A Few Thoughts on Floating

Listening to: Stand Up – Ludacris and Shawnna

Mood: Calm – for the minute

We’re closing on 3 months since we left the US. 3 months of exciting/frustrating/exhilarating floating. As I mentioned, our stuff went onto a ship and we stepped on the airplane with 4 large suitcases and 2 carry-ons with what we hoped would be all we needed until our stuff came. All in all, our planning worked out well and we didn’t miss too many things. For the first 2 months, we were staying with my inlaws and were very, very comfortable. After that, we left for our vacation with 2 suitcases with a much condensed version of what we needed, planning to ship the rest of the suitcases after landed and got settled in Bangalore. Who wants to carry 6 suitcases on vacation?? Not me, that’s who.  Vacation was a little more complicated in terms of having stuff. 

Things that we thought were standard (hello hotel hair conditioner) were pretty much nonexistent, leading to meandering trips to find a grocery store. It was indeed an interesting experiment to see how little we would be comfortable living with.  Just as I can confidently state that I am not in any way a minimalist, we also get along fine for the most part with less. Clothes also turned out to be a problem. It’s winter in Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur right now, so we packed all long sleeve shirts, sweaters and pants. Once we landed up in Bangalore, it wasn’t all that cold. We only brought 1 weeks worth of clothes, so I feel like I’m doing laundry ALL. THE. TIME.  After we got here, my husband’s company put us up in a guest house that is kind of like a condo building. There are different apartments with 3 different bedrooms in each that are rented out with a shared kitchen/living area. I’m so thankful they have a washing machine here! I guess it was more of a long term planning fail.  We still don’t have our suitcases and it’s wearing on all of us. The kids don’t have toys to play with and consequently harass me constantly to either watch TV or play video games. I have yet to find any outdoor space to take them to play.

I think overall, the hardest part of floating is the mental aspect of it. It was a lot worse before my husband found a job because we felt like it would never end, even though we knew it would. I’ve tried to be very zen about the whole process and just accept things as they are, but there’s only so much Zen Buddhist a person can be before it makes you crazy. Even now, it’s a struggle for me to find stuff to do and not retreat back into my mind and start missing the friends, the freedom, and the Target.  In my mind, I belong neither here nor there. There’s no community, there’s no identity as of yet, it’s just floating. There’s also the feeling there that we’re drifters. Our stuff has kind of gone off into a mental black hole and the world consists of 6 suitcases, 4 of which we don’t even have right now.

I was teasing my step dad that I’m officially old now because I miss the routine and structure that comes with running a house. In the beginning, it was completely beautiful because I really, really needed a rest after the exhausting previous year and wrapping up our life, but that wore off a lot quicker than I expected. Funny as it sounds, I began craving a bathroom to clean and a kitchen in which to cook my own toast, thank you very much. At least in my mother in law’s house, I had the comfort of knowing them and asking if I wanted something. If I wanted a cup of tea at 12 am, I made one.  The place we are living right now is like a hotel, only better/worse in some ways. Depends how you look at it. There’s a front desk man who knows every time I step out of the house or do laundry. A cook comes every morning to see what I want cooked for the day. The cleaning guys come every afternoon to change the sheets/towels, sweep and dust. It’s like living in someone’s house without it being the comfort of a relative’s. If I want a cup of tea at 12 here, I don’t call and ask for one because I know someone else will have to get up and do it.  

This is a beautiful house, and very comfortable, but it’s not ours. This is the hazard of floating.

Becky

Hospital Fun

Listening to: Chicken Little

Although fun is probably a misnomer, there was indeed a hospital involved. A few nights ago (after we landed in Bangalore, thank god!) the husband got a 103.3 fever. We took a cab to my sister in law’s house so I could watch her kids on their day off and because he was sick. We took him to the hospital in the morning because his fever was so high. We went into the casualty/emergency department because there were no general doctors at the hospital that day. We got right in and they took his temp/heart rate.  A random nurse (that I thought was a doctor) wanted to admit him overnight. He didn't want to stay because first day of work was the next day. Not realizing that she was not a doctor, and this particular hospital has a tendency to admit people to make money, I told him he should. I was sent by myself to the admission desk with a note from the doctor.  After assuring the ridiculously rude girl at the desk that no, I did not want a deluxe private room, she sent me over to the counter to pay for the room, because you pay ahead of time here. This led to finding out that 10,000 rupees were required as a deposit for a 1 night stay in a semi private room. After assuring them no fewer than 8 times that no, I did not want a delux private room, the cash only rule was introduced. Since no one walks around with 10,000 rupees, I had to find some money.

