Springtime in Delhi

Summer is about to take over and make everything dry up in Delhi, but for the moment the city's parks are full of flowers. Zinnias, roses, marigolds, salvia, poppies, huge dahlias, and a million others kinds I don't know. The weekend before last we went to Hauz Khas ("Royal Tank"), a large park surrounded by a schmanzy neighborhood in South Delhi. This tank (water reservoir) was built around 1300 for Siri, the second city to exist within what is now New Delhi.


As in many other parts of Delhi, Moghul monuments and tombs are scattered here and there, in various states of repair. In fact, Delhi has so many that I wish they could lend a few to Bangalore -- they'd really perk things up.





The rose garden in the park was huge. And very well kept up. I suspect that there's a lot of non-city money going into keeping it like this.

After the rose garden, we headed to the Deer Park, which actually does have very obese deer behind cyclone fencing. Even better, there was a peacock. I wanted to taunt him into displaying his feathers, but I didn't know how to do that. I suppose you need a peahen.




The lake itself was a lot prettier than I thought it would be. I thought it would just be a big puddle, but there's a lot of water here. It might have been helped by the relatively large and unseasonable rains we got a few days earlier. Isn't it eerie?

Smiling the Smile

Smiling the Smile, originally uploaded by jrambow.

And here's a slideshow of photos from our second day at Angkor Wat. That was when we covered the Ta Phrom (overgrown with jungle) and Bayon (full of creepy smiling guy) Temples. They were both splendid. Do you think the Smile wore off on Don?

Maggi Ketchup Horror

It's on the shelves of supermarkets and little neighborhood stores alike. It's on the table at lots of restaurants, especially the mediocre and the mid-range. It comes with your fish and chips, it might come with your pizza, it will probably even come with your samosa or pakoras as a kind of chutney. Worst of all, it's usually thrown into Chinese food and tomato soup as a main ingredient, giving a simple, sickly sweet taste to everything it touches. I'm talking about Maggi (and to a lesser degree Kissan) ketchup. The two of them sometimes seem to have all of India in their sticky paws.

Between the milk-sweets and all that tea, it's no secret that most Indians have a sweet tooth. But it's still surprising that a majority evidently wants their ketchup to be even sweeter than the corn-syruped-up American classic. Where American Heinz has a pleasing vinegar/tomato bite to counteract all its sugar, Maggi just has more cloying sweetness. The stuff even looks gooier and shinier from all that cane sugar.

But there are signs of a little change. We were excited a few months ago to discover that Heinz is available here. I've tried Indian Heinz a couple times so far, mostly at fast-food joints, and to be honest couldn't tell if it was A) Just as Bad as Maggi, or B) Slightly Better. It still didn't seem as tangy as the ketchup back home, but it's a step in the right direction.

Related: a Stylestation post about a Malcolm Gladwell article about what people want in ketchup, and why there aren't a million different kinds on store shelves. I'm still amazed that Heinz hasn't made more inroads in India -- according to the blog post, it's been here since 2000. I guess sweet ketchup is a winner.

Causeway

Causeway, originally uploaded by jrambow.

Here are a bunch of photos from our first day in Siem Reap. These are all from Angkor Wat, the major temple there.

Phnom Penh Take 1

When we arrived in Cambodia, we ended up having to spend a while getting our visas. A big German tour group was in front of us, and that held up things a bit. We'd known about the eVisa, but hadn't gotten our act together and applied for them. I'm not certain that they would have saved much time -- the single line for them was kind of slow-moving too.

We stayed at the Foreign Correspondents Club, a slick bar and restaurant that also has a few very nice rooms. Their marketing is so clever that the New York Times' infamous article on Phnom Penh bought into its roving-reporter shtick. For the record, there are no feverish writers working on their next Pulitzer there, or at least no more than anywhere else. We liked the place a lot, but we thought the game was given a way a bit by their cool t-shirts, which cost $15. That's about five times more than I'd expect anything like that to cost in Cambodia. (I still want on, though.)

Here's a picture from our room window. The beat-down mansion in the foreground will probably be fixed up soon -- one exactly like it a couple doors down is now owned by the United Nations, if I recall correctly, and they have clearly sunk a lot of money into it. In the background is the National Museum.



After this quick visit to Phnom Penh, it was on to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat. After we checked into our hotel, rented bikes, got our $40 passes for Angkor Wat, and actually arrived, it was lunchtime. This turned out to be a blessing, since we missed a quick but powerful downpour.

