The 1000 Day Holiday

Yesterday hiked in the Sanjay National park which is within Mumbai. the monsoon hit repeatedly all day, and apart from the biting insects was a great hike. very green and lush, and water everywhere (including lost of fresh water crabs.. cool!)

Pics up soon.

It came about in Udaipur via 2 canadian girls I met that I ended up having dinner with a “reformed” gem scammer.

This is a person who dupes tourists into thinking they can make 50k by transporting ‘gems’ to their own country and selling them to a related gem company to avoid duty. but having to pay the 10k insurance cost for transporting them.

Some of the conversations had - Trying to make this make sense:

Foreign women showing too much flesh

Him: You see them, and they have tight crop tops on that show their mid riff etc. How do you think indian men are going to react? of course we are going to go crazy when we see that. They should respect the indian culture and cover up.

My response: How is that different to the indian women wearing saris etc, where you can see the midriff, and a reasonably tight top.

We dont want the western culture. we must preserve our culture as we move forward.

If a Foreign Tourist (woman) is raped by an indian whos fault is it?

  His thoughts: its brought on by them being prvocative by wearing things seen in the movies. In the movies all westerners are easy. So its like: hello, and then wham bam!

Me: You do realise that movies and reality are not the same thing. Bollywood definately reinforces that fact. everyone doesnt spontaneously sing and do synchronised dances in the rain. Are you saying that you have no self control when you see something you like

Him: Well back ‘when i was bad’ going into the movie theatre and there would be a crown we would push, and then jump and grab at any girls we could reach.

Me: So it has nothing to do with western girls showing too much flesh. The problem is with your culture disrespecting women.

Him: disagree & change of subject

Freedom and what it means

 He thought freedom was a bad thing. He compared western girls with indian women. They should not think, or work and have dreams/aspirations but soley support whatever the husband decides. Education is not for women, what is the point?

You (to the two western girls at dinner) what does freedom give you? you go travelling, have sex, get an abortion and then in later life regret it. You want to work, have a career. Then you get too old and cant have kids. Then regret it. You take mens jobs. Then they cant support their families.

Birth rate: India vs Western

Him: See what happens when you give women freedom. They are young and have sex with whoever. And then they get pregnant. have an abortion. And then years later when they can no longer have babies and are single. they resent this. I have met many western women like this. You see in europe, the birth rate is one or two per couple. This is not right.

Me: So youre saying we shouldnt use contraception/should have a higher birthrate.

Him: look at india, its growing at 8%, no other county is. its going to be the most populous country in 30 years. We need to keep the population growing to sustain the growth.

Me: Look at the pay rates, and standard of living. Getting workers to hit boulders on a mountain pass (17000+ft) with a 500g hammer to create rock chips to maintain the road for a pittance is not living. instead of using mechines that can do the job more efficiently. get the income up, and have a mechanical revolution. 

Another example. Hiring 30 people to make lumber in a forest on a hill, using axes and 2 man pull saws (ala 1800’s)  because its cheaper than hiring one man a chainsaw and paying for petrol and 1/5th of the time.

And then theres the natural aquifer/water table. In my country, I would never think if the need to treat this water. But due to the population/land use here. It is tainted/polluted and is not safe to drink. Another is the encroachment by the population for living/timber/poaching into national parks/reserves due to land pressure.

The tourist season

He made many mentions of ‘tourist season’ like we are a game animal to be caught/stalked/milked. It was quite strange and all three of us felt quite uncomfortable.

The offseason (now), life is cruizy. no income is expected so he can hang out with us now, and not force a sale because its offseason. During peak season, a day off costs him at least a 1000 rupees. 

So you think, I want to hang out with you, take you places, show you things for a few days and expect no return? Of course after 3 or 4 days, Im going to have to do a hard sell. Otherwise how can i survive? You tourists when its season, there are so many. The sale has to be made.

My response: I think you misunderstand the ‘small talk’ of a shop assistant to that of someone being a friend. In western countries they are different things. When you travel, you hope to meet friends. In reality in india, its a very rare thing that someone you talk to/hang out with doesnt have an alterior motive

Dreams for the future

He mentioned that his father had died, and he had a hard upbringing. His dream is to move to germany in 8 months to work to get enough money to create a boarding school to house/educate homeless/poor kids who cant afford it

 My thoughts: After all the other things said, and the fact that he could talk non stop about exploiting tourists for a couple of hours. I Hope that it is a true story. however i fear it is another ruse to get money from tourists to help build this school

Family

He has a brother and a sister. He gives money to his mother to help her live. And while his sister chooses to work. If she didn’t and thats what he would prefer he would also help support her. Its a fact of life. Women should not work. They take the jobs of men and create more competition. Their job should be to have kids and support their husband.

Previous ‘Girlfriends’

He mentioned of a previous ‘girlfriend’ from japan that wanted him to move there and marry. Her father had a factory and would give hime a manager job where he didnt have to do anything. Could spend months in india or japan as needed. But he didnt want that. He should work. The woman should not. He should be in india to look after his family.

I need to refine this a bit, and there is alot more that will come to mind. Was a very intense couple of hours.

with my train to nasik delayed till this afternoon, and a day hike organised in mumbai by the local Couch Surfers will skip nasik today. And head for Mumbai.

Accommodation is spency in relative terms to the rest of the country. 600-100rupees a night for a room. $18 to $30.

So its to the salvation army dorms! for 140 rupees including 3 meals a day. Rocking.

WOW,

200bc are the oldest, up to about 6 or 7th century.

