Sorry for being so lazy the last weeks...but here is my update:
Varanasi turned out to be a very nice place! From our rooftop we could see the Ghats and most parts of Varanasi: all those old, small dirty houses, the little lanes between the houses, which are too small for cars or rikshaws and in which we always got lost because they are worse than a labyrinth, and on the sky we could see hundreds of Kites and all the little kids standing on the roofs of the houses playing with those kites. The people were all so nice and the whole atmosphere of the city was great. Only our massage was a little bit less good than expected, but well, there are worse things in life.
After 5 days of basically doing nothing and two weeks traveling I had to say good bye to Tobi, David, Julian and Drea: I had to go back to Mumbai, because my studies were supposed to start on September 20 and the others wanted to start their journey into the mountains in the north…
I took a riksha to the airport; a 45 minutes ride through Varanasi and the area around it. On roads full of bumps, cows, people, four-, three-, and two-wheelers. And while I passed shops with chai tea drinking people in front of them, fields of tee and herbs in the background, people carrying big buckets full of stuff on their heads, kids playing with goats or cycling their bikes and while sometimes the bollywood music- trance-mixes, coming out of big speakers from the shops, underlined the whole scenery I smelled it: The smell of Tea and flowers and herbs I always thought India smells like the whole time and I’ve been waiting for since I started my journey. This moment I was so happy… I wanted to hug the Riksha driver in front of me, but was luckily still able to stop myself ;) .
The airport was scary, funny and fascinating at the same time: It was somewhere in the middle of nowhere and instead of a building it was made out of something like construction containers. Inside I felt like being sent back to the past: Almost no computers, the scale for your luggage was approx from 1950, the x-ray machines for the bags were rusty, the security locks in front of the doors were small locks they bought in some street shop I guess and when you left the airport to enter the airplane, they didn’t scan your ticket, but checked your name on a paper-list. I loved it! :)
A week later I will have learned that there is a description for those moments: TII – This Is India ;) (greetings to HOMIE and Tim).
After a 2 hours flight I arrived in Mumbai. It was a Friday and I realized that I won’t be able to register for my school before my actual classes start on that upcoming Monday. Hmm. I didn’t even know in which class I was, what time they start and in which room. Also I still didn’t register my Visa, which I should have done within the first 2 weeks after my first arrival in India, but well… I ignored all that and just went to school on Monday to see what will happen. – nothing. The people in my school were very helpful and within a few little hours I knew everything. Within those hours I approx made 10000 mistakes, caused by cultural confusion I guess: I don’t exactly remember what those were (my brain carefully erased them to prevent long term feelings of embarrassment), but what I remember is that I was a big joke. Anyway, I got my Whistling Woods T-shirt and my ID. Good enough, eh?
My classes started on the Tuesday after. I’m in a class with 5 other Indian guys and all I do from Monday-Friday (sometimes Saturday) 9.30-17.30 (sometimes till 19.30) is editing. Editing, editing, editing. Every week we get another topic (like continuity, time & space in cinema or sound) and then have different workshops and exercises related to that topic. Its good. And if everything works out I will soon start with an extra color correction course for apple color. …I just have to see WHEN I do that because apparently I am not allowed to skip any of the normal classes, which means that I would have to do those extra classes on every evening and Saturday that I’m usually free. Hahahaha, NO WAY! Well soon I will talk to them and try to convince them that I can skip something… I mean: I’m an exchange student…come on! I’m supposed to have lots of free time… no?
With my class itself I don’t have any contact really… I don’t even know the names from three of them. And that’s more than half of the class ;) . The problem is that our class is so little and they are all Indians and they speak Hindi. 80% of the time. …Even some of the teachers sometimes. With one of the teachers I am not even sure if that’s actually a teacher or, if not, what exactly she is. Her name is Anita (I think) and within the last 4 weeks I’ve heard her talking English TWICE. But I’m getting used to it… we also have a class once a week that is called “Film Appreciation”. What we basically do in that class is watching a movie. Well, the last film we watched was “Da Bang”, an Indian movie in Hindi – without subtitles. Great! Very international this “Whistling Woods International” ;)
But don’t think I don’t like my school. Besides this whole language problem and the classes that are so many, that I almost have no free time, I’m having a good time. Most people are very nice, the students I know outside my class speak English and are great, the teachers are very helpful if you have a problem with something and they take their time to explain things to you (different than some characters in Breda; I mean, come on, they are organizing some private lessons for me only because I wanted to learn how to use apple color, how cool is that? And how big is the chance that would happen at NHTV?), there is lunch in the cafeteria that costs ¼ of what it would cost at NHTV and, hey, we had a leopard on our premises :)
Mumbai in general is nice. There is this constant smell in the air, which is a mix of too many people, too many animals, restaurants, rubbish, excrements, humidity, spices, emissions and, when we come close to Royal Palms, the place where we live, the air adds some cow-flavor to it as well. …somehow all together it smells like “home”. :)
During my first week in Mumbai we had a party at our place: Kenz’ Birthday party. We had people from India, Angola, England, Holland, Germany and America over and were all dancing, drinking and having fun until 7.00 in the morning.
