Update from India and Final Catch-Up from Myanmar/Mumbai

Update from India and Final Catch-Up from Myanmar/Mumbai

Friday, Oct. 21, Kumbalam to Varkala

I took the 9:30 bus from Kumbalam (which didn’t leave until 9:45 and was totally full. Somehow more people managed to get on at each stop. I squeezed my way all the way up to the front and then had to squeeze my way out again when I got to Kundara.

When I chedked at the train station, the next train to Kollam wasn’t until 12:30 and it would allow me to switch to a 1:30 train from there to Varkala. So I went to the cyber café for 40 minutes. As a regular customer now, I was given a discount!

Next, I went to the barbershop and got a very nice haircut. The man took his time doing every task. I wish I could get someone to be that careful at home! He got it a little shorter than I would prefer on top, but it looks anf feels good, especially since it only cost 46 cents U.S.!
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Today is a reminder of the difficulty of travel in India. My train was late arriving in Kundara, so I missed my connecting train. Now I must wait another two hours. I left the school this morning at 9:30. I’m only about 18 km (10 miles) from there and it is 2 p.m. Varkala is another 35 km (21 miles) from here, but I won’t arrive there now until almost 5 p.m.—IF the next train is on time.

A man visited with me at the Kundara Station. His English wasn’t very good, but he was eager to talk. His love is music and dance. He has a 45-piece orchestra and he’s the singer. It’s a Christian band. But to make a living, he sells the battery-operated slimming belts like the ones advertised on late-night TV in the US and Europe. His income is only 1500 rupees per month (less than $40) and he supports about 5 people with that. He loves Clinton and hates Bush. I thought he was a bit strange in his behavior, and I was hoping for my train to arrive. Just as it did, he rushed out and returned with a bag containing 5 apples and a package of dates and gave them to me for my trip.
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The train was on the platform at least 20 minutes before the scheduled departure. I was able to get to it and get a seat before it became loaded.

A nice young man who spoke English with a British accent sat across the aisle from me and started a discussion. He lives near Kovalam Beach in Trivandrum, but he works for a fiber optics telecommunications firm in Kollam. He commutes daily—a train trip of one hour or more (depending on the train) each way. He spends weekends playing volleyball with friends on the beach. Once a year they all vacation somewhere that they have made contact with another team they can play (and probably stay with). They just returned from Simla, a hill station above Delhi. He suggested that I come to Kovalam some weekend and said he would take me on his bike to a hill station outside Trivandrum. I’m sure it was all just talk, but he seemed to be a nice, professional guy.

I checked into a nice hotel—very clean with a very nice bath. There’s no more than 1-2 other rooms occupied, so it’s quiet. The beach is a short walk waway, but I haven’t been there yet.

Since I hadn’t eaten lunch, I was hungry. I walked back to Temple Junction (about ¼ miles (1/2 km) away and went to the Graden Restaruant, an outdoor place overlooking the huge spring-fed public bathing pool here. I watched the sunset and the men bathing while I drank a cold bottle of water and waited on my food.

There’s a modesty ritual related to bathing. If the men are wearing briefs underwear, they tend to pull off their pants first. Then they wrap a towel around themselves and reach under to pull off their underwear. Sometimes, they wrap the towel first and then take off both their pants and their underwear from under the towel. They wim in the pool, then they step out onto the steps surrounding it. They soap up all over (either reaching under from below or loosening the waist of the towel to reach under from above to wash their private parts). They rince under a flow of water. They pull their underwear back on under the towel, then they pull their pants on and pull the towel out.

My dinner was fish biriyani. The plate had a huge mound of rice made with cashews, raisins, carrots, etc. Inside the mound were two fish with their heads removed. Each was about 4 inches (10 cm long). They had been wrapped in small leaves and tomatoes (and I’m not sure what else) and steamed, I guess. It was absolutely delicious. There were no small bones to worry about; all I had to do was remove the backbone with its attached bones. It was so much food that I shared it with the resident cat and still left some of the rice!

On the way back, I visited with a muslim shopkeeper. He’s from Kashmir. He had a shop in Goa (up the coast from here) for 5 years, and he moved here 3 months ago. He was very kind. He showed me his shop and never insisted that I buy anything or even look closely at anything. He looks obviously different from other people here with more of an Afgan appearance than an Indian look. He said he isn’t accepted here even by fellow muslims. He’ll go back to Kashmir in March or April when his lease is up here and the season is beginning there.

