safe behind bars

allow me to wax poetic (or perhaps pathetic) for a moment with a few words i scribbled down on my last train trip.

i've always been enamored of overnight train journeys. there's something intrinsically romantic about being rocked to sleep by the rails as the train moves ever forward into the deepening night. it's a shame that i never experienced overnight trains in my childhood.. i'm sure i would have been charmed by them, as i was by crumbling english castles and sugar cubes at tea time. (a sidenote.. but the state of railways in america is lamentable to say the least)

as it was, my first overnight train ride was one from france to italy when i was in high school. i loved it right away. the semi-privacy of the trim compartment, every element so efficiently designed. the joy of watching as the lights - or dark - roll by.

but the indian rails have a special place in my heart. even now as i sit in my sleeper class berth, the golden light of dusk peeks in through the bars on the windows. dusty towns flit by, their residents preparing for night. in my car happy families share secrets, offer each other snacks, or play, vaulting from the metal bars or jumping between the bottom seats. dutiful vendors pass, swinging their wares in tune with their sonorous cries.

forgive me if i'm sounding overly saccharine - but it's my penultimate journey here on the indian rails and i'm beginning to get nostalgic. i mean, where else will i get a rs. 5 cup of chai delivered to my seat? or vada pav and lonavala chikki passed to me from just outside the train window?

of course trains aren't all shy toothy (or toothless) grins and wafting breezes from wood stoves. there are always the loud arguments, even louder bodily functions, and questionable smells in closer quarters. and it's pretty much the last place you'd ever want to be sick. but even with all that, my positive experiences have far outnumbered any unpleasantness.

i know i'm hardly the first person to be inspired by the trains.. but i had to try to pay some homage to one of my favorite parts of this amazing country.

even now as i post this i'm about to get on what will be my last train trip in india for some time. but i hope know there are many more voyages to come.

sleeper class zindabad!

my mumbai

well i've spent several months now chronicling my travels around the subcontinent. i'd say it's time i gave a little attention to my own little corner of this country. in my months here, in between travels, i've had some time to explore little bits of this massive city and have even been lucky enough to have some visitors to show around. and so, here i have some favorite places i shared with them and will now share with you, dear reader (since i assume there is only one of you).

if you ask any mumbaiker what they love or miss about the city, chance are the first thing (or twenty) will be food. (i distinctly remember hour-long conversations about food my friends had before my arrival that i understood almost none of.) true, the same goes for pretty much any indian, but i think many would agree that mumbai has some of the best street food around, and there's no shortage of variety here. i figured it was a good place to start.

mmm.. spicy non-veg...

i got a crash course in street food early on at muhammed ali road, which i chronicled here, and then again here. it's basically a place where, particularly during ramadan, you can find all manner of sweets (both subtly sweet and syrupy, deep-fried) and non-veg deliciousness. the atmosphere is electric, with families out to celebrate and young people buzzing around gorging on the amazing food. i'll be sad when ramadan rolls around in july and i can't find my way back here.

pav bhaji: just add butter!

then there are the street foods you can get any time of year. the most famous of these, of course, is vada pav. the portuguese influence in bombay is most evident in foods like this, that include bread (that would be the pav/pau). vada pav is a delicious little fried ball of potatoes, spices and green chilis served on a bun with green chutney and a dry red chutney powder. they can be found on just about every street corner, especially in the south. just look for a crowd of men standing around eating. then wash it down with a rs. 5 glass of sugar can juice (which will probably be found no more than ten feet away). also in the pav family, we have the famous pav bhaji. i like to think of this as an indian sloppy joe, although it's totally vegetarian. don't worry, though, the vast variety of vegetables are tempered by the paula deen-levels of butter in this dish. i watched it being made in this giant tawa and it was almost grotesque. we're talking bricks of butter here, people. but of course that's also what makes the dish so delicious. you can find it at almost any little cafe or beachside stand. at juhu beach you can sit on the steps and beckon someone over for the extra bread (don't worry, it's got butter on it too) that you will inevitably need.

beach corn

while you're at juhu beach (a veritable street food heaven) you should try some roasted corn. walking along the crowded sands, in between the photo hawkers and the local picnickers, you'll invariably find someone at a cart roasting ears of corn over the hot coals. he may even let you fan the fire yourself. but whatever you do, be sure to get lemon and masala on it. otherwise it's just a plain old ear of corn. the tangy spiciness makes you lick your lips after every bite - you'll never want to eat corn any other way.

