Sorry, no pictures

Internet is always shit, I never manage to post my pictures unless I spend 4 hours for maybe 5 pictures, really no worth the hassle, sorry. I'll keep trying though!

Darjeeling

It was a must, a classic, we had to go through Darjeeling. Famous for it's endless tea fields in the mountains and for the worlds' best tea, Darjeeling is a nice town that definately has the mountain feel. A top its 2100m and with its vertigo giving view, it's a nice place to relax. Since Julien was leaving soon, we only spent a day and a half, just enough to visit the Happy Valley Tea Estate, which its best brew can be sold for a much as 250$ per kilo. A very nice lady explained us everything about tea, which is quite complicated when you really get into it. I petted a blind cat the whole time. Next I leave for Nepal...alone as Carlos is going to China and Julien back home, I'll miss you guys!

Sikkim - Switzerland of the east

Once in Sikkim, you see all theses billboards "Sikkim, Switzerland of the East". I say it's a bit ambitious of them, but then again, it's good to have ambition. Sikkim is very nice... I mean once you've been so long in India, it's good to escape to the mountains. The people are totally different for the rest of India, physically wise and character wise, as they have more Asian/Tibetan faces. You don't get hassled as much as you usually do in India, which is quite relaxing for once. Sadly with the monsoon we hardly had a chance to see any of the himalayas but at least the weather was more bearable. We went straight to Gangtok, being the capital of the state, and apart from going to be nearby villages to visit monasteries (since many Tibetan buddhist escaped Tibet to come to Sikkim, Nepal and Kashmir) we didn't do much since we barely had time to.

On the way to Sikkim

With Julien being really sick, food poisonning once again, and having over 24 hours of travel in front of us, we were in a quite arkward position. Julien puked a least 5 times in our short flight to Kolkatta (he beated my personal best of 5 times in an 8 hour bus ride in Chile!) and again at the airport, again at the train station, in the train, etc. On top of that, we had to go all the way through Kolkatta, probably the most chaotic city in India, I'll always remember on one corner of the street a young child (2-3 years i guess) standing naked and alone, it actually gave me shivers. Also at the train station, Julien was lying half dead on the floor and this one dude came up and started staring at him, we asked him to please leave but he wouldn't and continued staring as if he was throwing an evil spell at us. Once we got up to move to the train, he followed, Julien lost his patience (with a reason) and asked the police to take him away pushing him at the same time... so strange behaviours. Greatfully we had sleepers all the way we had to go but some crazy people always show up along the way, it makes for an unwanted show... We definately need a break from all this, hopefully Sikkim will be better.

Hyderabad - The city of pearls

Since it was the cheapest way to go to Kolkatta, we were doublely happy to go to Hyderabad. We even go housed by Simon, the guy we met on the train from Quebec, who had been working at Satyam for a year now. He knew his way around so he made it easier for us to check the town around and do the major thing in the city. And so, we visited Charminar, went to a light show at an old castle, shopped around for bangels and pearls. Sadly Carlos got very sick, either by insolation or food poisionning so he had to skip some parts to rest. One night, we went to a club, probably the worst club ever, there were exactly 5 women in the room and the guys were dancing like crazy all ther favorite bollywood hits... not the best sight. Hyderabad is quite specially with its big muslim community, its always weird to see women completly dressed in black with only the eyes uncovered, espcially in this type of heat! Next we have to travel to Kolkatta by plane, and Julien decides to get sick... we have a long way to go!

Hampi - a lost empire

After catching threads of the monsoon in Goa, we finally crossed the Western Ghats to go inland towards Hampi, this time we booked our train tickets in advance not to have to sit next to the door on the ground. Hampi is actually the location of an ancient empire surrounded by boulders and strange rock formations, a climbers' dreamland. Although we thought it would be the worst place ever when we dropped off from the train (I actually had to power my way through to get down and literally knock people down) and got surrounded by rickshaw drivers shouting to come with them, fighting one another, and having many poor women pleading and poking us for money, it was the most annoying thing that happened to us so far. However once in Hampi, everything was smooth, it really was a nice place to relax, in the mist of all the temples and the pilgrims. We rented once again scooters to run around all the temples and boulders around Hampi, we had quite some fun. I was impressed with the music temple, where every stud makes a different sound when you touch with, and the temple itself ws simply gorgeous. Too bad we stayed only one night.