Saturday, Oct. 22, Varkala

The school had a hearing about dismissing a teacher yesterday afternoon. It will be interesting to see what happened when I get back. It’s the same old story: The teacher doesn’t do his job and is just there for the money. He’s frequently absent, does not teach what he should be teaching, doesn’t create lesson plans, doesn’t complete leave forms, etc. He’ll never change, and he is a drag on the morale of the other faculty, especially since he was hired at a higher salary than they were. I hope Joseph holds strong and gets rid of him. His one advantage is that he speaks English well, but that doesn’t help if he doesn’t teach!!

It rained most of the night. The morning is sort of a bright cloudy day. I think it’s going to be fine. I have no special plans. I will go to see the beach, I’ll rest, etc. I’ll have to be careful. I put my suntan lotion out to pack and never did put it in my backpack.

I’ve decided I have allergies instead of a cold. Everything has progressed slowly and has lingered. Most important, however, the mucous secretions are clear. There’s something in the air here in Kerala that makes my nose run. And here in Varkala it is worse. I awoke in the middle of the night last night with both of my nostrils swollen shut.
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I went to the beach at 8:30. There are a number of religious men posted there who wait for pilgrims to come for prayer and instruction. Two men were prostrated before one. I watched as he had them hold the corner hem of their wrap-around cloths. He placed a stick of incense in their fists holding the corner. Then he sprinkled the incense and the hem with some kind of liquid. After that, they had to step into the water and return to him. I also watched a volleyball game that was occuring then. A young man watching the game motioned for me to sit beside him to watch. The players, looking to be in their 30s, were all quite good. Often, four of them would tip the ball before one would send it over the net. I asked the guy sitting beside me if he played and if he played as well as they did, and he responded positively to both questions.

I returned to my restaurant from last night and had an unusual breakfast. I think it was called a puttu. It was a cynlindrical log about 6 inches (15 cm) long and 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter made of grated coconut, ground cashew nuts, and honey. It had been steamed. To the side was a small dish of hone. With my fingers, I would break loose some of the log and dip it in the honey. It was tasty but not too sweet. No sugar and not much honey had been added to the log itself. On the side was a banana. I ordered a banana lassi to drink—a thick shake made with banana and plain yogurt.

I’ve been lazy. I returned to the beach for a while, but I’ve spent 3 hours here in the room. I read some, but I napped for about 1 ½ hours. It’s so quiet and peaceful here! I’m not sure I’ve rested that well at the hostel with all its noices and the tension there (both the tension I felt at first of being trapped and the tension between individuals that seems to regularly lead to yelling.
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When I went out this afternoon, I walked to the main town to check the railway schedule. I need to catch a train at 10:32 tomorrow morning. That should get me to Kollam in time to catch a train that arrives in Kundara at 12:32. Then I will have an hour more of walking. I should be at the hostel by 1:30.

I ate a late lunch/early dinner across the street from the station. I had 3 chipatis (flat bread much like a whole wheat tortilla) and chicken curry. The curry sauce was delicious. It’s been so nice to get away from the standard meals at the hostel for a couple of days. It was especially nice to have a different kind of rice last night. The “Kerala” rice that everyone serves in their homes here is my least favorite kind of rice.

The man at the desk downstairs told me there would be a free dance performance at the temple at 8:30 tonight. He said the trishaw that would take me would wait on me, and I said I would probably just walk. At 8:00, I left for the local temple, an interesting complex built in the 1300s. There were musicians playing inside the inner sanctum, and a group of men were walking the perimeter beating drums and carrying fire lamps. That ended at 8:15, and everything seemed quiet. A young student had started visiting with me, so I wasked about the dance performance. He said what I had seen was the closing ceremony for the day. Apparently, it’s another temple somewhere else having a dance performance, and that’s why the man had thought I would take a trishaw.

Sunday, Oct. 23, Varkala to Kumbalam

I was up at 6:30 with the lightening sky. Even though I took my time, I was checking out of the hotel by 8:00. I went back to the Garden Restaurant overlooking the baths for a vegetarian dosa breakfast with a banana lassi to drink. Then I walked slowly to the train station where I am now waiting for my 10:30 train (an hour from now).

I finished reading A Black Englishman by Carolyn Slaughter (4 stars out of 4). It was totally engrossing. Although filled with tension, I was so glad that it had a happy ending unlike most novels I’ve read that are set in India. There had been a hint of the ending at the beginning, although the book is apparently based on a true story that was more sad.

