The Raj Mahal

Well, I may not be Mumtaz Muhal, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan's wife who he built the infamous and most beautiful structures in the world, Taj Mahal, BUT I did feel like quite the princess during my week stay in Mumbai!

To back track a little, these almost 9 months of travel, I've been travelling primarily independently, minus some time here and there where I've traveled with people. So any opportunity to catch up with friends, I'm on it! In London my BFF Allison was already there and was super nice to extend her stay there to hang out with me (AWESOME! Thanks Al!), then in Bangkok I stayed  I with my friend Christen. So when I knew I was going through India, I contacted my friend Raj, who lives in Mumbai. When I was here 3 years ago, he was actually living in Chicago, but graciously let me stay with his parents, who were super sweet. Now he is living here and happens to be this VIP businessman... doing something with environmental venture capitalism. Buuuuuut as it happened, he got called to business 5/7 days I was here and was in Washington D.C. for most of the time. Wah wah. But his parents once again stepped up to the plate to entertain me, and.... I may have mentioned this earlier (all the way back in South Africa), but I joined this "organization" called couchsurfing, which basically allows you to stay at locals places.... for free! BUT it is also a network to meet local people in your area where you are traveling. So every time you log on, people can see where you are, and they can contact you or you contact them to meet for coffee, etc. Well I once again had a couchsurfing experience in Chennai (I hadn't done it since South Africa because just didn't have time (it works better if you know ahead of time when and where you will be, my travels are fairly last minute))... and I got many "invitations" from people in different areas to meet up for coffee, etc, but this one woman (always a smidge safer to stick with the females, especially in India!) was staying in the same suburb where I am, so we met up and later with her hubby, and had a great night bouncing from a coffee shop to an Indian-Chinese restaurant (this is whole new type of food, and Mumbai is particularly known for this. Delish!) to Bombay Blue to have ice cream and hang out. They were super nice and her hubby gave me a lift on his sweet and super shiny motorbike. Thanks Melody and Calvin!

          

          

          

I have to admit the days before Raj finally came, were awesome! This whole trip I've had rare opportunities to be in one place for more than a couple days (wow! Actually unpacked), but stayed at a nice place with things like a beautiful terrace,

          

hot water, clean (can walk around barefoot!), could finally do laundry with a machine and not hand-washing, and all those little "luxuries" I forget about. So I literally just caught up on internet stuff, watched TV, saw a Bollywood movie (Tanu Weds Manu, which was funny. Before the movie everyone stands for the national anthem, there is assigned seating and an intermission, and it is NOT uncommon for people to loudly cheer and/or stand up and dance during the movie),

          

and just lounged around.Loooooooooooooooove it! Got to see some nice sunsets also from the terrace,

          

        

Most of my time there was feeling spoiled :-) As there is a BIG class discrepancy in India, it is not uncommon for the more middle to upper class to have drivers. So although in America it is unheard of for people to have drivers, I have to admit after a week of having a driver to just call up and take me here and there, I could get used to this life! hahah.

          

Not only that, there was the maid that came everyday that also cooked. How could life get any better?

Soo....when I was NOT being lazy, I did some sightseeing around Malabar Hill's, which I thought was really amazing. This area had everything from posh high-rises to beautiful gardens, the Hanging Gardens and the Kamala Nehru Park,

          

             

          

to great views of Chopatty Beach,

        

to serene temples such as the Jain Temple,

          

             

          

          

I had a beautiful time just walking around and exploring the small streets and taking all the sights and sounds that India offers. Here are some pics from my venture around Banganga Tank, which I mistakingly thought there was an actual tank, like army tank, and didn't realize it was this enclosed body of water. Oops. No wonder people looked confused when I was asking "where is the tank?" ha ha. But here are some pics of the area...

          

          

          

          

(above, "the tank" with the random wooden pole in the middle. Which, according to legend, is the "center of earth" because Lord Ram created the tank by piercing the earth with his arrow.)