Math is Hard

Don and I loved this totally complicated sale going on at Kalpana, a local clothes shop. According to the ad, women who walk in wearing the official International Women's Day colors can get up to 9% off -- 3% for each color worn. I don't know who judges whether or you're wearing purple or just dark blue.

And then the confusion starts, because you get a bigger discount based on your age, should you "dare to bare" it. You have to add up the digits in your birth date. If I were a lady, for instance, I'd get a total of 30% off (27 Feb. + '73 = 21, + 9% for the green, purple and white outfit I'd scrape together).

What I love is that the discount is totally random -- it's not as if there's any pretense about giving you a bigger sale if you're older.

Those lucky girls born on 29 Sept. 1999 are probably in high demand as dressed-up shopping "friends" today -- but their sisters born the next year are being ignored.

More Wats

The next day we went to Wat Arun, a temple that was handily right across the river from our room -- you could see it from the upstairs part of our really cool hotel room. We took a boat across the river: a very quick trip.

As you can see, the central tower is mammoth up close:


And all those brilliant designs are made from broken-up china:


After Wat Arun, we took a taxi south to Wat Prayun, a temple with a great sideline: a pond full of turtles that can be fed. The grounds of Wat Prayun itself were busy with 100s of monks all listening to a lecture, so we didn't nose around too much.

Here's one of the snappers eating a banana on a stick. Buying a plate of over-ripe bananas and a stick was one of the best 10 baht I spent in Bangkok.

Surrounding the pool is a manmade hill with a steps that lead to a Reclining Buddha shrine. The lights inside gave it a nice eerie glow.

Shiny Bangkok

We had a great time on vacation in Cambodia, a visit that included a couple days in Bangkok at the start and the end. The flight from Chennai was a killer -- it took off around 1 am (it was delayed), and then landed at an indeterminate point in the morning (time had no meaning at that point). In the seats in front and around us were Indian Rotarians who pushed their seats back all the way, laughed and talked constantly, and fussily demanded whiskies and anything else they could think of from the long-suffering crew. This cut down on the funtime factor for the rest of us by about 35%, I believe.

After we landed at the huge new Bangkok Airport, got to the hotel, and left our luggage, it was time to see Bangkok on no sleep at all. (We visited last year too, so we didn't feel as if we have to see everything.) This time we were close to the Royal Palace and Wat Po (a temple), so it was easy to do these. Here, for instance, is Don contemplating the Reclining Buddha's nipple:



We were very impressed with the super-fancy buses parked on the streets around the Royal Palace. There's nothing like these buses in India, or maybe in most other places. Some of them were even karaoke buses! What a way to head down the road.



There were lots of tourists at the Royal Palace. I was so sleepy at this point that it started to seem like the best policy to see what everyone else was taking a picture of and to look in the same general direction.



We did make sure to check out the scale model of Angkor Wat. It's just sort of lying there sandwiched between amazing temples and palaces and shrines, but it's one impressive carving. And accurate, we'd soon find out.



After slowly going haywire from the heat and all the crazy, gorgeous designs everywhere, it was time to call it quits on sight-seeing for the day, take a nap, and then just go wandering.

Delhi

We got into Delhi last night. I'm hoping to stay put for a while, although we also do want to take advantage of being in India's north and visit some places nearby. Compared to Chennai the weather is just wonderful. It's 73°F(23°C) and dry in Delhi at the moment, compared to 86°F(30°C)and humid in Chennai. The Delhi temps mean that many men are wearing long-sleeve shirts and thin sweaters while I'm wearing shirt-sleeves and not sweating (for once). I forgot how nice it can be to walk down the street for an extended period of time.

The guest house is OK -- good location, very old/strange furnishings, and non-functioning but imminent Internet -- pretty typical of our experiences elsewhere.

I don't know much about the Greater Kailash neighborhoods we're part of, but it's clear much of it has been planned. Markets and stores are grouped around several central small parks, and addresses are fairly regular once you know the system. It all makes me a little giddy -- all this regularity. Last night Don and I took a walk around and managed to end up back at the guest house without expecting it -- we'd been walking on a street that curved back onto itself. It was surprising to end up home sooner than you thought -- almost always it's the opposite.

Chennai

The past couple days have been a slow process of flying from Cambodia to Bangkok to Chennai, which is where we arrived this afternoon. Tonight we're probably going to visit Pondy Bazaar and buy some clothes -- after all that running around, most of our stuff is dirty and dusty, and it will be another couple days before we can get it all washed.