As usual, some nice men iontroduced themselves and took care of me at the train station. They made sure I got on the right car and didn’t have to stand. They are carpenters from Cannanore (13-14 hours north of here by train) who had been in Varkala for a month working on a project. There were three of them. They were singing Malayalam film songs with one of them keeping the beat by drumming with his hands and making a “tsh” sound with his mouth. They shared a piece of peanut candy with me and kept me entertained all the way to Kollam.
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A funny incident happened at the station in Kollam. A retired army officer befriended me and encouraged me to sit with him on the train. While waiting for the departure time, we stood outside on the platform. He’s a rather unique individual—somewhat excentric (or even looney), I had concluded, but harmless. A man who doesn’t speak walked up to me and made motions that did not indicate he wanted money. In fact, I thought he was implying, “This man is crazy. You don’t have to listen to him. Just go ahead and get on the train.” The officer excused him telling me he was mentally deficient. A little later, the same guy did the same thing. Again, he moved away after “saying” his piece, so he didn’t want money. The officer went after him to give him 10 rupees and tell him to go have a tea. As I started to depart the train, I saw the same guy again. He smiled, waved, and made another motion I took to mean the same thing. The so-called crazt oersib was calling the weird officer crazy!

I was back at the hostel at 1:30. The kids were happy to see me. They were just starting to do their laundry. I unpacked and did my laundry, too. Then I started a new book—Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahire. It’s a collection of short stories. Now that I’ve read the first one, I’m pretty sure I’ve already read the book. I seemed to recall all of the first story. I’ll just re-read the book even if the next story also seems familiar. It’s well written, and I don’t have enough books to last me until I leave.

I’ve decided to skip dinner. The cook is gone, and the student in charge of warming up the food and serving it is the one who has lice. Just before going to the kitchen, she was scratching her head for a long period of time. When I told them last week to wash their hands before preparing the food, they ignored me. And again tonight, she went directly to the kitchen without washing. Although I’ve had only a snack since breakfast, I’ve lost my appetite.

Monday, Oct. 24, Kumbalam

There’s no school today. It’s related to racial tension, political maneuvering, and the love of any excuse to get out of working. Yesterday, someone damaged a statue at a Hindu temple in Kollam. The opposition political parties gathered and expressed dismay. They proclaimed a strike from dusk to dawn throughout the Kollam region today. No one is allowed on the roads, so no one can move. I haven’t been out, but my guess is that representatives of the parties are out on the roadways enforcing their ban. Joseph says they have broken windows of vehicles in the past when people tried to move. Of course, their actions will do nothing in terms of catching the vandals or preventing similar incidents in the future. In fact, I can imagine that some young people who don’t want to go to school might propose in the future to break into a temple and do damage so that a strike will be called. The fact that the supreme court of the country has declared the calling of such strikes to be illegal is just being ignored. Anyway, I’ve gone over to the office most of the morning to work on the computer and have left Joseph at the hostel to deal with the kids. I’ll do the same in the afternoon.

I’m upset. I tried to do a good deed, and it backfired on me. A donar (former volunteer who is paying the fees for a scholarship student at the school) has been asking Joseph for a photo of the boy he is sponsoring. I volunteered to take his photo. Then I connected my camera card to Joseph’s computer. Rather than downloading the photos as it should have done, it erased the files from the card. I lost half of the pictures (about 120 photos) I have taken on the trip including many of the photos from Myanmar. I think it included the family that invited me to their home in Myanmar which has been the best experience of the trip and one I wanted to remember via my photos. My guess is that it happened either because of a technical problem with Joseph’s computer or because all computers here are loaded with pirated software. It was the Home Edition of Windows XP and should have read the card automatically and shown all the images on the screen. Anyway, they are now gone and the card itself (worth about $30) may be unusable.

Tuesday, Oct. 25, Kumbalam

I worked all day today, and I'm tired. I spent the school day working on scope and sequence charts--continuing to do the English chart and typing up charts teachers had done in chemistry, physics, and geography. I also helped interview two candidates for teaching computer science. Then in the late afternoon and evening, I helped the principal trainee who was ill and vomiting by typing up examination questions for 8 grade levels in English and for computer science. Then I helped the children with their homework (mainly in math). I was working from 7:30 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. except for mealtimes, so I'm very tired.

Note: Here is the last update to cover the days I was in Myanmar and in Mumbai. These postings should match up with when I started posting about India from here in India.

Sunday, Sept. 25, Yangon to Bangkok to Mumbai

I slept later than I expected. I intended to awaken with the sun around 6 a.m. But it was cloudy and was already 6:25 when I looked at my watch. It worked, though. I was dressed and packed and downstairs for breakfast and check-out at 7:00, and I was in a taxi at 7:15 and at the airport at 7:45.