          

         

(above... these locals actually asked me to take their picture, which happens, BUT unlike most people, they didn't ask for money or anything. They just had fun laughing at the picture when I showed them. Which, by the way, for anyone that likes to take pictures of local life and people, people REALLY appreciate and like when you show them the pic on the digicam. I have had nothing but smiles and laughs with that, so it takes the awkwardness out of taking their picture and going away. I know how it feels when that happens to me, so I always make a point to do that... and of course hold the camera tight in my hand :-))

          

After a day of rest from that day sightseeing day, hehe, I then went to explore the Fort and Churchgate area. It is near the famous Gateway of India, Taj Mahal Hotel, and Colaba area... but I had been there 3 years before and instead of going there again, I wanted to went to go to some places where I hadn't been. After passing (this is literally from the car) the Victoria Terminus, a train station of all places AND a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is called a "genius" of architecture because of the combination of Victorian, Hindu, and Islamic styles. Still crazy for me to think it is literally the busiest train stations in ALL of Asia. No joke. We couldn't pull over (police, not allowed) so I got this half picture. But hey, even with this drive-by, it is hard not to gawk at the beauty!

          

To the Prince of Wales museum, it's former name. The new name is: Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastru Sangrahalya Museum. Phew... try saying (or spelling!) that three times. Anyway, it is Mumbai's biggest and best museum, known for its miniature paintings and Hindu and Buddhist sculptures. 

         

Passing the magnificent Mumbai University, which was built in the 15th century and really was a British masterpiece, with a twist of Gothic and French styles in it. 

           

To the Rajabai Clock Tower, which is actually a part of the University (dang, which my University looked like that!).

           

To the High Court, which was actually built inspired by a German castle and is a non-Gothic building, not like the others in the area. As you see, this area had a great British and European influence!

          

To the Flora fountain, 

          

          

To St. Thomas Cathedral, the oldest English building standing in Mumbai!

          

And finally, on the way back home caught a nice sunset view of the Haji Ali's Mosque, which, as you can see,   is connected by land by this causeway. Legend has it that Haji Ali died trying on his pilgrimage to mecca and his casket miraculously floated to this area. So his tomb is here.

          

And finally when Raj DID come back, he was a bit jet lagged and a little sick so we spent more time lounging around and our activities included going out to eat, such as at a super nice Chinese/Indian restaurant that used IPADS as a menu (faaaaancy!) and had some delicious dim sung, which we had as appetizer, and also this yummy fish below,

          

to getting a FABULOUS foot and hand reflexology massage for 90 minutes, and ... some quality TV time. Again, I loooooved it because there have been RARE days where I wasn't either on the go or in the works of planning. So it was AWESOME for me to just chillax for once. 

Next I am going by land, trains and buses, to Bijapur, Hampi, Bangalore... and more of Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. Playing it by ear and we'll see where I end up and what happens! Until next time then! 

Ancient Cities and War Zones

3 times a charm, right? Well, this is my 3rd time to Sri Lanka, and no, I'm not obsessed. It just happened to work out like that with all my tickets that I pass through there... again. AND, being that there is still a few things I haven't seen these previous times, mainly the north of the country, why not? When I was here 3 years ago, tourists weren't allowed up north (not the ancient cities, more Trincomalee) because that was mainly where the war was concentrated. Now the war has ceased and slowly but surely, tourists are being allowed to these war struck areas (minus Jaffna, unfortunately). So it was something that was new and interesting and off the beaten path, as they say. 

Sooo after a month of "easy" traveling Thailand and Indonesia, I didn't even step off the plane, actually, on the flight, there was the all too common, "Allllooooo! What-is-your-country-where-are-you-going?" I think that is the only thing many locals know and depending on my mood is depending on how I answer, especially the "where are you going" part. I have varied responses from "I don't know" to "walking" to "nowhere" or "where are YOU going?" No matter what they usually look confused and that ends the "conversation." Traveling here is quite amusing. Language barriers are often a problem, yet, Sri Lankans, as Indians, are VERY proud and they will NEVER say "I don't know" or admit they are not sure. So here is an example....