First real train experience - not a good one!

Next on our schedule was Goa, thoses famous beaches were all europeens go to party hard, the classic hippy destination. We took the train, we were unable to book a sleeper from Varkala, so we took general admission. Not knowing what it was really, we first sat in the sleeper wagon, where we met one quebecor working in Hyderabad, but after a few hours, the train controller (TC) came and asked us to move to the general admission wagon. First, let me draw you a picture of the general admission wagon, imagine a more than hundred of selfish sweaty indians fighting for less than 50 seats... and us with our huge backpacks... Just at the sight of that wagon, we said to ourselves, screw it, we're staying in the sleeper wagons. Obviously there wasn't any seats left so we had to stay in the corridors like many others who were on the waiting list. By the way, did I mention we had 21 hours to go... small detail. Each the TC passed by, he always said "Go to general admission, go!"and then left. We totally ignored it since it was a different TC every time, so we ended up stay the rest of the next to the door, on the floor with our backpack, hardly sleeping. You can imagine how happy we were to arrive in Goa.

Although I was pretty disappointed with Goa, we had quite some fun. The monsoon was starting so obviously Goa was crowdless, which made bargaining for a room a breeze. It was sad to see the beaches so dirty, this place has so much potential but once again, it's all screwed by thoses damn litterers. We rented some scooter to get around and to experience the indian traffic that we were so scared of. It turned out that we were actually the fastest ones on the road, as indians drive pretty slowly, it's only chaotic because no one follows the rules... overtaking is as normal as driving in the wrong way, people are used to it. Apart from riding the scooters around and doing some shopping for souvenirs, Goa wasn't really awesome as nothing was going on, no parties, no raves, nobody in town.

Kerala - Idyllic beaches and lucious backwaters

After being screwed over on the jeep safari, we skipped the Tea Factory tour to go straight to Kovalam some eight hours of bus further down south (less than 250 km). Hail to the bus driver, seriously! There are two types of buses in Kerala, the private and public, and they compete in between them, which makes up for some crazy driving. I don't know in which type I was, but I can say I never been so scared in a bus before, at least for the 3 first hours. A grand prix is nothing after what experienced, a roller coaster doesn't even give you half of the rush I've had. Let me explain. First, I was sitting is the death seat, which is the first seat next to the driver, so if something goes wrong, you're the first one out of the windshield. Second, the bus is very old. Third, we're going through mountains most of the way. Fourth, they overtake at every opportunity they have. Fifth, there are SO MANY obstacle on the road : cows, kids, cars, scooters, dirt, rocks, construction sites, etc. Last but not least, the speed (you think 250 km in 8 hours is slow, that's because they stop a lot). Eventually I got used to it as all the other passengers and I fell asleep. The driver was unbelievable, in 8 hours, he never showed any signs of fatigue. I was quite happy to get to Kovalam safe and sound.