I called my sister in law to let her know what’s up. This led to me wandering around in Marathahalli (my sister in law’s neighborhood) looking for an ATM who's location was sketchily described to me as down a gully (small alley) after a restaurant. After walking for 45 minutes, asking about people in English, Hindi, and Telugu if they knew where it was and getting blank stares and shrugs, I finally found a sign for it, only to discover I had forgotten our pin. The good news, you can use your card at any ATM in India without getting a fee for using a different bank.

Back to the hospital, cursing up a storm the whole way. Back to ATM, only to have my sister in law call me in a panic because she had called me 17 times and was sure I had been kidnapped because I didn't hear the phone ring. The bad news – this was a ghetto ATM that didn’t work anyhow. My sister in law walked down to the ATM and then told me the admitting thing was crap and probably only because I was white. 1 hour later, more attitude from the girl at the desk, and 1,000 rupees later, we freed my husband from the hospital and went home. It's rather funny now that I think about it, so not funny at the time. Calls were made to Hyderabad to get some medical advice from family.

They sent us home with a lot of complaining about how we couldn't take care of him at home and some industrial strength tylenol.  Husband’s fever did come down, but he got Delhi belly anyhow, leading to more calls to Hyderabad.  He went to work anyhow the past few days and is doing better. He has some antibiotics, which will hopefully solve the problem.

I ended up getting sick yesterday too. I had a decent fever, some vomiting and Delhi belly too. More industrial strength Tylenol and I’m back to almost normal today, although I am taking it easy on the spice, which is totally disheartening, because I was really enjoying it after all the blah food on our trip.

What I will say is that this particular hospital was clean and modern. It's just a shame that the trust in medical professionals just isn't there.

Becky

Temporary Lodging

Listening to: Chicken Little

As my husband has got a job with a company that will remain unnamed (in the event they don’t want to be named, I don’t want any lawsuits!), we were given 4 weeks in a guest house so we could find an apartment in Bangalore. My husband’s work is located in the northern section of Bangalore, so that’s probably where we’ll settle down too. Our guest house is set up like a house with different apartments, divided into different rooms that can be occupied by different people with a shared living/kitchen area. There are 2 beds upstairs and 1 downstairs with the living/dining area. We are in the upstairs apartment with 2 of the bedrooms. There is no one in the downstairs bedroom, so we pretty much have it to ourselves. There is a cook that comes for the day if you want to order food, or you can be supplied with pots/pans if you want to cook yourself. I made my first foray out to the grocery store by myself the other day. I can totally do this.  Anywho, we’re really happy with the place, but haven’t been there all that much. More to come on this later.

Becky

Golden Triangle Part 3: Jaipur

Listening to: My daughters and nieces playing

Jaipur was easily my favorite part of our trip.

Fatepur Sikri

We left straight from Taj Mahal and drove an hour until we reached Fatepur Sikri, a dead city.  Our guide met us in the parking lot and walked us around, telling us about the history and some of the unique sites. One of the neatest things for me was the combination of religions in the architecture. Akbar, the builder, had 3 different wives (one catholic, one Hindu, and one Muslim) and incorporated elements of all of these religions into the buildings.

After we got into Rajasthan, we stopped at another tourist trap for lunch. This food was really good. We got Lal Maas, which is a peppery Rajasthani curry with more naan.