No surprise, me asking a question about directions:
Me: Helllo! I going archeological museum... where? (yes, when there is a language barrier, you learn to speak like this and to use as little words as possible).
Local: Yes! Archeological museum! Go straight, and then left (but he is clearly and obviously pointing to the right).
Me: Oh.... so straight and then to the right (thinking he must be pointing to the direction and said it wrong)
Local: No. Straight and to the left (again, clearly pointing to the right).
Me: Okay, sooo straight and to the left (and pointing to the left).
Local: No! Straight and to the left (clearly pointing to the right).
Me: I'm sorry but this is left (I point to the left) and this is right (I point to the right).
Local: Yes! Straight and to the left (again, pointing to the right).
Me: Umm... so straight and to the right then (pointing to the right)
Local: No! Straight and to the left (pointing to the right).
Me: (I sigh, totally confused). So straight and to the left (not making any hand signals)
Local: YES! Straight and to the left (clearly pointing to the right. He looks exasperated now, so I stop...)
Me: Okay, thank you! (and flash him a beaming smile).
Local: Yes, yes (and flashes me a toothy smile. He's happy now).

Ahh.... yes. The 1st time that happened, I went to the direction he pointed. Wrong. The 2nd time another local did that, I went to the way that he said. Wrong. The 3rd time I just got to whatever intersection and asked again. But that is an all too common example of typical interactions in Sri Lanka. At home I would have a heart attack of frustration and impatience, but when you deal with this almost everyday for months at a time, you just laugh it off.

Back to my whirlwind week in Sri Lanka. This trip more than anything I have really slooooooowed down. Normally I try to see as much as a can and basically fly through places. But now that I am older and things are blending together more and I am more forgetful (haha), it has been really nice to just spend more time in one place and get to know the people and culture more. BUT, for this week I really did want to see a lot so I went back to my former frantic pace and went from Negombo to Anuradhapura to Trincomalee to Polonnaruwa and back to Negombo. Phew! I'm going to (try) NOT to go overboard with boring details, because it is really too much even for me, so I'll try just to keep it brief and mention anything that may be of interest.

The Ancient City of Anuradhapura
Anuradhapura ruled Sri Lanka for 1000+ years and now what this former ancient city has remaining not only ruins from that era, but also huge dagoba's and towers, ancient pools, and crumbling temples. During that time, it was captured and then re-captured by Southern India,  but finally a Singhalese hero recaptured it and during his 3ish decades of power, many of the most impressive monuments were built... despite his father sending him woman's ornaments to indicate when he thought of his courage when he wanted to recapture it. H a ha.

Out of all the many many temples and dagoba's and other sites I saw in too short of a time and now all meshed together in my head, here are some highlights:

Sri-Maha Bodhi: What looks like a dinky and barren tree,

         

is in fact the oldest historically authenticated tree in the world! Hundreds of locals come to make offerings daily, which is more interesting to watch them than the tree.

        

Ruvanvelisaya Dagoba:  It's said to be one of the finer dagoba's by the King Dutugemmunu, however wasn't completed while he was on his death bed. So to have him see his "masterpiece" before he died, they put false bamboo-and-cloth finish around the dagoba. Nice efforts! Here is what it looks like now:

        

Thurparama Dagoba: Ah ha! Not only the oldest dagoba in Sri Lanka, but also probably the oldest visible dagoba in the world! Built in the 3rd century and supposedly has the right collarbone of the Buddha (how do they come up with this stuff??).

        

         

         

Samadhi Buddha: Considered one of the finest Buddha statues in Sri Lanka

        

Jetavanarama Dagoba: At the time of the 3rd century, it could have stood at 100m (today it is 70m), and at that time, it was the 3rd-tallest monument in the world, the 1st 2 being the Egyptian pyraminds.

          

        

                (above is a moonstone)

         

Isurumuniya Vihara: Rock temples, which I thought were pretty cool.

          

         

(above: Literally no one around, and we turn the corner to see... this man just hanging out. Although it caught me by surprise, it was actually quite serene how he was just chillin' under the rock).