But those parties can also end slightly different, as we saw, when we all went to a party in our neighbor-building: it was not even later than 23.30 nor we were listening to loud music, when the police suddenly stood in the flat and told us to all line up in the hallway. They took us to the police station and gave us an inspiring speech about what to do and what not to do as a student. They said we should be proud and happy to study at Whistling Woods International and should live our parent’s dream, instead of partying (aha). The cops gave us girls some dirty looks and then they finally drove us back to the building. ..The next day I heard, that the police only came, because the guard of the building lied and told the police some guy from the party slapped him and the girls got raped… What a liar. Well T.I.I., eh? ;)
Besides that we go to clubs pretty much every weekend. They are nice… different, but nice :) . They play a mix of Bollywood and some “modern” music, and all the people in there are dancing; nobody just stands in the corner. The Djs are not the best ones, but at least the atmosphere is nice and that’s all that counts, right?
And what I like the most is being partying with some locals like Push and Ansh that know where to get good food at 5.00 in the morning that comes out of nowhere and is being served on top of your car trunk, or people like Dominic that work in a club and let you in for free, or friends like Nana and Kenz, that create chaos when its about planning in which club to go, but know how to party once they are there and know rich people which have the easiest jobs ever for Nana, Jessy and me, or Americans like Tim, that try to sneak a free drink through us girls, or random guys that follow your Rikshaw on a scooter, hoping for a good party, or guards that would rather let you sleep on the street than letting you into your friend’s building at night, or...
In between we also went to Goa for a week. First only Jaakko, Jessy, Tim and me stayed in Palolem, where we had to survive our first day as a “dry day” because it was Gandhi’s Birthday until 00:00. Also we met a nice Indian couple and spent some good-times-hours with playing Finnish card games. On the second day we moved to Baga to catch up with Homi, Nishant, Varun and Shasya. Actually we planned to stay there for only one or two nights, but then we got stuck somehow… we met Jesus in some Hippie bar, went on our self-made pub-crawl, met new people, went to a spice farm close to Ponda to sit on an elephant, did not buy bracelets or necklaces on the beach (only Jessy), went paragliding for AT LEAST 20 seconds ;) , had fun with the waves in the water, watched people searching for visuals, checked out the beach in Arambol and, yeah then we had to go back already: with an AC luxury night bus back to Mumbai J . There the rest of Team India (David, Julian und Drea) visited me! We went to Elephanta island, which has some great caves (haha) and we enjoyed some more decadence at some night clubs, before they already had to leave me again…
In short: I like India :)
Freitag, 22. Oktober 2010
Sonntag, 12. September 2010
Agra and Varanasi
After Jaipur we took the train to Agra at 6:00 in the morning. In Agra we only had one day to have a look at the Taj Mahal before we had to take our train to Varanasi. And because we thought one day is soooo much time (our train was supposed to leave at 23:30) we did some other sightseeing before the Taj.... big mistake. First of all: we were tired from getting up early, being on the train and the heat, and secondly: we've already done sooo much sightseeing the days before that we neither felt like spending more money on old buildings nor did we really wanna see more old buildings. Only the Taj, because at least thats one of the Seven Wonders of the World. And also the other things are nice, buttt well. Not amazing.
And if one of you ever gets to the Taj Mahal, then only really pay the entrance fee, if you really have time to spend some time in there, because all non-indians pay like 36times as much as the indians: instead of 20RU 750RU. Ridiculous. And also: well the Taj is nice and stuff but.. ja. Dunno. 750 RU for going inside, saying "wow", taking pictures and going outside again is just way too much. The last 4 hours we spent in a restaurant.
Sleeping the the train from Agra to Varanasi was easier than expected: I just fell asleep ;) I was so tired that I didn't mind the smell, the bright lights, the noise or the movement of the train. When I woke up we only had like four more hours to Varanasi and arrived with only 3 hours delay.
