangalore--wow--it's different.
Our last day in Mumbai was a varied experience. I had a really hard time sleeping the night before and so our plan was to take it easy. We started out trying to go to the big museum in Colaba thinking it would be air conditioned, and it wasn't, so we didn't. Instead we spent the day wandering around south of Colaba, through some busy side streets. A few of you have requested more picture posts, so here is what the area we were in looks like:
and here is a man sharpening a knife using the power of a bicycle:
After hours of wandering we turned in to the hotel for our regular midday strip-down-and-hang-by-the-air-conditioner session. Since it was our last night, and Mumbai is one of the few cities we're going to that has a real night life, we decided to do our best to take advantage. It was, however, Sunday, so that made it fairly difficult.
Eventually we found some club through a website called burrp (Indian Yelp, basically) that was hosting a free show of a local band called Split Unplugged (or, the band was called just Split and this was their unplugged set --- we're still not quite clear about it). The bar, called the Bluefrog, seemed touristy from descriptions (and from the fact that it was listed in the Lonely Planet Guide) but we hadn't really met anyone at all in Mumbai and figured that if nothing else it would be nice to get some feeling of youth culture and the local music scene.
The Bluefrog is in an area called Lower Parel, about 20 minutes north of Fort. The journey there has been one of the most memorable so far. As always, getting into a cab in Mumbai is reliable brush with death (or, at least that's how it seems, though the drivers apparently all have fairly good track records). On the ride we passed through some of the slums of Mumbai, which are sprawling networks of shacks built from corrugated scrap metal and other reused materials. We also had some very intense encounters while stopped at intersections. One man, an older man, held a baby's gangrened arm into the cab, inches from Yotam's face. We had encountered begging people before, but this instance was particularly horrific. The situation of the poor in Mumbai is difficult to describe, especially when coming from our stance as tourists and I'm not sure that anything I could write here could convey the visceral reaction that interactions like this one produce. I think, after spending only four days in Mumbai, it would be irresponsible of me to give my uninformed explanation of the issue of the slums or the street people. Still, it's important to note poverty is an ever present and emotionally stirring aspect of India, and I'll leave it at that for now.
We got out of the cab to find ourselves in a somewhat seedy area, and we were both feeling pretty solemn, and the night was starting to look like a failure. But we had already gone all the way out there, and were starting to get hungry, so we decided we'd find the Bluefrog and stick it out.
After much searching we arrived. The place was an abandoned warehouse, converted to an ultramodern lounge with an enormous soundsystem, six projectors, and not a soul around. The menu was all American style food, and corny classic rock was being blasted at us. It looked like it could have been a bar in California-- a bar that we would be very unlikely to visit. To top it off, it was also expensive, and not just by Indian standards. But we were hungry, and held out hope that if we stayed we would at least meet the musicians, which would satisfy our thirst for some interaction.
The food, while presented beautifully, tasted really, really bad. We would have left, but other people-- young, Indian people--started to trickle in ,which renewed our hope and helped us ignore the strange discomfort caused by being Americans in an American-style bar. By the time the band came on, it was an impressive crowd for a Sunday night. And while Split (unplugged?) played a pretty offe set consisting of badly played Metal, a basically arhythmic cover of a Police song, and an endearingly delivered yet downright awful Pearl Jam song, the night didn't turn out to be a total failure: as we were leaving, we made friends with an Indian guy named Rahul, who, like me, had quit his job to travel around India. He has hopes of going to grad school at USC. He was friendly, and funny, and told us some stuff about India, and thanks to him our night turned out okay. So we stuck around for a bit longer, and drank a round of Tuborgs, because the Bluefrog most certainly does not sell Kingfisher.
All in all, an odd day, and when we woke up this morning, I think we were both ready for a change of scene. And Bangalore--wow--it's different.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Colablog
We spent the last few days exploring South Mumbai, splitting our time between the areas called Fort and Colaba.