       

        

Trincomalee
After I had left, I met some tourists and they asked where I had been. When I said "Trinco" (as everyone likes to call it) they said, "great! What is there to do there?" Usually I can blabber on about sightseeing and things I saw, but I said, "actually, nothing much. It is just interesting walking around exploring it on your own. There are a few 'sites,' but I enjoyed just walked around." And it's true. Sometimes when we travel we get anxious to see and do as much as possible. But actually, some of the places I've enjoyed the most is where I really didn't "do" anything, but just walked around and explored on my own. So Trinco is one of those places. It has been described as "Baghdad-on-Sea" and as you can imagine, not too many tourists go there so that was interesting in itself, different reactions to not only a Westerner, but a female independent one at that.  I actually feel bad for it because not only was it hit by the 2004 tsunami, but it also has been the heart of much war conflict. Alas, as you can imagine, it was quite desolate and I see potential in it, but who knows if it will get there? The president is from the South, and as his face is EVERYWHERE, he is pouring money into a new airport in the South as well as new (cricket) stadiums, and the north is totally neglected. Locals and everyone else thinks the same. Not fair.

In all the time that I've traveled Asia, I've NEVER come across streets so quiet and empty, and not only that, it is a complete rarity to find empty (ish) buses. Usually it is jam packed and you have people hanging outside the doors because it is so crowded (really, here, they never close the doors to the buses). It could be eerily quiet sometimes. Once I joined some travelers on a bus and I had to get off because I was going somewhere different. They literally dropped me off in the middle of nowhere and were like "wait for the next bus." Fine, no biggie. Until I realized that there was absolutely NOTHING around, no life, no buildings, no people.

So of course flashes of movies flash in my mind, "okay, now is the part when a space ship is going to abduct me" or "okay, the bus isn't coming and I am going to be taken hostage by the Tamil Tigers" and on and on. After I tried to amuse myself of doing the "helloo...oooo.....OOOOO", a bus merged out of the dust in the distance and I was saved. I will live to see my 28th birthday (heheh), phew!

Again, trying not to bore me and you with details, one of the more impressive and/or meaningful sites I saw was the Koneswaram Temple, which was on top of Swami Rock inside Fort Frederick, which was originally built by the Portuguese and then re-built by the Dutch. Inside the fort area is somewhat of an army base, so yet again, many many military around. At first I was nervous to do or say anything, but after awhile I found that they were as curious to me as I was about then, "what is your country?" But anyway, some of the sites were pretty cool around Fort Frederick as well as up and around the Swami Rock:

         

         

         

        

        

         

In Trinco the only sounds you hear (besides the usual honking) of motorbikes or buses is dirty ugly stray dogs barking and scarecrows. So I was quite glad that I saw these deer in front of the fort that look relatively healthy and kept.

        

I also came across a big o Buddha statue,

          

Which again, it is rare to be the ONLY person around.... no locals no tourists (actually, the whole time I was there I saw 1 other Westerner, and that was a Chinese guy I actually met at the airport and we shared a taxi to get to Negombo. Small world, this Sri Lanka). I didn't mind the peace and quiet, but when a whole slew of scarecrow birds came milling about, it was my time to leave.

Here are just a few pics of the life around here... small local shops, locals playing cricket, quiet streets... and that's about it!

          

          

          

          

         

          

And when I finally got a picture of a soldier. I'm not stupid and although sometimes I try to sneak pictures, these soldiers, who sometimes look all of 12-15 years old, with these big o guns are NOT to be messed with. So besides some backsides, I finally got a somewhat decent picture from the bus. Gotcha!