This was our room

This is a snap of the hotel

 Another hour and we had reached Jaipur. Our hotel was: the Dera Rawatsar. This hotel was also my favorite also. It wasn’t really even a hotel, it was a bed and breakfast. There were a couple little courtyards, Indian art on the wall, and a huge room with arches and curtains, a window nook big enough for the kids to sleep on, and colorful bed spreads. I could go on and on about this. We ate at the restaurant that night. Unfortunately, the food was awful. It is totally geared towards western/European palates and has absolutely no spice. Indian food without spice is not Indian food.

Hawa Mahal

Jai Mahal

Amber Fort

The next day, we ate breakfast and met our guide. She brought us past Hawa Majal. You can’t go inside, but we saw from the sidewalk. We drove out to Jai Mahal – the palace on the water, and then drove up to Amber fort.  I enjoyed Amber fort a lot too. It had a totally different feel than the other fort and tombs that we saw. Totally worth seeing again! After that, the guide took us on a driving tour of the city and pointed out that it was a planned city on a block system. We drove through the old city, enjoying the gate, walls, brightly colored saris, and bazaars. Totally romantic and I think I’m in love. We stopped for lunch in another tourist place where the food was just so-so. We went back to the hotel for a short nap and then headed out again. We drove out of Jaipur and into the countryside to a farm type thing called Dera Amer. The hosts met us at the door and handed us bananas and asked us to feed them to the elephants. The girls loved it. We then climbed up onto a high perch and on top of the elephants. Two mahoots (the guys who steer the elephants) rode on the elephant’s heads. The eldest daughter rode with me, the youngest with the husband. We took a good hour long lumbering ride on Hema and Lakshmi, the elephants. It was wonderful. It was dusk and we saw different birds, rodents, and such. After the elephant ride, we went for dinner across the lawn, which I’m told can be rented for elephant polo matches. 9 elephants lumbering around on a lawn. That is beyond awesome. Anyhow. They seated us around a fire and gave us assorted bits of grilled meat.  After that, we went into the big, open tent and sat down. They fired up two huge open fireplaces because it got quite chilly. We ate, buffet style and then stuffed in some dessert too. It was wonderful.  We headed back to Jaipur and went to sleep.

Elephant Polo Yo. That's just awesome!

 One of the elephants

The next morning, we ate slowly, lounged around, and then caught our flight to Bangalore.

A note on Jaipur: Jaipur is a pretty with it city, even if it still is one of the more conservative places in India. The women still walk around with their saris draped over their faces. They also use a lot of saffron yellow dye for saris, so lots of bright yellow clothes. Tourism is a major source of income here, so they really do see a lot of different people.  Rajasthan is such a romantic place. The women with their bright saris, all of the beautiful mirror worked clothes, umbrellas, purses, etc. I will definitely be coming here again!

You see women like this everywhere

Becky

Golden Triangle part 2: Agra

Listening to: My daughters and nieces playing

Our driver picked us up early and we headed out to Agra. It was a 5 hour drive and much better than I had thought driving long distances in India would be. I redact my crazy mad max comment.  The kids however got totally bored and bothered us the whole way.

On the way, our driver stopped at the tourist trap that had guaranteed clean bathrooms and overpriced knick knacks. We had the most awful tea I have ever tasted and then pretty much ran out of that place. My eldest daughter had some canned juice that made her sick on the way to Agra. L

Akbar's Tomb

We stopped at Akbar’s tomb on the way.  We didn’t go in, but stopped to wander around and take pictures.  After the tomb, we went and dropped our stuff at our hotel, the Sarovar Portico (same chain as Delhi). This hotel was a bit older, but decorated more in an Indian fashion rather than modern. We ate lunch at the hotel restaurant. The food was not all that good here.

Agra Fort

Our guide came and we headed out to Agra fort.  The kids were bored again as they wanted to run around a lot and the guide wanted to stand still and talk a lot. Again, being the nerd I am, I enjoyed learning about the history.

After Agra fort, we headed to a garden on the opposite side of the Yamuna river from the Taj Mahal. This was by far a favorite evening of mine. The garden was totally deserted and we got some great pictures. Since Shah Jehan, the builder of Taj Mahal was completely compulsive about symmetry, it doesn’t really matter which side you take pictures from, they all look the same. We also got to take pictures in the evening light, which was nice. We headed back to the hotel and got ready for dinner.