Our hotel is in Fort, so day one was spent wandering around our neighborhood. After the aforementioned film mishap, we found ourselves in a labyrinthic bazaar, stretching easily six miles each way. The bazaar was partially indoor, partially outdoor, with aisles of every good imaginable-- spices, produce, chocolates, toys, stationary, machine parts, textiles. Yotam and I had a running joke about the fact that each road was basically all one type of product; we referred to them a the lace district, the key district, the rubber tube district, etc. The entire market was an assault on the senses: smells both good and bad, penetrating heat and humidity, people of all sorts approaching us to buy things we most definitely don't need (most everyone who caught me even glancing at their goods would greet me with an enthusiastic "yes, madame"). Everything is riddled with complications; language barriers have surpassed our expectations, we apparently suck at not getting ripped off, we don't know where anything is really. Exhaustion overcame us, and we came back to the hotel and took a euphoric, air conditioned, three hour nap.
Today was a lot more successful. As Yotam puts it, the learning curve is high. We even smell like curry already. Our morning was spent doing some intensive people watching from our window, which is in a pretty commercial part of town. We spent a lot of time watching this little boy pedal strung-up flowers to taxi drivers and storefronts, many of whom gladly bought and hung them.
Then we head out for the Gateway of India, which we were misdirected to and instead found ourselves at a strip of fancy banks. Eventually, we figured out where we were, which happened to be near one of three synagogues in Mumbai, a bright blue building with a handful of police officers on guard. We went in and found a man sleeping on one of the pews, and out of curiosity asked him if there would be a Friday night service. He kind of laughed and said we should come back at 7:30. Why not, right?
After wandering around for a bit longer, we found some men playing cricket in the park and sat down to rest and watch. Neither of us really understand cricket at all, but some British guy happened to come sit next to us on the tree trunk we were on and gave us a very, very convoluted explanation. I kid you not, he began by saying "well, when you're in your out, and when you're out your in." It only got more confusing from there but it was nice to chat with someone who spoke the same language as us, even though it was basically a lot of mumbo jumbo.
Back on the hunt for the Gateway of India, we were lucky enough to be sidetracked by three smallish art galleries, one of which had an apparently notable cafe called Samovar, at which we stopped for lunch and met a very, very loquacious movie producer who told us what was essentially his life story. Anyway, the galleries were really lovely to see, and were in many ways like galleries in Oakland (except way hotter). Stylistically there are similarities between Contemporary Mumbai art and certain American art, but to see these styles depicting Indian topics was definitely a pleasure.
Finally, just as our clothes were basically entirely soaked through and our feet throbbing from walking and heat, we found the Gateway of India, which is a magnificent structure similar in style to the Arc de Triomphe. The area was really touristy and people were really aggressively trying to sell us stuff (our favorite attempt was a guy trying to sell us postcards, maps, or "maybe a different kind of map" as he pulled out a bag of weed from an envelope). Nonetheless it was worth seeing and we headed home to de-moisten ourselves before going to temple.
At 7:30 we arrived back at the synagogue. The policemen were still there, and as we walked in we were given the official security questionairre (which was, "You am Jewish?"). The synagogue was organized Sefardic style with the bima in the middle, and orthodox style with the women separated from the men. I watched Yotam from the balcony, among a few Brooklyn chabadniks, an Israeli or two, and a few Indian Jews. The service was pretty casual considering the people in attendance, with the men kind of chatting and wandering around during the service. It was interesting to see a culture we're more familiar with in a country we're so foreign to, but as non religious Jews we didn't exactly feel at home. It was definitely worth experiencing, though.
At the end of the service, I said Shabbat Shalom to one of the women I was standing with. She corrected me by saying Shavua Tov. This is how, eventually, Yotam and I pieced together that it is actually Saturday, not Friday. Talk about being disoriented.
Oh! One last thing to add to this long long post. We finally, after much difficulty (because for some reason you're not supposed to issue sim cards to foreigners) got our phone to work . If you need to reach us for some reason, our number is +917738651722.
