almost done

Went to Chowpatti beach. Toxic beyond belief. You can actually see the garbage in the waves. A bunch of teens saw us on the beach and wanted us to write our names all over their arms to celebrate friendship day (weird Indian holiday). Took a harrowing boat ride to Elephant Island. Small boats don't fare well in monsoon season. One lady passed out and several vomited and I got soaked to the bone. The island was pretty awesome. Lots of great Hindu cave carvings. We also went to the Kaneri caves. These were Buddhist caves and much more beautiful and interesting. Both caves were over run with monkeys. I never thought I'd say it, but I hate monkeys. They do nothing but cause problems and make me nervous.The steal stuff and fight with each other; I'm pretty sure that even the other animals hate them. Whenever they are around I make sure to carry a stick just in case (rabies was the only shot I didn't get). We are getting pretty worn out so there probably won't be much more than souvenir shopping before we leave. Our flight leaves at 5am so we won't be able get much sleep. I can't wait to get back to the sanity of the states.

Garbage water

friendship day?

caves

kolkata to mumbai

We spent our last day in kolkata at a loud scummy local bar in town. There are a ton of super classy places, but I am not classy enough to get in. I was actually turned away for wearing shorts (from street pooping to dress codes, only in India!). We both had to go to the bathroom real bad on our walk to a Jain temple and we stopped to go in the alley (like all the locals do). Turns out though that it was NOT only an alley but some womans home too. She freaked out on Sunni and Sunni freaked out right back. Nothing like walking through a beautiful temple with your hystarically crying girlfriend (again, only in India). Flying into Mumbia was a little unsettling. A massive slum surounds the airport and as you land you can see all the tiny metal villages. So far it is still not the modern metropolis that I was somehow invisioning, but it has all the signs of progress. We went to a mall yesterday and walked around by the Gateway of India today. Modern coffee houses and fancy chain stories sit next to beggars and bazzars with highrises being constructed everywhere. Although still pretty strange this and kokata are the closest to western cities (but still light years away).

Bohdi Tree Guest House


Jain Temple


Rare moment of athleticism (playing catch with some little kids)


Mumbai

Everybody poops...

Poop. We all do it. But not in the steet, Kolkata is the only place we have been so far where we have not had to dodge poop land mines. The amount of poop in India in stagering. Animals run wild here and sanitation is not a prirtioty, so on the average walk down the road one has to dodge a plethora of poop. The poop hierarchy is as follows: Water buffalo, cow, pig, dog, human, monkey, goat. Yes that is right; human. People in India poop in the street. They do it in broad daylight. I would say that on average we have seen around ten people poop every day. There appears to be no shame in it. No one cleans the poop either, You have to constantly dodge giant poop blobs every where you walk. On the trains the toilets just empty out onto the tracks, so all you see and smell in the stations is human feces. I am not trying to sound judgmental, but I find it very hard to understand how people can live so close to so many kinds of poop and not be bothered. I try to follow the old saying "when in rome do as the romans do", but so far I have not pooped in the street.

Pooping in public (he was actualy reading someting while doing it!)

look at the poop! (just try to imagine how bad this smells!!!!)

india museam, kali temple, etc...

Went the India musaeum. Like all the other museaums we have been to here, there is little ryhme or reason behind it. Kind of a natural history museaum with some randomness thrown in for good mesure. More like being a storehouse that a museaum though. The Kali temple is only a metro stop away from our guest house. They sacrafice 10 goats a day and give the meat to the poor. I didn't get to see any sacrifices, but did get a helpful tour from one of the Brahmin. I bought a bunch of gongs and let a little girl play one during a ceremony out side the temple. On our way home for the night we found a bunch of older men playing a awesome game that is like table top flick billairds. They looked kinda of seedy but we happy we were watching and taking pics.

India museaum


Cool Graffiti

Communist party still runs west bengal!

Mother Terresa's tomb

Ceremony at Kali Temple

Flick pool?

