Trip to INDIA - 05 PANAJI, and HAMPI

PANAJI, and HAMPI

20 January 2008

Dear Friends and Family

The trip to Panaji turned out to take “only” 16 hours instead of the anticipated 17 hours. Typical on these overnite long trip I drifted in and out of sleep. We made several bathroom/food stops along the away. We arrived in Panaji around 8 am in the main bus terminal. I dropped by the Paulo travel agency to enquire about my next trip to Hampi. I walked around the town looking for a place to stay and found one close to the Saint Sebastian Church. An old quaint place with lots of plants around situated in the old Portugese quarter. During my wandering I suddenly realize that I left my daypack somewhere (I guessed I am not totally awake!).I had to retrace my steps and I found my daypack at the travel agency.

The very pleasant city of Panaji is located in Goa that stretches along the Arabian Sea and is blessed with several natural harbors and wide rivers, An ideal base for the seafaring Portugese that took control of the area in 1510. The main goal was to control the spice route from the east. The Jesuit missionaries, with St Francis Xavier arrived in 1542. After several wars with native Indians,and the British, the Portugese lost control of the area in 1961. Many of the streets still have Portugese names and many people are descendent of the Portugese.

23 January

I will be taking an overnite bus to Hampi at 7:00 pm with and ETA of 7:00 am the next day. I decided that I would spent part of the day catching up with email and diary writing. Unfortunately, early in the morning we lost power (Seems to be a frequent occurrence in India). Instead I took a 25 minutes bus ride to Old Goa which used to be the Portugese capital. Today the only thing left are the churches, cathedrals, and convents. St Francis Xavier came here to promote Catholicism and some of his relics are buried in the cathedral.

In the evening I went to the area to board the bus to Hampi. The “bus station” is simply a very large dirt-covered area with no signs of any sorts. My bus is supposed to leave at 7:30 pm (although, in the bus’ office it says 8:00 pm). The area is full of buses, more are coming. I finally locate some people who are taking the same bus. Apparently, our bus is not yet here, and nobody knows where it will park, nor at what time it will arrive. The bus finally shows up shortly after 8;00 pm. We are supposed to be in Hampi around 7:00 am. To make a long, long story short we arrived in Hampi around 11:30 am. Why? Bad roads, stop-and-go traffic in some area of construction- When I say stop-and-go I mean we go at 10 mph for a few minutes then we stop for a few minutes and so on. In Hampi I walk to Hotel Vickie.

Hampi is an amazing area with a river running thru it. It is a sacred place full of ruins of temples. One of the temple, Virupaksha, is in very good shape and is actively used as the center for worship. It stands in a courtyard which is entered under the huge Hampi Tower.. the dominating monument in Hampi. The complex is at the end of a long street that used to be lined with shops. Today, the Hampi Bazar takes about half of that space. The landscape is hilly and strewn with huge boulders. Over the next few days I did a lot of walking around, visited many temples, and a Royal Complex with a queen’s palace, a huge elephant stable. The accommodations are adequate (without hot water), we lose power several times each day,but there is a good choice of restaurants. Hampi is the most interesting place so far, even without any beer or any kind of alcohol available!.

The 27 the I boarded an overnite sleeper – bus in Hospet (20 minutes away by local bus) for Bangalore. The trip speed was about the same as for the previous one, and we arrived several hours later than the ETA. In Bangalore I am staying close the train station in a fairly large hotel. Two immediate improvement: we have hot water, and beer is available! This is one of the oldest area of Bangalore and the number of people on the streets is incredible and the traffic is worse than Mumbai!

Love and peace - henri

Trip to INDIA - 04 Araungabad

ARAUNGABAD.

17 January 2008

Dear Friends and Family

I met a couple from Australia on the train to Aurangabad. They have four daughters living in different part of the world. one in Waterloo (close to Brussels) one in Derby, England, one in India. The daughter who loves in India is a doctor, she organized her parent’s trip in great details, the equivalent ot a “prescription” for fun. The parents themselves, Laurel and Geoff have lived in different parts of the world, Geoff, who is a physicist, has been able to find teaching positions.

Since the Australians have only two full days in Aurangabad, they plan to visit the Ajunta Caves the day of arrival, and the Ellora Caves the next day. I took it easy the first day (we arrived at 4:30) in the morning. Yesterday I shared a taxi to the Ellora Cave with the Australian.There is a total of 34 caves to visit; 12 Buddhist Caves (500 – 700 AD), 17 Hindu Caves (757 – 900 AD), and 5 Jain Caves (900 – 1100 AD). The Caves (somewhat similar to Elephanta) are dug out of the side of solid rock masses, complete with integrated columns, rooms, courtyards, and statues dedicated to different deities. There are two three-storied caves, and then the piece-the-resistance, the largest rock temple in the world dedicated to Krishna 1^st. This building (a representation of Mount Kailash in Tibet) was carved out of the mountain by cutting three huge trenches from the top. The shape of the temple was then released with tools to create a building twice the area of the Parthenon in Athens and 1 ½ times as high. The architectural details, the statues, the friezes are simply amazing.

