Kerala, Redemption! Ashrams and Backwaters!

I know I kicked off the Kerala post with a downer, but we're still here in the only freely elected communist state in India, and we're learning a lot! We had a nice second night in Fort Cochin visiting the dutch settlement and Jew Town. More on those places and Kerala history later. We've also visited an Ashram in the South Coast of Kerala and the backwaters near Alleppy. We're covering lots of ground and headed to Varkala beach, a resort town further south.

Quit Kerala Movement

The Indian National Congress including Gandhi and Nehru started the "Quit India" movement to protest the British colonial occupation of India and to protest the poor treatment of Indians and the Indian second class citizenry in their own land. I also recently heard a story that the reason the Taj group of hotels was started was because the godfather of the Tata family was denied access to a British hotel, so he decided to create his own.

Where am I going with this? Ravi and I are in Fort Cochin, Kerala right now and we were denied rum & coke at a late night restaurant last night (after arriving very late to our hotel, on a delayed flight). 20 foreigners of Caucasian descent were enjoying late dinner and drinks, but after asking 3 different waiters who were all confused and just following orders we consulted the manager and he explained to us that the Police crack down on restaurants serving liquor to anyone who looks "local" meaning Indian. We weren't surprised there were issues serving alcohol in Kerala because it's almost a de facto dry state, what with the difficulty and expense in obtaining liquor licences here, establishments are forced to serve beer to customers in tea pots... but what we were most perturbed by was the flagrant indian on indian discrimination that I've lamented sometimes in Indian run establishments in the bay area!

After a little discussing with the manager, a heated response on my part, and a calm one from ravi we left the restaurant bewildered. I had argued with the manager wondering why as Americans we couldn't be exempt from this odd double standard... he didn't grasp english enough to really supply a good response, but later I surmised that the main issue is a misplaced notion that if anyone who looks indian is allowed to drink, other indians may sow the seeds of dissent, in a state where there are tight restrictions on liquor consumption. To see white people drinking on the other hand would be expected by locals, their depravity, liberalness, etc. would be a commonplace stereotype.

I'm very interested in learning more about the Kerala double standard and writing to Lonely Planet, which generally writes to a white audience, to talk about the perils of world travel as a westerner of non European descent... I'm sure I'll revisit this topic again...

There's always a Wedding to attend!

I was in Bangalore for a couple days before flying to Poona for the first time in my life. Ravi's friend Rohit is getting married to Anupama. My trips always include temples and weddings it seems. We're at a hotel compound on the outskirts of India's other "Tech City" in an area simply known as Pimpri. I'm sleeping in the bay window of our tiny room!

Singapore: the last honest state in the world

I went shopping and exploring today, still have a couple hours before my flight to India. I took a cab to the Parkway Parade mall in the suburbs and the cab driver's credit reader wasn't working so I told him I'd get money from an ATM inside and he said he'd wait out front. no disgruntled cabbie and honest me.

you see signs here that say "low crime, doesn't mean now crime", it's hard to believe there's ANY crime in Singapore (knock on wood) considering the various income levels, diversity of races/cultures, past colonial history it's amazing people get along so well!

I did spot two train code violators for the first time today, maybe there were from "out of town" one was sipping a soda on the train, the other was eating egg rolls... hmmmm.

Day 20: Last Day in Singapore, Heading to India!

It's been great here in SE Asia. 20 days of food, sun, and plenty of fun. I'm sad to have only allotted 20 days, I could've easily stayed for 2 months! Excited about India though and seeing family, friends over there!

I'm totally behind the times with online photo management and just discovered Flikr's slideshow feature... included here.

Zouk Out

Really awesome beach turned all night club-party! I went from 9PM to about 6AM. Took mass transit there and back very easily from my cousin's place. DJ Sasha was there spinning from 3-5AM at the main stage, there were 2 other stages with mostly European dj's but also a few good live acts. Everyone is in beach clad gear, they're serving alcohol ALL THRU THE NIGHT/MORNING!! Singapore reality is suspended for 10 hours at this festival. I understand it's been going on for 8 years strong and it's never rained during the event, which is awesome luck!

I was able to reconnect with recent Bali friend's who heard about Zouk word of mouth and also a former Stanford ATI buddy, Sujey who's working in Singapore.

Zouk Out

A Few Pics from the evening

I'm not biting my nails.