Kovalam is a small shore town in the south where many resorts have been erected in the last few years, the tourism here grows every year and the reason is obvious, it is simply a gorgeous beach with it's lucious green palm trees, black thin sand, its surfable waves (only in high season though, the lifeguards here won't let you do anything) and amazing sunsets. We spent a few days here to enjoy the beach, to get a huge sunburn and have day trip in Trivandrum. In our day trip to Trivandrum, we tried to attend an keralan martial art demonstration, it sucked; tried to get a free aryuvedic massage (Keralan therapy) at the Aryuvedic College, it was a hospital, so we go kicked out and went to the nicest zoo ever (at least for 10 rupees) where I finally saw up close my elephant, bengal tiger, lion, girafe, peacock, hippo and many more. Finally an investment to be proud of! After spending 3 nights in Kovalam and eating some good seafood, it was time to move on to Varkala, an other idyllic beach near by. It turned out to be better than Kovalam, since the town was much more mellow, I found Kovalam to be quite a hassle after seing Varkala. The whole village is on the side of a cliff and the beach was pretty much the same. We still had many problems with the lifeguards as they didn't let us go in the water saying it was too dangerous, such bullshit. The problem was that there were many indians around and god knows indians are such weak swimmers and by seeing us in the water they went too and the lifeguards just didn't want to have anything to look out for, obviously some of them had smoked... So we went anyways just ignoring the lifeguards, their whistles are no match to our hard heads. One of the funniest thing happened at this beach as a family of Indians were "amazed by us", they started chatting with us and asked us to take a picture with them (well with the young guys" but next one cute girl wanted also to be in the picture, I first thought she was 16 because she was so small, but it turned out she was 21 and had finished her degree in biochemestry and so as soon as our attention stared shifting to this girl, the father immediately came in and broke it up, shaking our hand saying thank you guys, have a good day, bye bye. We laughed for quite a while about it. The only other interesting thing we did in Varkala, besides relaxing and drinking with some people we met, is going on a backwater canoe ride. We spent probably 3 hours in the many canals through the lucious green palm trees. So relaxing!

Kerala - A south indian communist paradise

I am now backpacking with Carlos and Julien (well we left Chennai on June 2th, I just really late to post), our first stop was Kerala, a small communist province in the south of India which bares the population of Canada in probably less than 5% of the territory. Kerala is now for it's idyllic beaches, its greener than ever backwaters, its impressive tea hills, its vast wildlife, its sunset to die for and its friendly people. We took an Air Deccan flight to land in Kochi (Air Deccan being a whole lot less fashionable as KingFisher), where we slept over for the first time in an unclimatize room (for less than 10$ for 3) and ate on the corner of a backalley street with our hands since it was the only thing still open... at 10:30pm. It was quite a change, especially since we had been pampered so much in the last month. The next day, we immediately left to go to Kumily where we wanted to visit the Periyar National Wildlife Sanctuary...quite an experience. All the buses destinations were written in Marasa..something so it was impossible to understand and since no one gives the sames information, we had a hard time finding our bus (we even asked one indian and he said, I'm from Tamil Nadu, the province next door, but I don't understand their language!). On the bus, once again quite an experience... we were smushed as the bus was cracking full...for seven hours going through mountains...left, right left...many kids pucked out from the windows, how charming! Once in Kumily, it was really nice, the weather was cooler, all the hills had a lucious green color, we found a small tree house to live in for 250 ruppees with a view on vast fields animated by wildlife, very relaxing after the ride we had. Unfortunately we totaly got screw the next day as we went on a wildlife safari. We definately paid too much as the only wildlife we saw was an elephant from 2 km distance and some monkeys in tree tops, we saw more wildlife on the road! At least in the evening we went to see a traditional keralan dance called Kathakali (dance of gods) in which the music was definately stressing but it was so typical and artistic that it was well worth it. Kathakali is actually a art of the facial expressions, any emotion can be expressed by the facial expressions, and the make up is so impressive, see for yourself with my picture (well once I'll be able to upload them!).

Chennai - the end of the mission

Our last stop as a group was in Chennai, unfortunately most of the visits we had planned here did not occur as the companies withdrew at the last second. It was actually nice as most of the group was pretty sick of all the visits espacially the IT visits. So we had a lot of free time to discover the city, we even went to the beach which was very relaxing, I even go my senses back (I was plagued with a sinus problem since last october and all this salt water and air was quite a cure). So this was it, our last days in luxury, our last days as a group, our last days that we had to wear a suit in the 40 degree heat. To cheer up, we treated ourselves to the biggest restaurants in town and since I was the one that always paid the bill, my head spun twice as much when I saw the amount on theses ones. The mission was a succes, can't till next year as I will be the coordinator for the Poly-World 2008 mission in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. But my time here isn't over yet, it's only the beginning as I have more than 2 months left, I only say bye bye luxurious and hello the tranquility of the 2$ hotels! Next stop Kerala!