Varanasi is a sacred pilgrim's city...they want to die here to exit the ever lasting circle of reincarnation. Since they burn the dead bodies at the Ghats of the Ganges you see funeral piles all over the Ghats and smoke and stuff....
Well and now we're sitting here on the rooftop of our hostel and do nothing but relaxing :)
Tomorrow we wanna get a massage somewhere...
And if one of you ever gets to the Taj Mahal, then only really pay the entrance fee, if you really have time to spend some time in there, because all non-indians pay like 36times as much as the indians: instead of 20RU 750RU. Ridiculous. And also: well the Taj is nice and stuff but.. ja. Dunno. 750 RU for going inside, saying "wow", taking pictures and going outside again is just way too much. The last 4 hours we spent in a restaurant.
Sleeping the the train from Agra to Varanasi was easier than expected: I just fell asleep ;) I was so tired that I didn't mind the smell, the bright lights, the noise or the movement of the train. When I woke up we only had like four more hours to Varanasi and arrived with only 3 hours delay.
Varanasi is a sacred pilgrim's city...they want to die here to exit the ever lasting circle of reincarnation. Since they burn the dead bodies at the Ghats of the Ganges you see funeral piles all over the Ghats and smoke and stuff....
Well and now we're sitting here on the rooftop of our hostel and do nothing but relaxing :)
Tomorrow we wanna get a massage somewhere...
Pushkar and Jaipur ("ich bin der koenig im affenstall, der groesste klettermax...... oooh schubiduuu ich moecht so gehn wie duhuuuhuuu, schubidubiduba...")
...in Pushkar we decided that we actually like our lives and DIDN'T rent the scooters. Instead we had a nice walk to the Ghats to watch the people bathing in the mornings. Was nice! Also we did a lot of shopping and had a look at temples etc and the monkeys climbing from house to house are also cute
After 2 1/2 days in Pushkar we took the Bus to Ajmer and from Ajmer we took the train to Jaipur, the "pink city". I don't know who gave Jaipur this name, but all I can tell is, is that its not pink. Its more... mnja... brown-greyish.
Also now that I recovered from my illness, David was lying in bed with fever etc.But luckily all the bad hotels were fully booked which means that we poor poor people had to take a more luxury one for 6 euros a night...room service, warm water, biiig bed, clean sheets, etc... and David could relax like a king.
On the first day (Tobi, another friend, arrived now too) Tobi, Julian and me bought a 5-sightseeing-premium-ticket and our sightseeing marathon began: first we went on the Hawa Mahal, a tower from which you could see whole Jaipur, the Jantar Mantar (an observatory) and the Fort Nahargarh, which was a very nice fort with a pretty amazing view.
But the coolest thing in Jaipur we left for the second day: The "monkey temple" in Galta :)
The riksha driver dropped us off at "Surya Mandir" (another temple) from were we walked up a hill, and around corners, a little bit more up, and further and down again, until we arrived in a valley which was fulllll of monkeys :) well and indians. If anyone of you has seen the Jungle Book then he can imagine how it looked like :) an old temple-complex, green mountains around it, trees etc, two old water pools and MONKEYS. On the temple, in the temple, on the streets, in the trees, and jumping into the pools. Thousands of them. So if you planned to go to India: visit Galta, its very nice!
Also we went onto another fort, but I forgot the name. ... but it was pretty :)
After 2 1/2 days in Pushkar we took the Bus to Ajmer and from Ajmer we took the train to Jaipur, the "pink city". I don't know who gave Jaipur this name, but all I can tell is, is that its not pink. Its more... mnja... brown-greyish.
Also now that I recovered from my illness, David was lying in bed with fever etc.But luckily all the bad hotels were fully booked which means that we poor poor people had to take a more luxury one for 6 euros a night...room service, warm water, biiig bed, clean sheets, etc... and David could relax like a king.
On the first day (Tobi, another friend, arrived now too) Tobi, Julian and me bought a 5-sightseeing-premium-ticket and our sightseeing marathon began: first we went on the Hawa Mahal, a tower from which you could see whole Jaipur, the Jantar Mantar (an observatory) and the Fort Nahargarh, which was a very nice fort with a pretty amazing view.