Which means I'm super chilled out here in Bali! Surfer-bro chill lifestyle suits me to a large degree. Now I just need to actually get into better shape and get better at surfing. I'm typically always gnawing at my nails, often to quite a painful degree, and I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when I reflected on the fact that my nails had grown a just a little bit.

Carlos, the Colombian I met a couple days back, put it best: the only job out here is to go surfing, and you only have that job for a few hours each day, the only hassles are how tired you feel after surfing, sleeping off hangovers, and what else?

Ah the hallmarks of "chill". The great things about this place is how cheap everything is, it's no wonder young people between jobs or school will regularly spend 30 days just on this island.

Goa Newsflash: This'll be interesting.

They're adding bunkers on popular beaches to prevent an assault from the ocean.

Read about it here. I wonder why the western media isn't picking up ANY of these Goa / Al Quaeda threat stories...

Some Surfers Are Reall Cool People

I finally shed my fears of the bali disco-security situation and went out last night with some new friends who were all pretty much avid surfers. A couple Canadians (we have less of a language barrier), a Colombian, and of course with the ubiquitous Swedes in tow. Had dinner at this great "euro" outfit called "dog dragon" why it's called that I haven't a clue, but it's run by a brit and his uncle, who I'll post a photo of later. I had a steak, spaghetti and some decent mojitos for under $10 which is wildly expensive here. We then headed to esspresso, just a half block away from the 2002 bali-blast memorial. Great live balinese cover band doing current rock hits, mirroring my experience poolside at the hotel every day between 5-8PM when the pool is filled with people just chilling Vegas style.

Ok, enough gushing about backpacker party life in Kuta.

Bali is Bizzaro World

I have so much more to write about since leaving cambodia last week and chilling with my cousins in Singapore the last couple days. Things like how awesome the food is in Singapore and checking out the Singapore Marathon yesterday. However, I'm in Bali right now and that means Bali take's precedence.

I've been hanging out in Kuta but made trips to Kuta-Legian (just north a few hundred meters) and Sanur (15 km north east of Kuta). Kuta is where some major bombings happened in 2002 and 2005. There have recently been fear of reprisals (read the state department bali warning for more details) upon the recent execution of a few of the terrorists involved.

That being said. Even though this is the "rainy" off season it's def picking up for the western holiday season and there are tons of dutch surfer bro-s and chicks, so much so I might go crazy. It's a really weird phenomenon, I guess I really don't even know if they're dutch, but they look like they're from LA, they surf, and they speak a different language - something Northern European. I had no idea there was even any surfing up there in the freezing cold.

Bali is unchecked sprawl that is nowhere near beautiful. The beaches in Kuta and even Sanur where I went snorkelling today are rather filthy and the sand is not picturesque. I've heard there are some other stretches of beach that look way better, let's see if I find them. The beach townships themselves are littered with touts, hawkers, and western shops like circle k quick-e-marts, MacDo's, and KFCs. Everything is a concrete nightmare.

On the bright side, my hotel rocks. for $15 which is just a wee bit expensive for backpackers is an oasis in this sea of third-world-resort-urban-disaster. The room as AC and hot water, is clean and overlooks the sweet-ass pool where people congregate for drinks and chillaxing. It's well designed with over the top asian architechtural highlights (think pagoda awnings galore).

On another positive note: Bintang rocks. Cans or bottles, I like this local pilsner, it's ubiquitous in Kuta.

So I'm taking a surfing lesson tomorrow at 8AM and will try to visit Seminyak, the classier newer nightlife later this week. Otherwise it'll be a pretty chill trip. I'd wanted to visit the Volcano up north, but tourist interest is very sparse and I'd have to pay for the whole vehicle so probably wont happen.

Rural Cambodia: Interesting Observations

On Wednesday afternoon I visited two temples that were about 30-40km away from Siem Reap and I got to see a different side of Cambodian living. Many houses were on stilts to avoid the hazards of seasonal flooding and there was very little in the way of retail (food, stores, etc.) It was great fun feeling the wind in my hair riding on the back of my moto taxi at much higher speeds than we were used to around the main Angkor temple complex.

1. There was a lot of dust and roads were not paved/sealed for most of the trip. There was a ton of road work going on with "Caterpillar" rollers, dump trucks etc. Which was a good sign for the future.

2. Houses on stilts. Why did I not get a picture of this. So sad, it's very different from the houses on mounds in flood areas of California.