We ended up at the roof bar/grill section of the restaurant because the downstairs dining room was totally full of middle age white tourists and Chinese tourists.  The kids again ate pizza and the husband and I ate some byriani and kebabs that were pretty good.

The Taj Mahal - just in case you have your head in a gopher hole

The next day, we headed out first thing after breakfast to the Taj Mahal. We took the morning ogling the view, taking pictures and listening to the guide repeat himself from the night before about all of the history. Overall, it is a very majestic place to see and totally worth it. On the way out, we got in the middle of two warring monkey groups that lived on opposite sides of the street. You may think monkeys are cute. You would be wrong. When the monkeys are the size of dogs, have bigger teeth, and are trying to destroy each other it's just not cute. We ran out of the way as the guide shouted at the monkeys to get lost. They paid no attention and we made our way out as quickly as possible.

This was actually a monkey from the Taj. Sitting like a boss.

A few things on Agra. Agra is a smaller city who’s only claim to fame is the Taj. There are a lot of uneducated, small town people who look at you like a mark or a circus attraction. You don’t see women out on the street, at all. I would highly recommend women go with a male relative, friend, or guide and make sure you are wearing loose pants and a long sleeve, loose shirt. If you happen to go when there are a lot of groups of school kids, especially boys, they will pester you and stare. It’s best just to ignore them.  I really hope I'm not offending anyone by mentioning this. It's just an impression I got after being in a few different cities here.

We finished around 11 am and set out for Jaipur.

Becky

Golden Triangle Part 1: Delhi

Listening to: My daughters and my nieces playing

The husband and I decided to take a trip before he fell headlong into the rabbit hole otherwise known as work. Since my list of places to visit in India is huge and growing by the day, we thought we’d try and get bang for the buck and time on this vacation. We had a week free, so we decided on a 5 day trip. I’m sure we could have spent another 2 days exploring stuff, but by the end, 5 days turned out to be more than enough. The golden triangle is an area in north India comprised of Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur. The first stop on our trip was Delhi.

We left my inlaw’s house in Hyderabad at the ungodly hour of 4 am. My apologies to those of you who regularly choose/have to get up at 4 am, but that’s pretty darn ungodly to me. We flew spice airlines. The plane was small and a bit crowded, but the flight was only 2 hours and got over quickly.  One thing to note – there is no such thing as free anything on planes here.  Want a soda? 50 rupees.  Snacks? 50 rupees. 

We were met at the airport by our contact and the driver, who scared me by trying to take my suitcase without explaining who he was.  It doesn’t happen very often these days, but rogue cab drivers used to try and get you to use their cab by just taking your luggage from you and walking towards their cab.  Anyhow, he apologized and explained who he was. The drive to our hotel took about a half hour. Delhi traffic is pretty bad, just like everywhere else in India. We stayed in the Ashtan Sarovar, which is almost in the center of New Delhi. The rooms were almost tiny, but very well decorated and modern. The room had a double bed and they placed an extra mattress on the floor for us, which I have heard is normal in Delhi. No idea. The service was also excellent.

We headed down to get lunch from the hotel restaurant. Hands down, this was the best food we had for the entire trip. The first day we had sandwiches for lunch, which turned out to be pretty good. We went back to the room to chill for a while as we waited for the driver to come back from his lunch.

Qutub Complex

Around 2, we headed out to the Qutub complex. Delhi is full of history from both the British times and older. Being the nerd that I am, I loved it. We took a turn around the Qutub complex, enjoying the ruins, reading signs, and taking pictures. I noticed with a small amount of alarm that the place was just about covered in huge red hornets. While it was disconcerting, they weren’t bothering us, so we continued. We also saw lots of bright green small parrots that are apparently everywhere in the north. We only had the cuckoos in the south, so this was good fun for the kids to see.  As we decided to leave, I brushed my hand against my shirt at my collarbone and felt one. And then it stung me on my collar bone.