I don’t know why they tell us to be here at 8 a.m. No one is here to help us. Even the front door to the airport was locked when I first arrived. It’s a poor facility, but there is a new terminal under construction next door. It should be much nicer.
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Well, I’m checked through immigration and customs and waiting for my flight. It was a bit of a mess at the check-in counters with people already in line and employees showing up at different times. No one knew if the counter where they were waiting would open or not. So…there was a lot of quick shuffling as each window opened.

It’s 8:45 now, and my flight has just arrived from Bangkok. We are supposed to depart in 70 minutes, so we will probably be on time. It’s not critical for me, since I’ll have over 6 hours between flights in Bangkok.

The main part of my cold ended long ago, but I continue to have tremendous drainage. It just flows! Then each morning there is a lot of phlegm to cough up. I hope I dry up soon.

As soon as I got up this morning, I turned on the TV to check on the damage from Hurricane Rita. It would have been Saturday night in Texas, so there should have been fresh reports on BBC. But BBC was not on the air. There was just atatic on its channel. Now I’m hoping that the airport in Bangkok will have news channels I can see. I knew from the reports when I went to bed that Galveston and Houston were not being hit as hard as had been expected due to a drop in wind speed and an altered direction that put Port Arthur and Beaumont in the line of fire. I’m hoping that every place was hit less hard than had been feared.
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In Bangkok I watched CNN. I visited with students from Cambodia who were traveling to New Delhi for 6 weeks of computer training. And I finished reading A Way in the World by V. S. Naipaul (two stars out of 4—more a series of research essays than a novel).

Well, India never fails to look bad. I thought it would fare okay in comparison to Myanmar, but I was wrong. Myanmar is clean and neat and relatively rich looking in comparison. Of course, I was seeing the slums of a big city, but it still is bad. Even my hotel is a disappointment (as hotels usually are in India). Websites always make hotels here look better than they are. The room is fine; it just looks far more like a hotel in India than the website indicated. I’m also sure that if I looked around nothing in the price range would be any nicer. I’m just hoping there aren’t mosquitoes so I can leve the window open at night.

Spending Update for Myanmar and Trip up to Now: I spent $297.44 over a total of 23 days in Myanmar for an average of $12.50 per day. For the entire trip, I have traveled 38 days and spent $916.05 for a daily average of $24.11 and a monthly average of $723.30.

Monday, Sept. 26, Mumbai

I had forgotten how hard Indian beds are. They usually are cotton-filled matresses about 3 inches (7.5 cm) thick on a solid wooden platform. Actually, they make nice beds once I adjust to them, but last night my bed felt a little too hard.

I dreamed again that Arne had come alive again and was with me. We discussed going to Denmark, but he pointed out that he no longer has an apartment or accounts there. He wasn’t feeling right, so I knew he was going to die again. He hadn’t seen Sue yet, so we were trying to get to her for them to visit together when I awoke.

I have two main goals today: 1) To get a reservation (probably train) to travel to Kollam in 3 days, and 2) to get to an internet café and let everyone know I’m okay. On the way, I must stop at an ATM, too, since I only have about $25 in Indian currency which was left over from my previous visit.
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It’s 2:30 p.m., and I just got back to my hotel. It was a good morning. I stopped at the tourist office and got some literature. Then I went next door to the Foreigner’s Ticket Office to get a train ticket. The lady there was nice, and there was no wait. I’m glad I did my research, however. Her first response was that there were no trains to Kollam/Quilon—that I would have to go to Madras or somewhere and catch another train. I asked about the Netravathi Express #6345 which was the fastest train I could locate on the website (2 days to get there rather than 3), and she pulled it right up. I completed my paperwork and bought a 3 AC (air conditioned 3-tier sleeper) ticket. I even got a discount for being 60. I leave from a suburban station (1 ½ hours away) at 11:40 Thursday and will get to Kollam at 21:23 (9:23 p.m.) Friday if the train runs on time (which is seldom the case in India—especially for such a long distance). The ticket cost 920 rupees ($21.17).

I walked a little further and found a small Internet place for 25 rupees (58 cents U.S.) per hour. I read my critical e-mail, then I typed posts to the blog for several of the days I was in Myanmar. It’s going to take all week to completely catch up.

On the way back to the hotel, I stopped at HSBC Bank and got enough cash to last me for weeks (if not months, since my costs will greatly dimenish while I am in Kerala at the school).
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Breakfast here is less than what I have been having. It’s 4 small pieces of toast with jam and butter and coffee or tea. I didn’t get a lunch snack, because I was at the cuber café. By 4 p.m., I was starving. The restaurant I had chosen from the guidebooks was closed for the afternoon, so I found an Arabic-language place down the road from there. They recommended a chicken in a sweet, spicy sauce. The sauce was dark red with white dollops of something (yogurt?). It was delicious, but there were too many bones and too little chicken. I ate it with a good quality rice (basmati?), sliced onions, and tomato chutney. It was so tasty. And I washed it all down with my favorite Indian drink—fresh lime soda). Ummmm!

