davethegrinch.net

Dave says:

In a effort to save our souls, atone for our self centered western existence and just to step off the tourist trail for a while, we have decided to volunteer in Nepal. Once upon a time one would have to give up two years for the Peace Corps but these days, with the influx of little time / much money do-gooders, one can buy ones way out of the confessional and onto the express elevator to karmic balance. Today volunteering means paying an NGO money to give you a “meaningful vacation experience”. As illustrated by the opening of this post, it is very easy to be cynical about the whole process but, nevertheless, here Sarah and I are, a few dollars poorer to help make someone else’s life a little richer.

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Sarah says:

We have just passed our 3 month traveling anniversary and fully appreciate that perhaps we are just feeling a bit tired, but India is hard and feels like it keeps getting harder. Our latest adventure began on our journey from Kochi to Munnar. Kochi is probably the most touristy town in south India and also happens to be the first Indian town we’ve visited that, despite the guidebook’s frequent use of the word, fits my definition of “charming”. It was lovely: cute streets, clean, quiet, perfect. Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay more than two days because the heat was, shall we say, unbearable. We decided to head inward toward the mountains to visit some tea plantations. The climate, we anticipated, would be cooler and a town built by the British for the purpose of tea must be “charming”, right??

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Dave Says:

Maybe because it sounds like Timbuku or maybe because its at the edge of the world, but to me, Kathmandu has always been a name belonging to science fiction. One could take the next space shuttle to Saturn’s Titan or Kathmandu, they both have the same number of layovers and both have the little screens in the back of the seat from where you can track your altitude and airspeed across the cosmos.

It therefore came as no surprise to me that Kathmandu actually feels a little like a space port (for Star Wars geeks think Mos Eisley). To further and probably strain the sci-fi analogy, its worth noting that we arrived here on New Years Day 2064. The strange planet that Nepal appears to be is 57 years ahead of us. Signs proudly say “Happy New Year 2064″ and people’s passports and driving licenses are all dated in the future. I have now overused the phrase “Great Scott, Marty - We have to get Back To The Future” but that’s not going to stop me if I think I can get a cheap laugh. In the future (your future, our past) we will post what you should expect from the year 2064 - it’s not pretty!

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Dave says:

We were not happy with the Poopada Hotel in the hill station town of Munnar, Kerala, India for two whole days. A whole series of complaints including dirty towels, no hot water, excessive noise from both management and guests and cold/late food had brought us to a point of frustration. The hotel in question was charging more than any other hotel we had stayed in in India and was forced upon us because every hotel in town was full of Indian tourists due to Easter weekend and the start of the school holidays coinciding. It was the only place in town with rooms for the entire weekend and we were stuck there. The situation escalated and came to a head on our second night when a bus load of Indian students pulled into the parking lot, built a campfire right by the bus and proceeded the start their own Indian rave. By the time 12:30am swung around, the hotel manager was either drunk or stoned and wasn’t making much sense of our complaining. We informed him we’d be expecting a discount but I don’t think our annoyance made it through his bloodshot eyes to his beetle nut addled brain. He then attempted to turn the situation into a bartering opportunity, forcing us to explain his job was to make his customers happy by offering a discount he thought was appropriate; we are talking about a hotel, not a trinket stand at the local market. Besides, he was not serious and any offer we would have made would not have been accepted. He then spent the next 10 minutes trying to tell us that the room rate we had was discounted already and we spent the 10 minutes following those informing him it was not. He grasp of the English language seemed to leave him at the most inopportune moments, especially when arguments turned against him. Once it was clear this was getting us nowhere, we left him to think about his attitude but were sure he couldn’t care less. (more…)

Dave says:

Mysore is home to sandalwood, silk and incense. It’s also, despite what the guidebooks say, a bit of a shithole (excuse my Hindi). It also has the strangest scam artists in the whole of India thus far. We met about four of them and, to our own amazement, were caught in the same scam twice. (more…)

Dave says:

One of the pleasures of traveling and, in my opinion, one of the benchmarks by which to measure the visited culture is to eat and drink like a local. This subject has been well documented in other reports from other countries and now it’s India’s turn to step up to the gastrometer for the great global food weigh-in. (more…)

Dave says:

If there is one thing the British left behind that the Indians are in no hurry to rid themselves of, then it must be the railway system. It is the lifeline of the country and the only piece of infrastructure that actually works as advertised, well most of the time at least. For clarity, but not necessarily brevity, I will divide the actualities of this not-so-modern marvel into 3 categories.

1. How the government would like you to see it.

2. How it is.

3. What nobody likes to mention. (more…)