But the coolest thing in Jaipur we left for the second day: The "monkey temple" in Galta :)
The riksha driver dropped us off at "Surya Mandir" (another temple) from were we walked up a hill, and around corners, a little bit more up, and further and down again, until we arrived in a valley which was fulllll of monkeys :) well and indians. If anyone of you has seen the Jungle Book then he can imagine how it looked like :) an old temple-complex, green mountains around it, trees etc, two old water pools and MONKEYS. On the temple, in the temple, on the streets, in the trees, and jumping into the pools. Thousands of them. So if you planned to go to India: visit Galta, its very nice!
Also we went onto another fort, but I forgot the name. ... but it was pretty :)
Mittwoch, 8. September 2010
Rubbish, poo and smell
Everywhere.
If you thought India smells like a mix of herbs, flowers, trees and rain, then you were wrong. Somebody told you a big lie...
You have to go somewhere far far away from any kind of city or place where people live, to not find rubbish. And I mean FAR away. Its incredible.
Indians chronically don't have rubbish bins. They just throw everything on the streets; sometimes the cows will eat it, sometimes not, or maybe some adorable person will sweep it to a little hill. Or not. The hill would stay on that place anyway, so in the end its all the same. The rubbish is eeeverywhere.
Then most people don't have a toilet here. They just pee and shit in the streets, which doesnt matter THAT much, BUT they also don't have canals or drains (at least not many), which means that all that pee and shit either stays on the roads or just dries into the ground. Mmh.
Next to the humans there are also cows, dogs, cats and lots of other animals that do the same thing.
And don't forget the ill people and the homeless ones without showers etc.
Then there are markets with some herbs, old oil and fried things...
And AAAAL TOGETHER sums up to a smell, which is so incredibly strong that I probably wont get used to it; even during 4 months. Or maybe Mumbai smells less...who knows :)
If you thought India smells like a mix of herbs, flowers, trees and rain, then you were wrong. Somebody told you a big lie...
You have to go somewhere far far away from any kind of city or place where people live, to not find rubbish. And I mean FAR away. Its incredible.
Indians chronically don't have rubbish bins. They just throw everything on the streets; sometimes the cows will eat it, sometimes not, or maybe some adorable person will sweep it to a little hill. Or not. The hill would stay on that place anyway, so in the end its all the same. The rubbish is eeeverywhere.
Then most people don't have a toilet here. They just pee and shit in the streets, which doesnt matter THAT much, BUT they also don't have canals or drains (at least not many), which means that all that pee and shit either stays on the roads or just dries into the ground. Mmh.
Next to the humans there are also cows, dogs, cats and lots of other animals that do the same thing.
And don't forget the ill people and the homeless ones without showers etc.
Then there are markets with some herbs, old oil and fried things...
And AAAAL TOGETHER sums up to a smell, which is so incredibly strong that I probably wont get used to it; even during 4 months. Or maybe Mumbai smells less...who knows :)
1st illness
After only 1 week in India I had my first illness: 39.6 degrees as a max and diarrhea. Plus weaknes, shiverings, vomiting and stomach cramps. Butttt! Its over now, only the diarrhea stays, but what did Collin say before I left Breda?
"Nothing is easy, if it was easy it would be nothing."
:)
"Nothing is easy, if it was easy it would be nothing."
:)
Montag, 6. September 2010
Indias traffic
amazing.
no lanes (and if there are some then they are strictly ignored). trucks, busses. cars, motor rikshas, bika rikshas, bikes, cows and people just exist next to each other and manage to get from a to b without any accidents...little scratches or pushing each other out of the way doesnt count.
if you overtake somebody, or anyone is in your way, then just honk. eventually either the one in front of you goes out of your way or you spontaneously decide to drive another way around this ignorant person.
when your side of the road is too busy then its totally fine to drive on the side, which was originally ment for the other direction. if there are cars etc coming up to you, then just honk, or use your flashing lights.. they will go out of your way.
red traffic lights are to be ignored. just honk before you cross it.
all in all you dont have to be scared as a pedestrian. generally the traffic is so flexible, that they will all manage to drive around you without anything happening to you.
"HORN OK PLEASE" :)
no lanes (and if there are some then they are strictly ignored). trucks, busses. cars, motor rikshas, bika rikshas, bikes, cows and people just exist next to each other and manage to get from a to b without any accidents...little scratches or pushing each other out of the way doesnt count.
if you overtake somebody, or anyone is in your way, then just honk. eventually either the one in front of you goes out of your way or you spontaneously decide to drive another way around this ignorant person.
when your side of the road is too busy then its totally fine to drive on the side, which was originally ment for the other direction. if there are cars etc coming up to you, then just honk, or use your flashing lights.. they will go out of your way.
red traffic lights are to be ignored. just honk before you cross it.
all in all you dont have to be scared as a pedestrian. generally the traffic is so flexible, that they will all manage to drive around you without anything happening to you.