19 January 2008

Yesterday I went to visit the Ajanta Caves (A World Heritage site) wwhich is 102 km (a little over 60 mi) north of Aurangabad. The combination of heavy traffic, narrow potholed roads, underpowered old bus, made this trip a long one. It took us over two hours to get there.

In Ajanta there are 26 Buddhist caves that can be visited. They have been carved out of a step cliff that follows a horseshoe bend in the river Waghora. The caves are somewhat similar to the caves in Ellora except that four of the caves have their walls and ceilings covered with truly beautiful paintings. They covered the rock face with some mud and covered that with plaster. The paint (tempera) is applied to the dried plaster. Much of the paintings and the rock carvings depict the life of Buddha. Ajanta would be the one to visit if short of time.

I met a 20 year old Norvegian woman who is travelling on her own, but her 89 year old grandmother is going to join her in Kolkuta for a couple of weeks. Neat! I am checking out today and will be boarding a bus for a 17 hour ride all the way to Panaji (Goa). Hopefully my longest trip.

Love and Peace - henri

Trip to INDIA - 03 Mumbai

MUMBAI .

13 January 2008

Dear Friends and Family

My first visit in Mumbai was to the Gate to India (a 10 minutes walk from my hotel). The Gate was the departure point for the last of the British troops in 1948 on their way back to Tilbury. This is a very popular place for the tourists and the locals alike. It is also the departure point for many boat trips including the “must-do” one-hour trip to Elephanta Island, the site of some carved-rocks caves. From the Gate I walked along the waterfront to the Cobala Market.This is were the fish caught earlier in the morning is sold. Is it really fresh I wondered? You bet it is, I saw a fish trying to escape by jumping off the display table. A move that I found somewhat riky with all the hungry cats roaming around the market.

The next day I took the boat to Elephanta Island, so named because of the colossal statue of an elephant that was discovered on the island. The statue was removed, rebuilt, and is know on display in a museum. The Main cave is reached from the island’s pier by climbing 120 steps to the top of the island. The Main Cave complex carved out of the side of a solid-rock vertical hill face includes; a large cave, some smaller caves, and two open courtyards. The caves are full of integral non-structural square columns and many statues related to the life of Shiva. Shiva, the Destroyer of Evil, is the third god of the Hindu Trinity. The first god of the Hindu trinity is Brahama, the Creator. The second god of the Trinity is Vishnu, the Preserver (sounds somewhat familiar). The statues, about 18 ft in height, are also in integral part of the caves, and what has been preserved is beautifully detailed. Not much is known about the origins of the caves estimated to be dated back to the 8^th century. I took a picture of a local woman selling bananas, other fruits, vegetables, and knick-knacks. As soon as I bought some bananas several of the very agressive local monkeys ran toward me. Based on my recollection of an unpleasant past experience I decided that I better share the bananas with the monkeys. I threw one banana to the left, one to the right, and proceed to peel the third one. I barely had time to eat it even with the help of woman who kept the monkeys away with a long stick.

Mumbai is a very busy, chaotic, noisy, polluted city. Cats and dogs are everywhere, along with free-roaming cows and goats. In the other end Mumbai has some colorful market places and the most beautiful buildings in all of India (I am told). The one that surprised me the most were the High Court and the University of Bombay buildings. They were built to look like 15^th century Italian masterpieces, complete with the octagonal stairway towers (like one of the French castles). I eventually went back to the fish market to take some pictures. Not an easy task with the number of people milling around.

Tomorrow I will be moving to Aurangabad with the 9:10 pm sleeper train. We should arrive around 4:00 am the next day. I already reserved a room in an hotel close to the train station.

Love and peace - henri

Trip to INDIA - 02 Trip to Mumbai

MUMBAI .