Not sure if this is exactly what stung me, but it was huge and looked like this.

That had to be the worst bee sting I have ever had in my life. It didn’t hurt that much when it stung, but the pain slowly built over the next half hour until it felt like someone was jabbing a hot needle into my nerve and twisting it. Every time my shirt or one of my necklaces brushed it, it made me wince. 

Mine swelled up much more than this, but you get the general idea.

While that sucked, I was really glad it wasn’t one of the kids, especially with my younger daughter’s allergies. Since we were done anyhow, we decided to head out.

Humayun's Tomb

We went to Humayun’s tomb next. I really like old tombs, especially those inlaid with different stones and decorated with Arabic writing. They just strike me as incredibly romantic. The grounds were very large, green, and well cared for. While we were exploring some of the rooms on the grounds, Naveen scared a pigeon out of a dark room that ran smack into my legs. I decided I had better avoid any more wild life. 2 animal run ins in one day! We got a very nice view of Delhi from all around the tomb, which sits about 3 stories up. After spending some time exploring here, we decided to head out again.

Dilly Haat

We asked the driver to take us to a place called Dilly Haat. It’s a small open air market place with handicrafts and food from all over India. One of the most fun places I’ve been so far. Every week they feature a cultural show from a different part of India. The one that was going on when we went was from Orissa, a state in the northeastern part of India. Let me tell you, Orissa has definitely been added to my list of things I must see before I leave India.  They had a small band playing and 2 young boys were dancing. It was very neat to see and I found it interesting how feminine their movements seemed while dancing. The kids really enjoyed looking at all the bright, shiny stuff and toys in the market stalls and I really wished I had a suitcase or two handy for all the shopping I wished I could do. As it was, both our suitcases were full to the brim (darn you moving!) so I had to pass on the shopping.  This may or may not have been intentional on my husband’s part.   As all of the eating places looked a bit shady, and we were trying to avoid Delhi belly and typhoid, we opted to just have coffee. The kids had juice.  We hit up the Tamil stand for some tea and were a bit disappointed. Usually south Indian tea/coffee is amazing. This was just eh. After dumping in some sugar, we watched some more dancing.

After Dilly Hut, we headed back to the hotel to relax a bit before dinner. Our driver was turning around and managed to almost flatten a motorcyclist who decided that in spite of the loud chime indicating that we were backing up and the fact that the car was already moving backwards, it was a good idea to go behind him anyhow. The driver and motorcyclist had a good 5 minutes of yelling at each other about how stupid the other one was before our driver just drove off.  That was good fun.

We had dinner again at the hotel restaurant as there wasn’t much other choice on the street for food. There was a shady Chinese joint, but again with the food poisoning and typhoid, we decided the hotel was safer. The food and service was great and we went back to the room to crash.

India Gate

The next day, we had a breakfast buffet at the hotel. The food, and most importantly for me, the coffee was good. Our guide was waiting for us downstairs and we took off. We drove to the India gate and got down to walk around and take some pictures. There wasn’t much else there to do, but we later discovered that Aamir Khan had been there earlier taping an advertisement. Just this close to a celeb sighting in India. Phooey.

Oh Aamir Khan, you still remind me of a cute little boy

Back in the van and then on to the red fort.

The Red Fort - It was impressive from the outside anyways

We got down and took some pictures but didn’t go inside, as she told us it wasn’t really all that great to wander around in.

A cycle rickshaw. I wish this guy was our driver. He looks much more interesting

We hopped in a rickshaw of the unmotorized type and headed off through Chandni Chowk.

Chandni Chowk - yep, the by-lanes are really this small and crowded, but fascinating

I really enjoyed this too. It seemed to me like the stereotypical idea of old India. Small lanes lined with vendors in stalls, brightly colored everything for sale, and tons of carts piled high, rickshaws, cows, and pedestrians. 

