Don’t Have a Cow, Man!

Last Friday, we packed our bags and took the 4-hour bus ride to Bangalore. We were greeted with traffic and pollution. It was official: we had arrived to one of the biggest cities in India. We found our campus about 15 kilometers from downtown Bangalore, which was very similar to Mysore’s, but a lot more compact. The benefits of finally being in a big city (as opposed to the more rural Mysore) overshadowed the denseness of our new home.
My second day, I decided that to truly be happy, I would need a motorcycle. I was on a hunt for 5 hours until I finally found a small shop owner who would rent me his motorcycle for a couple of months. I rented a TVS Fiero, a 2-year-old machine which could easy handle any hectic city driving: easy to maneuver, and powerful enough to keep up with any traffic.
My third day, a few of us with motorcycles went out and rode around the town to get a better idea of where everything was. By the end of the day, the pollution had really gotten to me. A pounding headache later, I was back in my room, and my face was completely black from the dirt and fumes hitting me all day. I had definitely reached the limits of Bangalore driving, six hours being the absolute maximum.
Well, it has been a week since I’ve moved to Bangalore, and much has happened in terms of work. With the training in Mysore finally complete, it was time to go into production. I am working for my company’s Banking and Capital Markets division, being assigned to a major financial institution in the States. This being our very first time in this environment, we have been going through domain specific training, and have been assigned a project. We have not been given many responsibilities as of yet, still learning the terminology and methods used by the company. In any case, I am looking forward to getting some real work experience under my belt!
In the coming weeks, we are planning a trip to Delhi, to see the Taj Mahal. More updates coming up!

     Long time since an update. I’ve been quite busy with work, and even busier enjoying the Indian countryside.

     Two weekends ago, a few of us decided to go back to Ooty, this time on our motorcycles. It was a lot more fun the second time around: we were able to take in the beautiful scenery on the way up to the tallest peak in southern India. It was a great drive up, which included 36 hairpin turns to get to the top! After spending the night there, we decided to take a few detours on our way back. It was time to put our rental bikes through a bit of rough terrain as we rode through farm land. We then reached a large rocky hill for us to climb, where the view from the top was unbelievable.
Check out pictures from the trip here!

     Ben, Bryce, and I decided to take a road trip to Somnathpur, where the Keshava Temple stands about 33km east of Mysore. The temple was built in 1268, and the architecture was unbelievable. We were not supposed to take pictures inside the temple, but we snuck a few in. We then took off to Sivasamudram, about 60km southeast of Mysore, near a couple of large waterfalls. The view was amazing!
Check out pictures from the trip here!

     The work week was interrupted with a strike by the State of Karnataka, over land dispute. To make up for the lost day, we had to come in on a Saturday. This was a serious hit on our weekend plans, and we had to readjust. We decided to stay close to Mysore, to a town called Srirangapatnam.
      Srirangapatnam is 16km from Mysore, where the ruins of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan’s capital lie. They ruled southern India during the 18th century, until the British conquered them in 1799 with the help of disgruntled local leaders. The downfall of Tipu was the start of the British territorial expansion in souther India.
     History aside, Ben, Bryce, DJ, Mark, and I rode our motorcycles to see the many sights of Srirangapatnam, including the mosque, the summer palace, a dungeon, and the rest of the fort town.

Thanks to Mark and Bryce for the pictures!

… do as the Indians do. I’m sure a lot of people are going to be worried about this one: Last Friday, I went to Mysore and rented a motorcycle for a month (it cost me $70 total). We decided to go to Mahe, which is a coastal city about 6 hours from Mysore. The ride was unbelievable: we went through a wildlife reserve, up and down a beautiful mountain, and arrived at the beach town 8 hours later (this being my first time driving in India, we were being careful). We spent the next day on the beach… of course, the water was nothing compared to Lakshadweep, but it was still very warm. The next day, Monday, we rode back to Mysore, again enjoying the beautiful sights.

We took some pictures. See them here.