Tomorrow Don's going into the office a bit, we're picking up more luggage there, and then flying to Delhi. This time, we're staying in the thrillingly titled "East of Kailash." Kailash is where Shiva lives, but in this case we'll presumably be near the "Greater Kailashes", of which I think there are three: GK 1, 2, and 3. But maybe there are more, and maybe "East of Kailash" is WAY east. Hopefully all will become clear once I can get my hands on a street map.

Phnom Penh

We're back in Phnom Penh after lots of Angkor Wat adventures, of which more later. There's something about Cambodia internet cafes that doesn't jibe with thoughtful posts, at least for me. First, I'm too lazy to upload photos from them, so no eye candy. And then there's the pleasant chattering I'm overhearing (but not understanding) between the middleaged lady owner and a Buddhist monk. Then there are the many, many geckos on the ceiling (way more than India -- maybe a dozen?), which are very entertaining. And then there are the guys next to me planning a very detailed flight itinerary. So it's a little hard to think.

Tomorrow we spend most of the day here in PP, then we fly to Bangkok tomorrow, then we fly to Chennai the day after, then we fly to Delhi. You might wonder why our plans are so drawn out and messed up. We wonder that too, a bit, but it's just kind of worked out that way. Anyway, we both have some luggage in Chennia, so now we're locked into it.

In other news, the New York Times continues to copy our vacation plans. They just wound up their Cambodia coverage by sending their reporter to stay at the $300-a-night Hotel de la Paix in Siem Reap. That was exactly 10 times more than we paid for our hotel, and ours was pretty fancy too! Admittedly, no one baked us cookies. but I'm still trying to account for a $265 difference.

Angkor Wat

Today we flew into Siem Reap. Angkor Wat was amazing. I don't have anything smart to say about it at the moment, but if you have to chance to visit, you should. It's worth all the heat, etc., and there's enough to see for weeks, let alone days. More later, including pretty pictures.

Bangkok Time

We're having a great time in Bangkok, visiting temples, eating great street food (the sticky rice wrapped around banana pieces and chicken "drumlettes" on a stick have been a big hit so far), shopping for cool clothes, and even feeding turtles. One temple -- Pyongyang? I think -- had a pool around a small shrine. For 10 baht (about 33 cents) you got cut-up pieces of banana or meat and a long stick. You then could feed the snappers and red-ear sliders without fear. It was incredibly peaceful and entertaining -- even turtles get to eat their "street food" on a stick here.

Tomorrow evening we fly to Cambodia. Although I understand there are now ATMs there, tomorrow we are going to exchange a bunch of Thai baht for US dollars, which is a major currency in Cambodia.

Handmade Signs

Thanjavur Art Gallery, originally uploaded by jrambow.

One of the nice details about India are that almost all signs are handpainted. They may not always be accurate, but they're usually pretty.

The art gallery, by the way, was amazing, and it made me wish that my knowledge of Chola bronzes wasn't so sketchy. The gallery is part of a palace complex, and by the time I'd reached this point, I'd gotten tired of paying my "foreigner" fee and my camera fee at every little exhibit. They have really got to get it together here and have some sort of ticket that includes everything. As it was I saved my 30 rupees and decided not to take pix of any of the amazing art inside. But why didn't I buy the "English book"? I bet that was good too.

Kibitzing

Kibitzing, originally uploaded by jrambow.

These Brahmin priests and others had the right idea at the temple, getting under a little shade.

Cambodia Here We Come

We're off to Thailand and then Cambodia tomorrow night for a week of temples, chi-chi restaurants in the so-called "Next Prague, and, er, I'm not sure yet. Posts will be light to nonexistent, but we'll do the best we can.

Lady Rickshaw driver

Lady Rickshaw driver, originally uploaded by jrambow.

Excitingly, my rickshaw driver in Trichy was a woman, more commonly known as a "lady" in India.

After taking countless rickshaws in a fair number of cities, this was a first, so I had to get a picture. She was nice, smiling a whole lot more than any other rickshaw driver I've had. (She was still tough on bargaining, though.)

She didn't wear a sari or a salwar kameez, she just wore the standard simple brown rickshaw-driver shirt and some light-blue pants that she rolled up.