"HORN OK PLEASE" :)
Delhi, jodhpur, pushkar
sooo, finally i know the adres of my blog again and am able to update it :)
to make it easier to follow, i decided to split my stories up into chapters about the cities ive visited, my expressions, etc. so first delhi, jodhpur and puchkar:
after i arrived in mumbai at the 1st of september, i flew to delhi one day later. there i met david, julian (potter) and andrea. friends from berlin. the hotel room daid and i shared was...interesting. it smelled like toilet, the walls were wet enough to make the wallpaper and even some parts of the wall itself come down, the bed was dirty as hell, the shower didnt work and the air had appx a humidity of 100%. but besides that delhi was good! very busy, but the main bazaar was good for shopping :) ...next to the shopping we did some sightseeing and ate in rooftop restaurants, from were we could see the smog above the city perfectly.
After two days we went on to jodhpur.
we went there by a sleeper-bus over night, which was ment to take "11 hours"... after 16 hours we arrived. the busride was exhausting: it was warm, but with an open window too windy and the wind was cold. also it started raining and my widnow didnt close very well, which ment that i was pretty much wet all the time.
from jodhpur i didnt see that much, because after the trip with the bus i was sick: diarrhea and 39degrees fever. i still tried to have a look at the fort, which is very very beauiful with a nice view over the "blue city", but i spent most of my time sitting on the chairs, waiting for the other guys to be finished and go back to the hotel.
the rest of our time in jodhpur i slept.
after only one day in jodhpur we went on to pushkar. since i was still very weak, david carried my backpack, julian took care of finding the right train and andrea walked next to me (thanks guys!). The train took us 6 hours before we arrived in pushkar...i slept all of those.
puchkar is beeaautiful tho! first we went to the hotel and then to a restaurant called "lake view". from this restaurant we had an awesome view over the lake (as the name of it says..), pushkar itself and the surroundings... unfortunately it was prohibited to take pictures...maybe because the lake is holy. i tried to eat something....nooot good :D
yeah well and now the guys are on some hill with a temple, from were its supposed to be very nice to see the sunset, but i couldnt go with them :( . hopefully im fine again tomorrow and can also do cool stuff, like renting a scooter, as caro recommented for example ;)
to make it easier to follow, i decided to split my stories up into chapters about the cities ive visited, my expressions, etc. so first delhi, jodhpur and puchkar:
after i arrived in mumbai at the 1st of september, i flew to delhi one day later. there i met david, julian (potter) and andrea. friends from berlin. the hotel room daid and i shared was...interesting. it smelled like toilet, the walls were wet enough to make the wallpaper and even some parts of the wall itself come down, the bed was dirty as hell, the shower didnt work and the air had appx a humidity of 100%. but besides that delhi was good! very busy, but the main bazaar was good for shopping :) ...next to the shopping we did some sightseeing and ate in rooftop restaurants, from were we could see the smog above the city perfectly.
After two days we went on to jodhpur.
we went there by a sleeper-bus over night, which was ment to take "11 hours"... after 16 hours we arrived. the busride was exhausting: it was warm, but with an open window too windy and the wind was cold. also it started raining and my widnow didnt close very well, which ment that i was pretty much wet all the time.
from jodhpur i didnt see that much, because after the trip with the bus i was sick: diarrhea and 39degrees fever. i still tried to have a look at the fort, which is very very beauiful with a nice view over the "blue city", but i spent most of my time sitting on the chairs, waiting for the other guys to be finished and go back to the hotel.
the rest of our time in jodhpur i slept.
after only one day in jodhpur we went on to pushkar. since i was still very weak, david carried my backpack, julian took care of finding the right train and andrea walked next to me (thanks guys!). The train took us 6 hours before we arrived in pushkar...i slept all of those.
puchkar is beeaautiful tho! first we went to the hotel and then to a restaurant called "lake view". from this restaurant we had an awesome view over the lake (as the name of it says..), pushkar itself and the surroundings... unfortunately it was prohibited to take pictures...maybe because the lake is holy. i tried to eat something....nooot good :D
yeah well and now the guys are on some hill with a temple, from were its supposed to be very nice to see the sunset, but i couldnt go with them :( . hopefully im fine again tomorrow and can also do cool stuff, like renting a scooter, as caro recommented for example ;)
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