     ”Twenty-five of the 36 Lakshadweep islands are uninhabited,” said an India colleague of ours one day during training. She mentioned that if there is a single remote destination that is “must-see”, it’s Lakshadweep. I didn’t think much of it at the time, everything was new to me, and there was so much to see in the very city I was residing, traveling to islands so far away seemed like a daydream more than a possibility.
     Here I am, two months later, having seen most of Mysore and some of Bangalore. I was looking for something else, something different, and I remembered “Lakshadweep”. Where do I find out about these unknown islands? I didn’t even know where to begin, so I did the only logical thing at the time: I asked anyone native to India how I can get to Lakshadweep. The responses all sounded the same: “I have never heard of Lakshadweep.” I was starting to lose faith. If Indians don’t know about Lakshadweep, the place must not exist. I mean, Americans all know about Hawaii, or even random places like Juneau. (Ok, it may not be that popular, but Juneau is the capital of Alaska. I think you know what I’m getting at here.) Well, this gave me even more motivation to find these so called islands, the ones that don’t exist.
     DJ (a coworker of mine), and I teamed up to set up this trip. What little we found out about Lakshadweep came from Google Images. Like most governments in India, Lakshadweep has a website, but the information is outdated, and none of the phone numbers actually connect. This was beginning to look like a lost cause. We called various travel agencies, government offices, and even local hotels, but communication was short of impossible. After a few dozen phone calls, we got in touch with a person who works for the port authority of Lakshadweep, and spoke enough English to answer our questions. Things were starting to look up. Finally, we found someone working in Lakshadweep who could help us.
     After a few days of back-and-forth conversations, we had enough information as to how to get there. Lakshadweep has an island called Agatti, which has a runway. There is a very small plane going there once a day on most days of the week: Jackpot. The only airline that flies there, Indian Airline, told us all the flights were booked for weeks, and that travel was close to impossible. At this point, we had worked too hard to give up, and being told it couldn’t be done was further motivation to do this. Using Google, we found out the flight number and dates of the flight. Then, luck finally started to shift to our side, as two tickets opened up for a flight to Agatti on Friday the 22nd. We jumped on the chance, and booked the tickets, knowing there were no flights returning. Our thought process was: once we’re there, we can talk face to face with the right people to get us home, somehow. The worst case scenario, which really doesn’t sound like a bad scenario at all, is that we’re stuck on an island. Getting our flight confirmed set off a chain of events that setup our vacation beautifully. Our Lakshadweep connection told us there is a ferry from the islands to the coast on Monday the 25th, which was perfect (She later told us that there was a cyclone in the area, so the ship might be delayed, but that’s a story for another time). We needed to be back by Wednesday the 27th by 9am for an exam, and this gave us a whole day to study. Perfect.
     The trip was laid out for us: Leave Wednesday the 20th after work by overnight bus to Cochin, spend a day in Cochin on Thursday (day off), fly to Agatti on Friday (missing work), get back to Cochin by ferry on Monday (missing another day of work), and finally an overnight bus to Mysore on time for work Tuesday morning. Here we go:

Day 1: Cochin

     We arrived in Cochin early Thursday morning, and decided our first step was to find a hotel near the airport, since our flight the next day was fairly early in the morning. We took the public bus towards the airport, and found a cozy hotel on the side of the road. The Ned Tower staff were delighted to see tourists… I think they’re used to local guests. We got a decent double room for the night for about Rs. 350 ($7), dropped off our bags, and headed for town.
     You have to understand something: the concept of public buses in India is much different than what I’m used to. First of all, there is not much of a “schedule”. Also, there is no way to know which bus goes where, except for some person yelling out of the window its destination. DJ and I got very good at taking the bus, and always ended up at our desired destination, mostly by just asking the driver, who could only respond by bobbing his head. (By the way, the indian “head bob” is something to get used to. They don’t have a “no” nod, or a “yes” nod, but a combination of the two, having a motion similar to that of a bobble head. The head bob means “yes”, or “I understand”. There isn’t a “no” bob…)
     Our first destination was Fort Cochin, by the port of Cochin. Here we found a lot of Chinese fishing nets, which are mainly used at high tide and need at least four men to operate (the nets are huge, and the system of counterweights required to lift the net from the water requires a lot of effort.) After watching the fishermen work the cantilevered contraption, we were asked if we wanted to help them. Of course we did! It wasn’t everyday we got to work alongside the locals and see how they made a living. Unfortunately for them, we only caught a little fish, which wasn’t worth selling.
     Fort Cochin is a market place for the local fishermen to sell their catch of the early morning. You can haggle the price of a fish, then bring it over to small outdoor kitchen and have them cook it for you with rice or noodles. I’m not much of a fan of fish, but DJ bought a huge fish for Rs. 100 ($2), and devoured it. We spent most of the day there, talking, eating, and drinking tea with the locals. We were taught a very simple game to play with sea shells. Jihas, a 13 year old who had the day off from school, was unbeatable. Along with English, Jihas spoke a little french and spanish, which comes in handy when meeting tourists and trying to sell them fish and souvenirs.
     Towards the end of the day, we walked around Fort Cochin through Jew Town, where a synagogue, destroyed by the Portuguese in 1662, was rebuilt by the Dutch two years later when they took Cochin. We then walked to the Mattancherry Palace, built in 1555, where murals, paintings, and statues reflect the long history of Cochin.
     The people’s attitude in Kerla (the state where Cochin is) was significantly different than that of Karnatika (the state where Mysore and Bangalore is). People are a lot more laid back, much slower, and have a very care-free attitude. I really enjoyed Cochin for its rich history, the very friendly and approachable people, and its culture. Needless to say, I still couldn’t wait to get to Lakshadweep!