Jama Masjid

After Chandni chowk, we went to Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in Delhi. The guard at the door grabbed all the western women tourists and made us put on Chinese style long sleeved robes, even though I was already wearing long sleeves. We noticed with some amusement that none of the Indian ladies got pulled aside, even if they were wearing saris.  We wandered around as the guide talked nonstop about the mosque. We took a lot of pictures and declined all of the kids trying to get 50 rupees out of us for taking a picture of us. While the begging/harassing tourists to buy stuff seems less than I remember from last time, there is still quite a bit.

Bahai Temple Delhi

After Chandni Chowk, we headed out to the Ba'hai temple. It was absolutely beautiful and worth the drive. The effect of silence inside is a bit altered from the noise outside (it was really, really crowded when I went) but it's still a a wonderful experience sitting in silence inside. I've always wanted to visit a Ba'hai temple, and I'm glad I got to.

After the Ba'hai temple, we were taken to a Kashmiri craft/carpet shop where we were shown how Kashmiri carpets were made and given the hard sell to by a very expensive carpet and some very expensive shawls and saris. We politely apologized for not buying anything and backed our way out the door. I was rather unhappy to have been brought there in the first place, but as we later discovered, this is part of having a guide. They get a cut of whatever you buy, so they steer you towards places like this.  Our Guide dropped us off at a western style restaurant and said goodbye. At first, we were very wary because it looked like a dumpy 70’s style lounge, with Def Leppard of all things on the radio. The food turned out to be quite good though. We got some butter chicken curry and naan, north Indian flat bread. The kids got pizza.

After lunch, we headed back to the India gate to hang out. We saw a children’s park and decided to let the kids run off some energy. Most of the playgrounds in India are rather shady and look decidedly unsafe. We let the kids play for a while and wandered the very nice grounds for a while until the husband got uncomfortable with the looks we were getting and the safety with the equipment. Back to the hotel to pack up and get ready to go to Agra the next day.

A note on the feel of Delhi - Delhi is a totally comopolitan place. I don't think I got any looks at all while we were here. It's the capital of India and was ruled by the British for a long time, so many things are progressive here. A word of caution though. There have been many stories circulating in the news about violence and rape against women, especially foreign tourists. Use your head - dont' wander around by yourself in neighborhoods off the beaten path or at night if you're a woman.

Just a side note: None of these photos was taken by me. Still waiting on my stuff to come. Will share my photos later.

Becky

Well Now That’s Just Disgusting Part II

My inlaws live in a very nice small neighborhood off some decently busy roads that cross Hyderabad. The small grocery store is about 2 blocks away, and the husband and I occasionally walk down there to pick up some cereal, jam or other such things.

As I have already noted, Indian streets are crazy jungles of activity that require the utmost attention to navigate. This goes double for pedestrians as you are the smallest, weakest thing traveling on the road. There are very few places where there are sidewalks, people just hug the edge of the road. There is also the honking method of communication to be considered, but we’ll get into that in another entry. I guess it’s pretty apparent that you need to watch what’s going on around you.

The fun part comes in when you realize that you have to watch the ground in front of you also. There are stray dogs to be avoided at all costs, potholes, mysterious puddles, bugs, and trash, not to mention the people and random cars/autos parked on the side of the street. 

One of these fine evenings, I was walking with the husband and we needed to cross the street. I decided that watching the cars was the prudent thing for my eyes to be doing at that moment. This was where things got hairy. I had not noticed that something had used the bathroom on the side of the street. I turned to cross the street and didn’t notice it until my sandal clad foot had sunk in nice and good. Thank goodness I was wearing heeled sandals, otherwise I might have had Hepatitis nightmares for weeks – after all, I didn’t even know what left the pile of crap in the street.  Husband, after he finished being mad that I wasn’t watching where I was going and then laughing hysterically, assured me it was just from a cow. This is totally reasonable because you do see the odd inexplicable herd of cattle wandering down the street with the cattle herd in the middle of super busy neighborhoods/streets. I just wonder where they keep them…it’s all houses, where do you have space for ginormous cows??

So came home and thoroughly washed off my sandal, thankful that this lesson didn’t come with skin contact or any exotic disease. But still. Ew.

Becky