Paintings and carvings. And almost managed to see my first wild snake alive. I arrived as the cleaners were beating a 1m long cobra to death with a broom. Sure I was about to go into that cave. The joys of being the first tourist onsite in the morning I guess 🙂

Still would have been awesome to see it alive.

This is a site definately not to be missed!

 

Some of the jeeps from manali to Leh had 12 people packed into them. I didnt think it could get outdone.

Until coming down from Pachmarhi. Share jeeps are the only regular option.

Ours ended up with 20 people in/on it!

5 including me in the front seat.

6 in the back seat.

 7 in the boot.

 2 hanging off the back for good measure.

Now you would think this would make changing gears difficult. Youre right. Not that it mattered for the majority of the 1000m vertical descent over a period of 20km because we free wheeled without the engine running around the switchbacks and blind corners!

To top it off. once at Pipariya waiting for the train. I was eating a mango. A helpful goat trotted over and finished off the skins and started taking great interest in the remains of the mango in my hand. So I was paying more attention to it, than what I was eating.

Then I bite down, and get a relly nutty crunch. Looking down, a large black beetle had emerged from the seed, and been promptly been mauled by my teeth. All to great delight of the indians sitting watching me.

Yummy!

After an epic 14 hours from Khajuraho, I ended up here with the intention of exploring its amazing hiking. Its a ‘hill station’ up on a 1000m high plateau.

However a cold, and the fact it rained 100% of the time dampened the activities. I did however stay in what must be the indian version of a love hotel/Shag nest.

A heart shaped bed, tiger print fur headboards etc.

Not too bad, when holed up inside, albeit watching the tour de france.

 

Post arrival and having a chat with my friendly hotel manager.

He asertained I am single. then stated that I must most defaintely must come back again once I have a girlfriend/wife. So that she can look/learn from the carvings and my life wont be boring.

We couldnt find more than 10 of the supposed complete karma sutra poses. Not even the one with the horse as described in the Lonely planet! (THE BOOK)

 

Wow, I thought I was palace/fort’ed out.

Until I left rajastan into MP and Orcha. Im not architecurally excited. But This fort is Indo Islamic (from memory). So quite different to all the Mughal palaces in Rajastan.  Im now down to a $15 film camera. So it will be mumbai I think before pics are online.

The Palace was being restored, so sitting and watching the indians working was really interesting

You make the decision in a moment of weakness to consider going on an organised overland. How do you start?
First, decide roughly where you want to go, for how long and how much money you have.
Search endlessly on internet for something suitable, give up, have second thoughts and post the following question on a forum like the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree, “Should I go on an organised overland or do it by myself?”
Weigh up all the conflicting arguments from the posters, discard all the advice and then decide to do it anyway, the alternative, independent travel, seems too daunting.

This is where it starts to get gross.
Kids, miss out the next few paragraphs if squeamish.
You start using the 4-day underwear – day 1, normal fitting, day 2 back to front, day 3 inside out but normal fitting, day 4 inside out and back to front. One girl told me she extended this several times by at the end of the fourth day “scraping the crusty bits off” Yeeouw! Disgusting, too much information!
You’ve run out of toilet roll and begin to use the “one sheet” method, as follows –
Do business, take one sheet of paper, poke hole in centre, place middle finger through hole, put hand under bottom, scrape off excess crap with finger, pull finger back through hole and, with the other hand, close paper around finger to clean it off. Make mental note not to bite fingernails.

Have you problems with your bladder or bowels normally?
Bear in mind that if it is hot then you will need to drink more, but you will notice that at first you wont drink enough and the frequency of peeing is reduced.
A rule of thumb is that the darker your pee is then the more dehydrated you are. It should be nearly clear, just a hint of a colour.
If your pee becomes very dark, contains blood and it is excruciating to go – then you are in serious trouble and are about to die.
If you have diarrhoea badly, lose all your fluids, don’t take any electrolytes and fluids, miss out on the IV drip, fall into a coma – you are about to die. (Cont)

Well I’m now travelling solo. Last night I realised that up till now in india (1.5months) Ive only been solo 7 days.

And THE BOOK is now getting a good workout as I actually create an itinerary for the remaining weeks.

So here is me today in Kota. The book describes it as a city of 600,000. and a transport hub. tourists dont go here (I can vouch for that!).

So today has consisted of:

Being asked for an autograph, onto the palm of his hand. And thus having to do the same for 5+ others.

Being spotted in the street and hearing the exclamations pass along the st. Then being followed for a couple of blocks.

Being ridiculously lost in the city for a good few hours to waste time waiting for my bus.

As I couldnt find any places that were busy to eat. I referred to THE BOOK, and its only suggestion is refer to its accommodation suggestions.

So I go to one that has ‘excellent food’. And ask about the resturant. They say wait there. 20mins later, I am led to a formal dining room. where there is a table formally set for 1. And Thali is served. I say I wanted a menu, and how much is this going to cost.

The response being 250 rupees. You can get a great thali from a street side resturant for 15.

Indias Definition of great transport hub:

To go to a city that is connected by a line (major road) on my india map to Kota via one town at a junction requires no less than 3 changes. This is for Train or Bus.

So Im catching the 9pm first leg. Guessing there wont be a connecting bus tonight. Meh. Nothing like being in a place that THE BOOK refers to in 4 lines 🙂

Current itinerary for the remainder of my trip looks like this:

• Jhansi/Orcha
• Khajuraho
• Pachmarhi
• Bhopal/Sanchi
• Mandu
• Jaigaon
• Mumbai

All part of the fun 🙂