Bang, Bang, Bangalore

Bangalore is the Silicon Valley of India, and for those of you who aren't familiar with silicon valley, it's called like this not because women have fake breast here, it's because there is of lot of IT firms (in relation with semiconductors... silicon). Bangalore is also the "air conditioned" city of India, as the weather much cooler (around 30 degres). We had the chance to visit IBM, Freescale Semiconductors, Satyam, Infosys, CGI and ITC infotech who all received us as kings. For example when we arrived at Satyam, they had a flower bouquet for every student, Infosys treated of for lunch with an incredible buffet and then gave us a presentation in their top of the line board room, CGI offered a job to each one of us... and the presentations were just so interesting. We also had lots of free time in Bangalore as we spent 4 days plus a weekend in the city in a gorgeous hotel. For the first time in the mission when went out in pubs and one disco, unfortunately everything closes at 11:30 pm with the police coming in every single bar in the city, which kind of sucks. I had time to enjoy myself though, at the disco, I met two KingFisher flight attendants (KingFisher being the top domestic airline, and the domestic beer also), they were very nice, and by nice I mean cute (actually they were the hottest girls in the bar, so I kind of became the hero of the group, they teased me a lot about it, we all had a good laugh, although some were jealous hehe). They invited on the spot to their KingFisher apartments which were obviously luxurious and I took time to discuss with the 3 of them (as I met one more over there), they answered all my question I may I say it was the biggest cultural shock I've experienced so far. These girls were from different parts of the country, different religions, it was noticeable, and they did not think and act all the same way. Some were more traditional, some more "westernised" in some sense, in the end it was quite interesting, I would be nice to see them again. So in the end, the visits were the best we've had, we went out a few times, had room parties, we experienced a Indian disco which was good although it closed before 12 (I also danced with a India girl while she was on the stage and I wasn't and I was still taller than her...pretty funny) and the shopping was quite good.

Mumbai - Humidity is worst

Next stop for the mission was Mumbai, previously known as Bombay. It's the country's economic capital, over 12 millions habitants, half rich, half poor. Here you really notice the gap in between rich and poor as on one side of the street you see big hotels, nice cars, etc and on the other side a slum or a fishing neighborhood. I must say I never sweated more than I did here, the humidity was so intense, only breathing was hard. It was slightly cooler than Delhi, 35 degrees instead of 42, but the humidity just made it worst. Funny thing, in Delhi, one of the group tested his theory that keeping a wool suit on would actually be cooler than being in a short shirt. Scientifically it make sense as the body is at 37 degrees a wool isolates you from the 42 degrees heat, but practically it just sound stupid. I didn't have a wool suit, so I never even bothered trying. I was disappointed to stay only a few nights in Mumbai, as the city is very vibrant, more than any other city in India, we went out only once, with some Indian friends, on the rooftop lounge of a top end hotel with a gorgeous view of the city, too bad we couldn't enjoy the rooftop pool. The only other things interesting apart from the visits at Deloitte, I-Flex, Phillips and IIT were the tailored suits that I bought for a third of the price I would normally pay and the beer Julien and I took next to the pool at the Taj Hotel (THE most expensive hotel in India), we passed by without anyone asking a single question since were white, eventhough Julien was wearing a wifebeater (cinglet) and me a football shirt...

Agra

How could I go to India and not visit the ever famous Taj Mahal. It is absolutely gorgeous, without any doubt the nicest human construction I have ever seen. Made of pure white marble, it's beauty is indescribable. On top of that, we stayed over at the Taj View hotel, probably the nicest hotel of our trip, with a gym, a swimming pool, etc. It was quite relaxing and the food exquisit. The only thing unpleasant are the sellers, they just don't let go here, more than anywhere else in the world, believe me. However, getting to Agra is a pain, or should I say quite an experience. We went there by bus, it was my first Indian driving lesson outside Delhi. Rule number 1 : Always honk, even if there's no reason to. Rule number 2 : watch out for the cows. Rule number 3 : anything on wheels is a vehicule suited for the road. Rule number 4 : no overloading. Rule number 5 : overtaking is the key to a shorter trip, even with incoming traffing. Rule number 6 : Going the wrong way is permitted. Anyways, I could go on and on like this... Just look at my pictures...