Calcutta

Calcutta is such a (humid) breath of fresh air. Although the past four cities we have been fun and interseting, they have also strongly resembled a post-apocoliptic waste land. No order on the roads, animals every where, people pooping in the streets (more on this soon). Overall; what appeared to be a total colapse of soceity. Calcutta although still slightly wild, has the order and logic of major metropolitan area. The subway is clean, logical and safe. There are real roads with real cars that have to stop at real stop lights. There is a wonderful vintage beauty all around the city. This is a place where I probably could have stomached a dive hotel and this is the city where we booked high class. We are staying in a 5 room boutique guest house called the Bohdi Tree. It like something out of a dream. I can't describe it so I'll post some pics in the morning. I have a feeling that 4 days is not going to be enough to fully experience this city.

attack of the henna girls

I spent last night puking my guts out. I'm not sure what I ate, but I am paying the price today. I couldn't get out of bed until well after noon, and still have not been able to eat anything. I did however run into two henna girls that I had promised some work to the day we got here. All these little girls run around with baskets trying to sell you flowers and two of the wanted to henna my hands. I didn't have any small bills so I told them that if they found me before I left that I would pay them 50 rs a hand. Today they found me. Both my hands are now covered in what is clearly the henna work of 8 year old girls. It was great. They chatted with me, listened so music on my ipod, and attacked Sunni as soon as showed up. Sunni got it worse than I did, she has both hands and legs tagged by a gang of little girls. I likeed these kids so much that I paid them more than the boat men that rowed us a mile yesterday.

Attack of the Henna Girls

Varanasi

Varanasi is why I wanted to come to India. I could spend all day hanging out on the ghats. The hotel sunni booked for yesterday was terrible. It was in the old town and felt very unsafe. We were offered drugs way too many times to be comfortable. "Would you like some tea, hash, opium?" People come here to die. It is my understanding that if you die here you escape the reancarnation cycle, so there are lots of old people just hanging out waiting for nature to take its course. We saw several burning bodies on the main cremation ghat which was surprisingly uncomfortable even for a morbid guy like me. Some beggar told me I had no heart because I didn't give him any money. Nothing like simultaneous burning bodies and beggars to creep you out. I wanted to bathe in the Ganga, but it is basically a really dirty toilet. The guidebook strongly recommends not bathing in the poop water, but I did get up the courage today to sit on the ghat with my feet in the water. It felt great once I put the percent of fecal matter out of my mind.

dude waiting to kick it

Sacred bath in the Ganges (i wish i had the guts to do it)



Around the ghats


nothing says India like child labor (our ten year old boat man)

the smoke in the distance is from burning bodies!!!

poopy feet

the monkeys liked our crappy hotel better than we did!

goodbye Krishna Palace hello Taj

We were sad to leave our guest house. Krishna palace was great. Big rooms, a friendly family running the place, and a nice calm location. We could have easily stayed longer. The train ride to Agra went nice and smooth. Our hotel in Agra is on the pricey side because we insisted on AC. We also ended up with a view of the Taj from our room which is still blowing my mind. Today is the anniversary of the death of Shaw Jahan so we got into the Taj for free. We got up at 5am so we could beat the crowds and watch the sun come up. Unlike the rest of the monuments we have been to so far, the Taj is in perfect condition. It does not look real as you start to approach it. Even when you are inside there is still a feeling of disbelief. I think the Taj was worth the trip all by its self.

Krishna Palace




Some ruins

Baby Taj

Taj Mahal

Bollywood action in Jaipur

Apparently India's most famous hindi cinema is right here in Jaipur. Just getting the tickets was a culture shock all by its self. There are seperate lines for men and women to buy tickets and only one movie shows at a time. The inside of the theater is super glitzy and garish. There is assigned seating and an actual intermission. Everyone hoots and yells through the entire movie. It is a totally wild experence. The enitire place was sold out. The movie we saw was called "incedible love". It had everything: romance, action, sex, drama, fart jokes, and cameos by dennise richards and Sylvester stalone!!!! Most of it was in hindi but it was pretty easy to follow. I'm not gonna bother to explain the plot, but it was easily one of dumbest films ever made. Still, it was pretty wild to see a movie in the most famous theater in India.