3. An old, gray, cannon under one of the stilt houses I saw. Nuff Said. Very odd.

4. Several kids playing pool on a perfect pool table, green felt and polished wood. Again wish I'd taken a pic of this. They call it snooker or pool. They were playing in front of a stilt house, it was super interesting to see that in the middle of nowhere on a dirt road, in cambodia.

5. Rural Gas stations are nothing more than johnny walker and 2 liter soda bottles on racks. They're filled with gasoline acquired from legitimate stations in town and supply motorbikes.

Day 8: Last full day in Cambodia

Today was filled with leisure! The last two days were packed with fast paced temple visits, so I opted to get up late have a nice pizza lunch at The Pizza Co in the only slick mall siem reap has. It's next to a Swenson's ice cream shop, and Revlon counter!

The pizza was quite good and with a large drink came out to a whoping $4.70. That's expensive in Cambodia to be sure! You'd never see food at a local stall retailing for 20,000 riel! I rented a bicycle again and decided to take it easy visiting my favorite temples of Bayon and Angkor Wat in the afternoon. My plans for a peaceful ride around the temple moat were initially thwarted when my bike chain derailed a couple kilometers before my destination. That really sucked. My hands were completely covered in grease and I failed to fix the chain until I reached Angkor Wat where a tiny boy came up to help me. We finally got the chain back on the gears and I was back in business. I must've washed my hands at the one formal restaurant in the area 20 times over.

At Bayon the afternoon light was shining at a novel angle on the sublime buddha/king faces which were great to just sit and stare at for a long while. I also climbed up the steep steps of another shiva temple pyramid named Baksei Chamkrong which apparantly translates into something like "shelter under birds wings".

My final temple visit in Angkor was back at the big temple really examining the details of various bas reliefs. There are 100s of meters of hindu storytelling on the outer walls. The battle of Kurukshetra from the Mahabharta, the story of Ramayana, and a particular creation myth called "churning the sea of milk". Before actual sunset, I biked back to town with the intention of partying on Bar St.

However, I was so exhausted I just had a quick vegetarian thali dinner at a local indian restaurant (not really superb, but cheap at $3) and even though I set an 11PM alarm to head out I just woke up briefly tossed and turned and went back to sleep. I had an early morning ahead of me, I had to be at the airport by 6AM to head back.

Day 7: Grand Tour Circuit & Further afield...

Today my moto-driver took me on the "Grand" tour of temples in the area, plus 2 out of the way spots, 1000 Lingas & Bantay Shrei. The former includes 100s of lingas carved into a small river bed that culminates into a fountain and is remote from the main temple site (30 km or so out of the way). The latter is the best example of intriciately detailed carvings done in Khymer Hindu temples. It's a Shiva temple with amazing attention to detail and Hindu storytelling on the shrine walls.

Pre Rup had to be my favorite temple on the circuit today. I spent a lot of time there, great elephant statues on the corners of each temple layer and commanding brick structure soaring into the sky. The Khymer were indeed masterful Hindu/Buddhist artisans.

I've decided to forgoe Roulos group tomorrow. It's a set of ruins pre-dating the Angkor constructions all Hindu built between 700-900 CE I believe, I'd rather just rent a $2 bike and hang out among my "favorite hits" in the main temple complex about 10 km from town.

Finally, Some Photos!

Check out my flikr photostream here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/32624793@N00/

Day 5 & 6: Siem Reap & Angkor Temples

Check 2 of the new 7 wonders off my todo list. Angkor is awesome. I've been riding around on a moto-taxi for about $10 for a full 12 hour day of driving 30+ kilometers. Perhaps slightly on the more expensive side since I'm not in a covered tuk tuk, but whatever it's too cool here. Angkor Wat is what everyone has seen in pictures and it's breathtaking and serene. The sheer number of temples in this 15 mile radius is incredible.

I finally hit up an internet cafe in Siem Reap, the town adjacent to the ruins, I'm trying to get photo's on Flikr, but the connection is a bit slow. The last two nights I've enjoyed drinking/dining along Siem reaps, short "Bar St." "Angkor What?" fast became my favorite hangout. Pub atmosphere that serves burgers in addition to $3 pitchers of beer and $1.50 house cocktails! The place is owned by a young indian guy frin Mumbai, who's girlfriend is a british expat and the bartender as well! She was telling me she's been in Cambodia for 2 years ever since a world-trip that started in India over 3 years ago. Pretty nuts!

I really don't want to say much about the temples until photos go up. They're worth perhaps 10,000 words in Angkor's case...