Our hotel is in Fort, so day one was spent wandering around our neighborhood. After the aforementioned film mishap, we found ourselves in a labyrinthic bazaar, stretching easily six miles each way. The bazaar was partially indoor, partially outdoor, with aisles of every good imaginable-- spices, produce, chocolates, toys, stationary, machine parts, textiles. Yotam and I had a running joke about the fact that each road was basically all one type of product; we referred to them a the lace district, the key district, the rubber tube district, etc. The entire market was an assault on the senses: smells both good and bad, penetrating heat and humidity, people of all sorts approaching us to buy things we most definitely don't need (most everyone who caught me even glancing at their goods would greet me with an enthusiastic "yes, madame"). Everything is riddled with complications; language barriers have surpassed our expectations, we apparently suck at not getting ripped off, we don't know where anything is really. Exhaustion overcame us, and we came back to the hotel and took a euphoric, air conditioned, three hour nap.
Today was a lot more successful. As Yotam puts it, the learning curve is high. We even smell like curry already. Our morning was spent doing some intensive people watching from our window, which is in a pretty commercial part of town. We spent a lot of time watching this little boy pedal strung-up flowers to taxi drivers and storefronts, many of whom gladly bought and hung them.
Then we head out for the Gateway of India, which we were misdirected to and instead found ourselves at a strip of fancy banks. Eventually, we figured out where we were, which happened to be near one of three synagogues in Mumbai, a bright blue building with a handful of police officers on guard. We went in and found a man sleeping on one of the pews, and out of curiosity asked him if there would be a Friday night service. He kind of laughed and said we should come back at 7:30. Why not, right?
After wandering around for a bit longer, we found some men playing cricket in the park and sat down to rest and watch. Neither of us really understand cricket at all, but some British guy happened to come sit next to us on the tree trunk we were on and gave us a very, very convoluted explanation. I kid you not, he began by saying "well, when you're in your out, and when you're out your in." It only got more confusing from there but it was nice to chat with someone who spoke the same language as us, even though it was basically a lot of mumbo jumbo.
Back on the hunt for the Gateway of India, we were lucky enough to be sidetracked by three smallish art galleries, one of which had an apparently notable cafe called Samovar, at which we stopped for lunch and met a very, very loquacious movie producer who told us what was essentially his life story. Anyway, the galleries were really lovely to see, and were in many ways like galleries in Oakland (except way hotter). Stylistically there are similarities between Contemporary Mumbai art and certain American art, but to see these styles depicting Indian topics was definitely a pleasure.
Finally, just as our clothes were basically entirely soaked through and our feet throbbing from walking and heat, we found the Gateway of India, which is a magnificent structure similar in style to the Arc de Triomphe. The area was really touristy and people were really aggressively trying to sell us stuff (our favorite attempt was a guy trying to sell us postcards, maps, or "maybe a different kind of map" as he pulled out a bag of weed from an envelope). Nonetheless it was worth seeing and we headed home to de-moisten ourselves before going to temple.
At 7:30 we arrived back at the synagogue. The policemen were still there, and as we walked in we were given the official security questionairre (which was, "You am Jewish?"). The synagogue was organized Sefardic style with the bima in the middle, and orthodox style with the women separated from the men. I watched Yotam from the balcony, among a few Brooklyn chabadniks, an Israeli or two, and a few Indian Jews. The service was pretty casual considering the people in attendance, with the men kind of chatting and wandering around during the service. It was interesting to see a culture we're more familiar with in a country we're so foreign to, but as non religious Jews we didn't exactly feel at home. It was definitely worth experiencing, though.
At the end of the service, I said Shabbat Shalom to one of the women I was standing with. She corrected me by saying Shavua Tov. This is how, eventually, Yotam and I pieced together that it is actually Saturday, not Friday. Talk about being disoriented.
Oh! One last thing to add to this long long post. We finally, after much difficulty (because for some reason you're not supposed to issue sim cards to foreigners) got our phone to work . If you need to reach us for some reason, our number is +917738651722.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Mumbai is hot, cool, and hot.