Monkey Menace

I loved this Kanchipuram hotel's straightforward warning about the all-too-common Monkey Menace. (The text reads, "Dear guest, we request you to keep all doors and windows shut to prevent monkeys from entering your room.")

At first glance, it might sound fun to have a monkey guest show up, but when they began to grab things, turn the TV to that show about the chimp and the bulldog that run errands, and look for the costly silks you bought in this town that's famous for them, that feeling may quickly change.

I didn't see any monkeys when I looked out the window, but the manager showing me the place said that they're all over around 5 to 7 pm. That's when the monkeys come home to roost, I guess. I will say that I saw amble evidence that they had recently been on the ledge outside the window, though -- I'll just leave it at that.

Monster Gecko

Well, I liked our lizard, but the one above was hard not to like better. All eight or so inches or him came with the 350 rs. ($8) a night place I stayed at this weekend. When I checked out the room at first, I thought he was some kind of weird ornament, he was staying so still. It was only when I came back that I realized I had my own gecko for the night.

As you'd expect from the hotel's rate, it was not fancy -- a bring your own soap and toilet paper kind of place -- but the bug-eating lizard came free, and it evidently did it's job well. And a free lizard friend is not something that the Taj or Oberoi would think to include.

Madurai

We're heading to Madurai for the weekend, and then I'll be off to a couple more places after that. Back on Tuesday or possibly Wednesday . . . . I promise to take lots of pictures of amazing South Indian temples.

The Lizard

We have a lizard that lives in the bedroom. I realize that sounds like the start of a 3rd-grader's story, but it's also true. We first saw him a week or two ago, but only for a little bit, running up the wall. But now he seems to have taken up a permanent house in the closet, by Don's fancy office shirts.

Although it's endlessly entertaining to watch him scurry around the ceiling and hide behind the mirror on the wall, the gecko's best trick is the chirping call he makes, usually early in the morning or late at night. At first it was a little creepy -- it sounds more like a bird than a lizard -- but now it's really great.

Of course, we also hope the gecko is eating any stray mosquitoes that find their way inside, but we're not sure about that. More about house geckos here.

Pondicherry Elephant

Everyone loves the French-provincial-town qualities of Pondicherry (lots of fresh paint; buttery seafood; wide, nearly empty, well-marked, rectilinear streets), but it's also in India -- and that means temples. Here's the Sri Manakula Vinayagar temple's elephant. You can give it a rupee and then it will give you a blessing by stepping on your foot. Just kidding, it blesses you by putting its truck on your head.

There was a sign that you couldn't give it any bananas or other food -- maybe it was reducing or the pilgrims' bananas had had a too vigorous laxative effect in the past. Either way, Don didn't like the looks of its stamping and thought it might go on a rampage at any moment. But it didn't, and we kept walking.

Incidentally, the three horizontal lines on the elephant's forehead, his tilak, marks him as a devotee of Shiva.

On the Bus

This weekend we headed to Pondicherry, about 3-1/2 hours south of
Chennai, via bus. It pays to go for the nicer ("ultra-deluxe") buses"
instead of the middle or lower rungs. The one we took down, the 55
rupee model, had not only a driver who constantly honked (pretty
normal), but also a TV blaring musicals nonstop and not much leg room.
It was a lot to take in at 10 am.

The one on the way back cost 110 rs. -- twice the price. But there
were nice curtains on the windows, a think to hold your bottle of
water, lots more leg room, and fans by the windows. And the theme or
the bus seemed to be "naptime" -- everyone was sleeping rather than
having to stare at the TV. It was great. Well, very good.

More on Pondicherry tomorrow.

Balaji Truck

Balaji Truck, originally uploaded by jrambow.

Here's one great truck grill. I photographed it in the Georgetown section of Chennai. The god is Balqji, also known as Lord Venkateswara. His major temple is in Tirupati, not too far north of Chennai. Tamil Nadu and most of the south are strongholds of his worship, but people from all over the world come there -- it might be the most-visited (and richest) religious site in the world -- most travel guides say it's neck and neck with the Vatican.

Chennai Wedding

Today around 5:30 a wedding party went down the road in front of the guest house we're staying in. Everyone was dressed up in a Rajastani style, with turbans. There was also a Rajastani Marching Band as well as recorded music. And stilt-walkers! Finally, near the end, came the groom on a white horse. It was super. I didn't get any good photos, but I hope I have more chances in the future -- there are two huge wedding halls round the corner. (And I hope to not mistake any Jain monk processions for wedding groups this time.)