I’m tired from lack of good sleep the two previous nights, so I bought two liters of water and am back in the hotel room for the night.

Tuesday, Sept. 27, Mumbai

It’s 1:30 p.m. I’m sitting in the waiting area at the old Victoria Terminal (now known as CST). My train on Thursday leaves from a suburban station, but I can take a local train from here to there. I wanted to come here so I would know the station already on Thursday. It’s a wonderful old sturcture which is filled with activity(including beggars, unfortunately).

I spent two more hours at the computer this morning. Updating the blog is going slowly. I only got up to Sept. 9 this morning. I still have 18 days to post, and tomorrow is my last day here.

I had a vegetarian thali plate for lunch. A thali is a special offering. This one had rice, a garbanza bean curry, a lentil-onion curry, dal (lentil soup), yogurt, chutney, and 2 chipatis for 17 rupees (39 cents U.S.). It was a clean place and was overrun by people who knew its value.
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The day is sunny and hot. Therefore, I came back to the hotel from the train station for a rest. On the way, however, I took a different route. I am enjoying seeing the buildings in central Mumbai. This area of town is filled with buildings with character. Most have not had proper maintenance for years, but they are still impressive if one looks closely.
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It’s 6 p.m. I’m not very hungry, since I had lunch, but I will go to a nearby place and get something small, I guess, in a little while.

I began a new book today—Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner. It’s a Booker Prize winner about a romance novelist who has been encouraged to go away to a 30s-style resort hotel for the last month of their season. She’s apparently putting a bad affair with a married man behind her. Anyway, I should have started a longer book; I’ve already read over 25% of this one. A longer one would have lasted me through the long train journey to Kerala. Instead, I’m sure I’ll finish this one and have to start another one.

Before starting the book, I did some laundry. I had 3 dirty shirts and two more I had already worn one day each. There’s a big water bucket in the bathroom (which locals fill with water and then use a scoop to pour water over their bodies as their way of bathing). So I got out my bar of laundry detergent from my last visit to India and washed the three dirty shirts. I’m hoping they will dry before I have to pack. Surely they will be dry within 36 hours. I’ve got the ceiling fan blowing the air around at a fast speed.
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I went out for a light dinner—pork vindaloo and rice. Now that I’m back, I can tell it won’t be a good evening. Loud music is coming from just behind the hotel. It’s an electronic keyboard and a set of drums and has a fast beat bringing to mind the idea of twirling dancers. It’s obvious that here in India, as it is in most poor areas of the world, no one can have fun without making sure that everyone else can hear him having fun. Wonder how late this will go? I’ll try to cut out some of it by closing my windows and curtains. And at bedtime, I’ll use ear plugs.

Wednesday, Sept. 28, Mumbai

I spent two more hours on the Internet this morning. I’ve still only made entries to the blog up to Sept. 16. It takes about an hour for every 3 days of entries, so I am still about 3-4 hours behind.

I bought some snacks near the hotel and ate them in my room for lunch—a savory samosa, a variety of battered and fried vegetables (sour leaf, onion, pepper, and squash), and a sweet samosa. Tonight I’ll try to find a good place for dinner.
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Spent the afternoon in the room napping, watching TV, and reading. Then I went back out about 6 p.m. I walked by two famous nearby places—the Taj Hotel and the Gateway of India. The former is part of the most prestigious chain in India. The latter is a large commemorative arch. I was surprised by it in a way. The arch in Delhi is the center of a huge traffic circle and park with roadways branching in various directions to connect it to the major buildings in the city. The arch here is on the waterfront—a significant place but not the size nor the center of activity that I expected. Of course, just going to see the hotel and the arch meant putting up with lots of beggars!

I decided to eat in a nice restaurant tonight. I went to the Delhi Durban, a place a little like Earl Abel’s in San Antonio—a/c, waiters in uniforms, multiple-page menu, special offerings for each day of the week, etc. I tried to order an appetizer that sounded good (smoked eggplant dip with naan bread), but it’s a seasonal thing that is not available now. For the main course, I ordered their specialty—mutton biriyani. The biriyani is made in a copper pot in a wood-fired oven and served directly from the pot onto the plate at the table. To drink, I had a fresh lime soda. They also served me a glass of filtered water.

Note: I believe that this brings me up-to-date on the postings that were missed while I was in Myanmar and while I was trying to catch up in Mumbai. Hope everyone enjoys reading them.