See the pictures of our first day here!

Day 2&3: Agatti Island

     We woke up the next day, excited and ready to fly to our destination. It seemed like the day would never come. Actually, I was trying not to think about it, I would probably jinx us somehow. Once at the airport, we checked in our bags and approached the gate… we were almost there! The plane held 18 passengers, 2 pilots, and 1 crew member, but a large group of passengers had to cancel. (They probably didn’t think the island actually existed.) The pilots were extremely friendly, and let me be in the cockpit during takeoff. They basically showed me how to fly the airplane. For those who know me, I’m sure you can picture me at the controls of this airplane smiling from ear to ear.
     After an hour in the air, we finally saw it: THE islands of Lakshadweep! The sight from the air was absolutely breathtaking, it was as advertised, if not better. The sand was white as snow, the water clearer than the sky, and the palm trees were the tallest things in sight. Nothing could stop us now, I was ready to jump out of the airplane!
     We stayed in a resort on Agatti, the only place on the island where tourists were allowed (a permit is required to be in Lakshadweep for non-natives), dropped our bags, and ran straight for the water. To my right: sand. To my left: more sand. This place was truly out of a movie. I spent the rest of the day on the beach, enjoying every second of the cleanest air I had ever breathed, the warmest water I had ever swam in, and the most gorgeous sand that has ever touched my skin. At night, we walked through the island, and found a small community of people. As we walked further, we found locals playing soccer on the beach as the sun set, and they asked us to join them. They were really excited to see us and have us play with them. For an hour, soccer was our common language.
     I woke up at around 8 AM to the sound of splashing waves, stood up from my bed, walked to the water, and jumped in. That’s the best way to wake up, in my opinion. We started the day by snorkeling in the lagoon, weaving in and out of corals, and seeing a lot of exotic fish. As I swam around, I saw a HUGE turtle, maybe three to four times my size, staring right at me. I had never been this close to an animal this size before, it was a truly awesome sight. We stared at each other for a few minutes until it decided that it was bored, and swam away. (I couldn’t catch up to it, and my attention was then caught on a gang of large fish swimming about.) Later in the day, we recruited a couple of locals to go lagoon fishing with us, to show us the way. We spent the next four to five hour soaking in the sun and catching fish by the corals. I wasn’t as good as the locals, as I kept on getting my line caught in the corals, and we only caught 4 fish, but it was still a lot of fun.
     Agatti is one of the most beautiful islands in Lakshadweep, and the people were extremely friendly. Everyone is happy, there are no murders, no theft, no criminals, no problems. It’s a community where everyone works to support each other day by day, and everyone has a purpose to make the island a better place to live. Unfortunately for us, the fun had to end, as our boat was leaving the next morning.

See the pictures of our second and third day on Agatti here!