          

Polonnaruwa
Another of the ancient cities of Sri Lanka, the 2nd largest 2nd to Anuradhapura. 800+ years ago, it was supposedly a thriving commercial and religious center. Fortunately, it had some good rulers that built sturdy monuments and hence has intact archeological remnants. Alas, because of that no surprise that it has become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

BTW, this city is small. I stayed in the Old Town, which was all of 2 blocks by 2 blocks. So I didn't even step off the bus when a local tout approached me and suddenly we were BFF's. I'm hit or miss when locals approach me. On one hand, there are the Lonely Planet places where everyone goes, and then there are plenty of great places that I've stayed that I've just come across or led to. I decide to support the locals and stayed at his aunt's place. Which was fairly decent, besides there not really being a roof. Well, there was a pyramid shaped metal roof, but the actual ceiling was colored paper. No joke. So besides waking up from obvious noise in the house (it was a homestay) when I woke up in the morning and went to the toilet, I hear a "good morning madam! I'm getting breakfast ready!" Hmm... which sounded like she was standing next to me, which she probably was, but just with a wall and no ceiling. Haha. Then 10ish minutes later, through the wall, "okay madam! Breakfast is ready!" Well, what can you do for $5/night? Anyway, this tout was everywhere. I saw him everywhere and even when I didn't "see" him, he certainly saw me! The next morning as I was eating this infamous breakfast the whole house new about, he said "looks like you had a busy day yesterday! You did some internet and then met some friends for dinner? How nice!" Eh? How did he know that? Whatever, it was NOT creepy or weird at all, just again, a small town. It became amusing because I met this other traveller and we rented bikes. Of course at the end of the day I got a flat tire. We were at this site when it happened and the local said he would call his friend who was close to the bike shop. NO surprise that I later found out that it was that same tout. Then, I was still figuring out what to do because of the bike thing... to hitch a ride with another tourist? To ride on the bike of my friend, when the shop owner pulls up! It was all of 5 minutes later. They move pretty quick around here! So that evening when my friend and I met up for dinner, literally everywhere we went I heard, "glad you're okay with the bike... heard you got a flat." hahahahah. They also knew my friend liked spicy food. When I left, that same bike/internet owner was super nice and waited with me to make sure I got on the right bus. After 15 minutes, the bus came and he flagged it down... and it just flew on by. What? I guess he couldn't stop because there was police around there (eh?). So he said, "come!" And we literally jumped in his car, I didn't even have the door all the way closed and was holding the door, my bags, AND myself while he FLEW to catch up with the bus. Mind you, the buses in Sri Lanka DOMINATE the road and are totally reckless. No joke many times you could find me crossing myself for fear of my life. So you can only imagine my fear of us chasing down the bus. We DID end up catching up with it, barely, and as I ran to catch it, the guy was shouting, "make sure she has a seat!" It was soooooooooooooo sooooooooooooooooooooooo  nice and this is just one example of the pleasant interactions I've had with the locals. And of course a few days later I get an email from the friend that I met and that stayed there and she said that at least 5 people, 4 of them she didn't even know (1 was of course that tout) told her all about my catching the bus situation. Soooooo funny! I guess I was the talk of the town for that day!

Okay, enough blabber. Polonnaruwa is divided up in several sections, which made it quite easy to maneuver with bikes, the Royal Palace Group, the Quadrangle, and the Northern Group.. all of which were constructed around the 9th and 10th centuries.

The most impressive of those I thought was the Quadrangle, which a compact area of fairly well-preserved ruins.

          

          

          

     

Here are some other pics from the varying, like 2039483980, of the sites we zipped through:

          

             

          

          

          

         

         

         

         

         

        

         

And then of course there is the random turtle you see in the middle of an ancient site. Eh?

        

And as my friend and I were just talking about how we can spot Russians a mile away (you really can! By dress is most obvious. The other is that they usually travel in packs of 5-10+), we come across this old guy.... and this young Russian girl (ew). While we were standing around this lotus flower monument he had her stand in the middle and he said with a smile directed at us, "a flower within a flower." Which we tried not to laugh out loud of the cheesiness. And then of course, wanted myself to be a flower within a flower, ha ha. Not the most flattering of them all, when you were the same clothes for the last 9 months, things get a little stretched out :-)

          

So the lotus flower and myself bid goodbye from Sri Lanka as I am off to the wonders of India!