And in completely unrelated news, our evil cell phone service provider, Airtel, sent Don a hilarious text message yesterday. Not only did he have the opportunity to talk with an astrologer for 6 rupees (or so) a minute, but he could also win a prize by doing so. How? By being the person who had talked on the phone for the longest time! I wonder how much the prize-winner spent in winning.

Mamallapuram

Here's a slide show of some of our pictures from Mamallapuram, a town with some amazing Hindu bas reliefs and stone carvings from the 7th to 9th centuries (or so). Carved in granite, the sculptures are in remarkable condition and very lifelike. The town is about an hour drive south of Chennai, along the coast.

Astrology & Education, Close-Up

Astrology & Education, originally uploaded by jrambow.

I love the books for sale at this bookstore. It was closed when I walked by, so I have no idea if they have any books that don't predict the future.

Astrology & Education

Astrology & Education, originally uploaded by jrambow.

Terrifying Reptiles That We Love

I've been working on updating a travel guide's coverage of Tamil Nadu, so part of our time in Mamallapuram was spent touring hotels, asking about AC, and demanding to look at dinner menus in the middle of the afternoon, long before dinner was available.

One of the tourist sites we visited on the way out of town turned out to be so much cooler than I thought it would be. The Center for Herpetology is basically two scary spots in one. First, you have small ponds with lots and lots of crocodiles (and even a few alligators, in case you're from the Americas and feeling a little homesick).






The crocodiles are in sunken areas with pools, and there's just a small gap and a couple walls between you and them. At an exhibit of muggers (Indian-native crocodiles), you can get a guy to come out with a kilogram or so of chopped up mutton. He'll throw it all them -- a highly entertaining sight. It's a good trick to get guests to pay for feeding the animals, but it was also fun.




There's also an area in which snakes are milked for their venom, to be used in anti-venom. In addition to cobras, there were also kraits, a small, somewhat boring-looking snake whose venom is a lot deadlier than a cobra's. It was terrifying and awesome. In the picture below, all those pots in the background contain snakes. And the plastic bucket contains MASSIVE quantities of snakes as well!



There were turtles too, in well maintained tanks (a rarity in India). They were loveable, but come on, they're going to have to take second seat to deadly serpents and alligators and crocodiles.

Here are a bunch of families looking at a crocodile swimming around in its strangely graceful way. It was almost more fun watching the kids get all excited about it, though.

Panicker's Travel

Panicker's Travel, originally uploaded by jrambow.

This is my new favorite travel agency, even though I just walked by and didn't "avail their services," as they say in India.

Best of all, you can see in the small print their main branch in is Delhi, my choice for the best place to do the most panicking while traveling.

Speaking of traveling, we'll be leaving Chennai for the weekend to head to the beach town of Mamallapuram. It's about a 90 miinute drive -- back on Monday.

Flying the Good Times

We're now more or less all set up in Chennai. We flew here -- it's
about an hour's flight from Bangalore. It was great to finally be able
to take Kingfisher, United Breweries' airline and one of the better
ones. Just as the breweries' Kingfisher beer is "for the good times,"
the airline allows you to "fly the good times."

It was a good flight. Since most of my flights in India have been with
the bargain basement airline Air Deccan, it was thrilling to get
breakfast on the plane this time. (But even if we'd flown later in the
day, there wouldn't have been any Kingfisher beer available. Indian law
prevents any alcohol being offered on domestic flights.)

Best of all, the flight wasn't cancelled or delayed, an all-too-common
problem with Air Deccan. (Basically Air Deccan is for when you kinda
want to fly the good times, but would be just as happy staying put if
your flight is cancelled. For those "let's not and say we did" times.)

We're staying in a guesthouse -- an apartment that's been converted
into a hotel. There are 4 bedrooms with their own bathrooms, and then a
dining room and living room that's common to them. The place comes with
two servants, who clean the rooms each day and cook. Although it's a
little weird having guys hanging out in the place all the time, it's
been surprisingly easy to get used to having someone else make supper
and get the laundry done.

Chennai is hot, but not as horrible as we feared. Of course, it is
early in the year still, and most offices and stores have air
conditioning.

But Chennai is definitely as full of mosquitoes as we thought. I've
discovered that guide books, in addition to whatever other charms and
utility they may have, are great at crushing the little buggers.
Something about the large numbers of thin pages make them easy to close
quickly. Consider that my handy tip of the day.