Day 4&5: Island Tour on Ferry

     The ferry, too large to get near the island, was anchored further into the Arabian sea. We took a half-hour shuttle boat through very rough monsoonal seas, and as we reached the ferry, realized that getting on wasn’t going to be as easy as simply walking into the boat. The shuttle boats were much lower than the deck, and only a rope ladder could be used to get us on. The adventurous ones would just climb on board, but the older folks and passengers with baggage had to get on using the rickety ladder.
     The ferry’s main purpose at this time of the year is to bring supplies from island to island, since ships are scarce during the monsoon season. It has a huge cargo hold and a cabin that holds about 100 passengers. The crew manning the ship is 20 deep, and like everybody else, very friendly. We spoke with Raphael, the chief officer on the boat, who had a nice surprise for us: contrary to travel agents and our contact in Lakshadweep, the boat ride was 2 days! Which means that we would miss our bus, and miss another day of work… and possibly even our exam! Bad news. At this point though, there was nothing else we could do but enjoy the 2 day boat ride and hope things work out for us.
     The first day was spent traveling from island to island and dropping off supplies. DJ helped man the crane and load things in and out while I was relaxing on the deck, socializing with fellow passengers and crewmen. During one of the stops, DJ went with one of the crewman, Fatool, on his motorcycle to ride around the island, and said that it was a thrill speeding through the islands, weaving between palm trees and animals.
     The second day on the boat was spent traveling from the islands back to Cochin. Raphael let us onto the bridge, and showed us how to navigate the boat, which was awesome! He showed us the radar, the satellite communication system, the auto pilot, and of course, the old fashion map. At this point, I can fly and airplane, and command a boat. We also socialized with the crew in the mess hall, watching Indian music videos and telling each other’s story. The atmosphere in the passenger compartment of the boat was very festive. Most of the passengers on the boat were Muslim, and today was the first day of Ramadan, which meant everyone had to fast during the day. By sunset, dinner became a huge ordeal, even though the food wasn’t too appetizing.
     We reached the Cochin port Tuesday morning, exchanged phone numbers with the crew, and headed to the bus station, hoping the bus to Mysore was still available. The only bus available had seats, but would reach Mysore Wednesday morning, leaving us no time before the exam! This was the only means of transportation available at this point, so our choice was not too hard: we bought the tickets and hoped to get back to Mysore on time. Since there was still five hours before our bus left, DJ and I decided to go back to Fort Cochin and buy more fish from our friends. As easy as it was to lose ourselves in their company, time was against us.
     Five hours later, we were back on the bus for an overnight journey against the clock. We reached the center of town at 5:30am, took a rickshaw back to campus, and had enough time to take a shower and change before our exam. This vacation was amazing, but its success would rest on the result of the test. With no sleep, and a long bus ride through potholed streets, the odds were against us. Long story short, in the words of DJ: “We win.”

See the pictures of our last two days cruising the Arabian seas here!

Check out the complete album here!

Things have been great, even though I haven’t posted in a while. I am planning a trip to a collection of small islands off the west coast of India called Lakshadweep. These islands are fairly unknown, and little tourists go there. The following link is a satellite image of one of the islands called Agatti. Notice the runway for the airplane at the south tip of the island. It is the only way to get to the mainland from any of the islands, and only very small planes can land and takeoff there (about 20 passengers at the most).

Edit: I have just finalized my travel plans. I am leaving Wednesday night on an overnight bus to Kochi, and we are spending Thursday night there. Friday morning, we are taking the 2 hour plane ride to Agatti. We are going to stay until Sunday, when we’ll be taking an 18 hour ferry ride back to Kochi. I should be back Tuesday at about 2am.

We just got back from a 2-day trip to Bangalore. It was my first time in the city, apart from my arrival at the airport, and it was a very dramatic change from Mysore. Bangalore is a lot more westernized, both in the shops, but in people’s dress and culture as well.
DJ, Vivek, and I made the 3-hour bus trip early morning Saturday. We arrived and went to the shopping district, where I bought an Indian alternative rock CD and an Indian dance CD. We also bought a lot of bootleg movies off the street for extremely cheap.
We checked in our hotel at about 5pm, and then decided to go hunt some steak down. We saw our first McDonald’s, but they didn’t even serve beef. (I wasn’t going to eat beef for the first time in a month at McDonald’s anyways.) We came up to a shopping mall, and found “Sizzlers,” where beef was tenderloin, and very tasty. It still had a little bit of an Indian flavor to it, but it was beef nonetheless. We ended up doing a little bar crawl of Bangalore after dinner, and stopped at a bar with good music and plenty of room to lounge…
We left the next day at about 3pm and took the bus the locals took, which was much cheaper than the coach bus we took on the way there. It was an experience that was still priceless, as it got me to connect with the locals a bit more. All in all, it was a fun trip, and we got a chance to explore Bangalore and the nightlife. And eat beef.