Wow. Day One. I'm not going to make a full post until tomorrow, because in all honesty we didn't do much today (so hot, tired, and disoriented) BUT if there's one story worth telling, it's this:
Yotam and I, while walking over to the Victoria Terminus this morning, happened upon a crowd of people struggling to see some goings-on at a park across the street. We figured that, Mumbai being the film capital of India, we should check it out, so we made our way to the other side of the road (not a simple task, mind you, in a city with nearly patternless traffic) to find Mumbai's School of Art and Architecture, where there appeared to be some kind of film-shoot going on. There was a separation between the onlookers and the crew, but there didn't seem to be anything enforcing people from moving in closer, so we did, and found ourselves standing next to a young Indian couple. Yotam asked
"What's going on here?"
"Filming."
This was obvious to us already, because of the lighting set up, the woman giving orders through a megaphone, a food van, and a couple trailers. So Yotam wanted to know a little more
"What's being filmed?"
"A movie."
The woman with the megaphone directed her voice towards us, though she was speaking Hindi. The guy we were talking to, who now seemed like he was probably an actor in the film, turned to Yotam nonchalantly:
"We're filming a movie. And you're standing in the frame."
Whoooops!
Yotam and I, while walking over to the Victoria Terminus this morning, happened upon a crowd of people struggling to see some goings-on at a park across the street. We figured that, Mumbai being the film capital of India, we should check it out, so we made our way to the other side of the road (not a simple task, mind you, in a city with nearly patternless traffic) to find Mumbai's School of Art and Architecture, where there appeared to be some kind of film-shoot going on. There was a separation between the onlookers and the crew, but there didn't seem to be anything enforcing people from moving in closer, so we did, and found ourselves standing next to a young Indian couple. Yotam asked
"What's going on here?"
"Filming."
This was obvious to us already, because of the lighting set up, the woman giving orders through a megaphone, a food van, and a couple trailers. So Yotam wanted to know a little more
"What's being filmed?"
"A movie."
The woman with the megaphone directed her voice towards us, though she was speaking Hindi. The guy we were talking to, who now seemed like he was probably an actor in the film, turned to Yotam nonchalantly:
"We're filming a movie. And you're standing in the frame."
Whoooops!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Arrived!
We just got the hotel in Mumbai. We're both very exhausted from the flight, but excited to finally have a tangible experience of India and what lies ahead for us.
Mumbai is like no city I've ever seen. Our only impression of the city so far is from the window of the tiny taxi cab that we got at the airport driving across the city to the hotel. It's 4am, there are people sleeping all over the streets. Young men sleeping shirtless on small towels on the sidwalk. Entire families sleeping in the same way. And cab drivers strewn over their hoods and windsheilds as if they were hit by their car and fell asleep there. Storefronts, shacks, and buildings of all sorts are pushed together on top of eachother. It's warm and humid even at this hour. My glasses instantly fogged when I stepped out of the airport doors.
We're at the hotel now, which seems nice enough: air conditioner, wifi, two clean beds, bottled water. It's located in a part of the city called Fort, which we think is near quite a few things that we want to do and see.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Video Blog!
We haven't left for India yet, as you can see, but we're posting a test video for the blog because were so excited. I'm even dressed in my India clothes already.
More to come from the subcontinent...
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Preparing for India
I think it's fine time we get this blog on the roll. Our flight date is May 19, so we have just about two weeks to go.
Planning the trip is a pretty integral part of the whole experience: even though we're not there yet, it's obvious that our heads have been in India since we bought the tickets. Beyond spending like, 99% of the time daydreaming about what it will be like, we've also had a lot of logistical things to take care of. We've spent weeks laying out different possible routes, reading up on customs, sights to see, doing some Hindi Rosetta Stone, renewing passports, getting vaccines, obtaining visas, making lists, and (Yotam's favorite part) buying gear. Yet somehow the date approaches and I feel like nothing we can do will actually prepare us at all. So late last night Yotam and I brainstormed some possible measures we can take to get us ready for how generally intense this experience is going to be. Some of these include:
1. Eating food that looks delicious but will surely make us feel sick. For us, that means either Chipotle, or chopped liver with nacho cheese and raisins, frosted and baked in a cupcake tin.