11 January 2008 Temp: 78 deg. F

Dear Friends and Family

The morning of January 7, my son Robert took me to Spokane International Airport for a 5:00 am flight to Seattle. The second leg would take me to Newark were I would border an airplane for a 14 hr 30 minutes flight to Mumbai. I lined up at the Alaska/Horizon counter at 4:30 am with my boarding pass when I noticed a sign that said “ Flight to Seattle delayed to 8:30 am” with the flight to Newark schedule for 7:50 am I was not going to make it. Fortunately they rebooked me on a 6:00 am Alaska airline flight. I figured that at best I would have about 40 minutes to make the flight to Newark. Arriving in Seattle I took the shuttle to the Continental gate B only to be told that this particular Continental flight would depart from the S gate! I made it with 10 minutes to spare. In Newark I had about 4;00 hour to the next flight. Plenty of time for pizza and beer

Each seat in the Continental airplane had his own entertainment center from which one can choose movies, music, games, and some TV stations. I eventually looked thru the movie list and found the movie ‘Gandhi’ which I found very appropriate to watch on my way to India. This is an extraordinary movie about an extraordinary man who had to somehow convince the British to leave India but also had to convince his own people that this could be done without using violence. He was willing to die for this lofty goal, and almost did during his hunger strike designed to stop retaliation against the British’s violence. The British eventually gave up and, in typical British fashion, made their leaving on organized public ceremony. On February 28, 1948, the last detachment of troops remaining in India slowly marched thru the Gate of India to board their ship back to Tilburry.

After completing my 26 ½ hour journey I arrived in Mumbai the 8 th of January at 9:45 pm (India’s time). The hotel’s taxi driver took me to the Bentley’s hotel in the touristy in the Colaba area of Mumbai. A 30 minutes ride in heavy traffic, accompanied by the constant blaring of horns and total ignorance of traffic lanes and traffic lights while barely avoiding the other cars and the battle scarred motorized rickshaws. My driver told me that at night the traffic cops are no longer on duty and the traffic lights (while still working) become totally usless. Welcome to Mumbai!

After I settled in my room I needed to go out for a walk. The hotel is in a quiet area of one of the main street. I walked to the busy street lined up with stores, restaurants, and portable stalls selling everything you can imagine. I found a large restaurant open to the street. A very busy place obviously popular with the locals and with the tourists. The Leopold’s has an extensive menu and cold beer, exactly what I needed. I shared my table with a couple of travelers from Germany. They own a restaurant south of Munich that has been in the man’s family for over 150 years. The woman’s brother is a brewmaster and we had a good discussion about the best and worst beer. The man, Frantz, thinks that the Indian beer Kingfisher is the worst he ever tasted.They closed the place a little after 1:00 am and I went back to my hotel. All the stalls are gone and many people are sleeping on the sidewalk. (homeless).

I am still adjusting to the change in time (I am sleepy during the day and wake up during the night!)

Love and peace - henri

Trip to INDIA - Log Introduction

SPOKANE – 47 deg 40 min N.   117 deg 25 min. W.     

January 2008     Temp:  32 deg. F

Dear Friends and Family

I am close to the beginning of another one of those trips that was mentally planned some times ago (This one in 1998 when I  crossed India on my way to Katmandu  - Nepal). After my usual readings of several travel books and a pile of clippings collected over the years I made my wish-to-see list.

I immediately faced three major problems.:

The great distances between the sights (many bus or train trips around 15 hours or more).

The monsoon season (a serious consideration when visiting India) generally moves from the    SW corner of India and across to the NE corner over a period of several months.

Some of the roads in Northern India, at the foot of the Himalayas, are open for travel only for a     short period of time during the summer.

I decided to plan a much more manageable trip and tour the lower Southern portion of India only, restricting my touring to a roughly triangular area between Mumbai, the southern tip of India (Varkala), and Kolkuta. 

My trip, as planned, will start January the 7^th and end March the 20^th, basically avoiding the beginning of the heavy rainy season.

I have made the plunge and switched from film camera to a digital SLR (Nikon D80). A necessary but expensive and painful switch. I haven’t had much time to learn how to use it, and this trip will have to be my opportunity to learn how to take pictures that (hopefully!) do not require spending a bunch of time in front of a computer (my experience with slides should help).

Some areas of India have some mean female mosquitoes that can give you a deadly strain of malaria. I hate taking drugs but the potential alternative is totally unacceptable! So, last week I started a one-pill-a-week regiment (Lariam). The same evening I got very sick to my stomach, a condition that lasted three days, and that turned out to be unrelated to the medicine. My sickness was, no doubts, created by my mental aversion to any kind of drugs/medicines.

I am prompted by my son Robert to start using a blog to post my story.

What I will do is to post a weekly report of my trip on the following blog: http://henrifolie.blogspot.com/.

The advantages of a blog:

    There is an available record of all the published posts from the beginning of the trip.
    It is easy to attach digital pictures to the text
    Anyone can attach comments that can be read by everyone.

I will occasionally send an email listing the postings.

As a remainder, anyone interested in reading the emails published during my second and third trips can go to www.henrifolie.com