It’s been a long time since the last update. I’ve been really busy with my comprehensive exam (the 5 hour exam I explained in a previous post), in which I got an A. Thank you, thank you… We started our specific stream (J2EE stream), where we started with Unix, and we’ll be moving on to web development, Java, and more Java. In fact, we’ll do so much Java I should be an expert when I’m done.

I haven’t really had time to go off campus since last update, apart from the occasional downtown Mysore trips. Tomorrow, I am headed to Bangalore for an overnight trip to explore the town, eat some beef (it’s been a while, and beef is only served in bigger cities), shop, and enjoy the night life.

I’ve updated the previous post to include a couple of pictures. Check it out!

I haven’t posted in a long time. Good reason: Exams. My training is divided into 9 “modules”, where we have tests at the end of each. We just ended our hardest module of training in Relational Databases, and had an exam (got an A!) on Thursday. This week should be even busier, as we have 2 modules in 3 days, and a 5-hour-long comprehensive exam to test us on everything we have learned so far. After this week, I should be in the clear until mid-October for our second and final comprehensive exam.

Needless to say, I haven’t just been sitting in my room either. We went to Nagarhole on Saturday to another “safari” with hopes to see some tigers. Halfway through the safari, our guide tells us that this is the wrong season to see any animals. Because of the monsoon, the jungle is overgrown, and the animals have plenty of water sources. This means they don’t have to go to the designated water reservoirs, which means we are out of luck. I was wondering why we were the only group there at the time… well now I know! Maybe we should’ve researched this a little more…
The highlight of our day was when we went to a beautiful waterfall lodged in the mountainside. As we were climbing up, we saw people who had stopped to burn leeches off their skin, a scary sight for me, as I was wearing sandals. Long story short, I have a dozen scars on my feet.

Actually, I’m just kidding, nothing happened. Unfortunately, someone in our group got bit by a leech and had to burn it off. My paranoia, on the other hand, kept me safe.

Check out these two pictures from the waterfalls:
Waterfall
Me in front of the waterfall
Walking across the bridge
Making our way up to the waterfall

Our journey started Saturday morning, at around 7am. Six of my colleagues and I met up with Vivek, our local Indian friend who has been showing us the ways of the Indian culture. We rented an SUV (with a complimentary crazy driver) to head to Ooty. Ooty is a town located near the peak of the tallest mountain in southern India, and boasts a very tourist-oriented atmosphere. It is about two hours away from Mysore, which gave us ample time to enjoy the car ride with Indian pop music blaring from the speakers. The driver, who was not much older than us, was weaving in and out of traffic, with his hand constantly on the horn. You’d think I’d be used to this by now!
We eventually reached the mountain and began our trek up the winding hairpin turns to get to the top. The view was phenomenal, even though the monsoon clouds hovered very low that day. We got to the peak, and found ourselves looking down at the clouds. Without much of a view, we ended up being entertained by the locals who were taking pictures of us: it seems that we are the attraction for the masses here in India.
Our second stop was at the “boathouse.” It was a huge dock by a lake where people could rent boats of different sorts. They had motor, row, and pedal boats; we chose the latter, opting for a more hands-on ride. Unfortunately, our boat was only able to go backwards! We looked pretty stupid…
We then went to the Ooty Botanical Garden, our third and final attraction of the day. We saw plants… We saw flowers… Not particularly exciting, but an impressive setup nonetheless.
Our final stop for the day was at our hotel. We checked into Hotel Paradise, and then headed out to dinner. After Indian food for almost two weeks straight, I opted for some Chinese food for a change. Sweet and Sour Chicken has never done me wrong. After our meal and a quick game of poker, we went to bed to be rested, as we had to wake up…

… at 4am! The trick to a perfect safari is to be there before sunrise to catch the animals waking up to hunt. We drove from Ooty to Bandipur, and made it just in time for the sunrise. Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side, and the safari was put on hold until the sky cleared up. By the time we jumped into the jeep and headed into the jungle, the animals had scattered. We were not very successful at finding any tigers, but we did see elephants and a few packs of deer, along with the usual monkeys and peacocks. At this point, only one thing could cheer us up: an elephant ride. We climbed onto the elephants and roamed around the forest, rocking back and forth as they slowly made their way through mud and grass. It was a fun experience, but still a distant second to my camel ride in front of the pyramids in Egypt.

All in all, we had a great time getting to explore more of India with a local accompanying us to show us the way.
Check out the pictures I took:
http://gallery.usinfy.com/main.php?g2_itemId=1974.