2. Trying to navigate places we've never been to with only a map. If forced to ask for directions, we'll do so in broken English to account for any language barriers we may encounter.
3. Speak broke English to everyone now is good idea in general.
4. Sleeping with ninety blankets and a humidifier. And a sweatshirt.
5. Every once in a while, with no warning, one of us will pour an enormous bucket of water on the other to simulate the monsoon rains.
6. Carrying two months worth of stuff with us wherever we go. And sleeping with our backpacks on. While in a moving vehicle.
7.The rupee is used in pretty high denominations (Rs 45 = 1 USD), so from now until we leave we'll be paying for everything in coins.
8. Bargain practice. The best way to practice for bargaining is by trying to cut a deal with someone who is not trying to cut a deal with you. This can include attempting to negotiate prices at a grocery store, for instance, or simply trying to buy something off of someone who isn't selling anything. ("How much did you pay for that laptop? I'll give you $45 for it. Okay, $50. No deal. No deal. Okay $100 and that's my final offer. Will you accept payment in coins?")
9. In order to get used to people staring at us at all times (which everyone we've spoke to has said, as Americans, is unavoidable) Yotam and I will dress in the most outlandish way possible. It isn't easy standing out in the East Bay, so Yotam will have to wear a sequined navy uniform, and I will wear a dog costume.
10. In addition, since we'll have to get used to changing our clothes less often (or at least, I will... Yotam's already an expert at that) we've decided to wear these aforementioned items daily until we leave. I anticipate that Yotam's professors will think he looks beautiful during his music jury today.
That's all for now, but, yes, welcome to this blog. We're going to do our best to keep it updated during our adventures.
Planning the trip is a pretty integral part of the whole experience: even though we're not there yet, it's obvious that our heads have been in India since we bought the tickets. Beyond spending like, 99% of the time daydreaming about what it will be like, we've also had a lot of logistical things to take care of. We've spent weeks laying out different possible routes, reading up on customs, sights to see, doing some Hindi Rosetta Stone, renewing passports, getting vaccines, obtaining visas, making lists, and (Yotam's favorite part) buying gear. Yet somehow the date approaches and I feel like nothing we can do will actually prepare us at all. So late last night Yotam and I brainstormed some possible measures we can take to get us ready for how generally intense this experience is going to be. Some of these include:
1. Eating food that looks delicious but will surely make us feel sick. For us, that means either Chipotle, or chopped liver with nacho cheese and raisins, frosted and baked in a cupcake tin.
2. Trying to navigate places we've never been to with only a map. If forced to ask for directions, we'll do so in broken English to account for any language barriers we may encounter.
3. Speak broke English to everyone now is good idea in general.
4. Sleeping with ninety blankets and a humidifier. And a sweatshirt.
5. Every once in a while, with no warning, one of us will pour an enormous bucket of water on the other to simulate the monsoon rains.
6. Carrying two months worth of stuff with us wherever we go. And sleeping with our backpacks on. While in a moving vehicle.
7.The rupee is used in pretty high denominations (Rs 45 = 1 USD), so from now until we leave we'll be paying for everything in coins.
8. Bargain practice. The best way to practice for bargaining is by trying to cut a deal with someone who is not trying to cut a deal with you. This can include attempting to negotiate prices at a grocery store, for instance, or simply trying to buy something off of someone who isn't selling anything. ("How much did you pay for that laptop? I'll give you $45 for it. Okay, $50. No deal. No deal. Okay $100 and that's my final offer. Will you accept payment in coins?")
9. In order to get used to people staring at us at all times (which everyone we've spoke to has said, as Americans, is unavoidable) Yotam and I will dress in the most outlandish way possible. It isn't easy standing out in the East Bay, so Yotam will have to wear a sequined navy uniform, and I will wear a dog costume.
10. In addition, since we'll have to get used to changing our clothes less often (or at least, I will... Yotam's already an expert at that) we've decided to wear these aforementioned items daily until we leave. I anticipate that Yotam's professors will think he looks beautiful during his music jury today.
That's all for now, but, yes, welcome to this blog. We're going to do our best to keep it updated during our adventures.
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