name your poison

but my favorite snack at juhu beach has to be the gola, another of mumbai's claims to foody fame. while to the untrained eye it's basically a snowcone, in reality it's so much more. for one thing, the ice is crushed before your eyes on a great old metal hand-powered grinder that you just know weighs 40 pounds. the ice is served on a stick and the syrup (stored in old whisky bottles) is poured into the cup it's served in. so that, when the flavor from your snack inevitably drips down to the bottom, you just dip it back in the cup. ingenious, right? and the syrups - as you can probably see from the image - come in a wide variety, including typically indian fruits and flavors like mango, khus, and rose. and you have the option to drizzle the whole thing with malai, fatty fatty coconut goo, that just makes the whole thing extra creamy/sticky/delicious. now your only problem is trying to not drip onto your feet. (yeah, right)

lights, smoke, action

then there are the late-night foods. quick snacks, like kebabs and chicken tikka rolls that are great for post-beer wandering down south. bademiya is probably the most famous such establishment. you'll see it from afar with its billowing smoke and crowds of people milling around. there are plastic tables too, but the food's so fast you hardly even need to sit down. in the few minutes you spend waiting for your seekh kebab or chicken roll you can watch the guy making the rumali (super thin) roti by spinning and spreading the paper-thin dough over the stone dome - it's mesmerizing. like watching master crêpier on the streets of normandy. also across the street is a great dive bar, gokal, that has some of the best kheema (minced meat and spices) i've ever had.

also a staple: paper menu under plastic table cover

also in the south (mostly) you'll find a fair amount of parsi food. the city has a substantial parsi population although it, along with the number of persian cafes, is dwindling. the ones that remain are some of the oldest and most interesting though. the décor looks as though it hasn't changed in fifty years (it probably hasn't) - dust-covered frames hang filled with deceased relatives, musty plastic chandeliers hover over checked tablecloths covered in plastic. yellowing wallpaper peels off walls covered in old posters or placards ('upstairs for family only'). in short, charming. you can go to britannia for the famous berry pualo, teapot cafe for its  chicken dhansak or ideal corner for one of their changing weekly specials. but my favorite thing to do is go to kyani and enjoy the standard irani chai and bun maska. the joy is in the simplicity - irani chai is essentially regular chai with a little something special (it's also called special tea) and a bun with butter. generally this means a lot of butter (you're shocked, i know) but i shamelessly scrape the excess off with my finger before devouring it.

a stone's throw from kyani is metro theater, one of the oldest in the city. virtually every book i've read that takes place in bombay has made reference to at least one of these classic theatres - metro, eros, regal. though metro has been redone inside into a 6-screen multiplex, at some of the others balcony tickets can still be had for rs. 150 or less. there are also some in the grant road area (just past the red-light district, apparently) that constantly run cheesy movies from the '90s (think DDLJ) for a pittance. like the parsi cafes, these theatres are some of my favorite relics of a bygone past that nevertheless remain a vibrant part of the cityscape.

yes this is bombay

actually the south is full of such buildings. even if the façades are dirty and neglected, you can't hide the beauty of some of these structures. they're even more beautiful in the mossy, high saturation of monsoon season, when i first began wandering among them. in the fort area you'll find quasi-sassanian parsi buildings along MG road, neo-gothic revival style over by the oval maidan (the big open grassy space that always reminds me of the mall in DC - just substitute softball games for cricket and football), and of plenty of art deco (second largest number of art deco buildings in the world!). even a few baroque buildings (blue synagogue). i love meandering around the fort area - you turn a corner or wander down an alley and all of a sudden you look up and find yourself in a street that could be somewhere in europe. well, until you almost run into a cow in the road.

the dark horse

just south of fort is the kala ghoda area. so close, in fact, that i'm not entirely sure where one ends and the other begins. it's named for the black horse statue that no longer stands there. even the cool mural (pictured) has been painted over since i took the photo, sad. the area's great for all the galleries and cafes peppered throughout it. artisan's gallery, which caters to craftspeople throughout the country, the institute for contemporary indian art, the jehangir gallery, with its famous art café and many spaces with constantly changing exhibitions - all are great to wander in and out of. you can see some pretty great artists in these and other galleries. also nearby is the national gallery of modern art, which has a surprisingly nice little collection, and which shamefully few people are even aware of.

shor in the chor

another of my favorite little pockets of the city is chor bazaar. a funny name (as 'chor' means thief), it actually derives from the word 'shor' (referring to the noise-level - much more appropriate). but somehow chor stuck, and chor it remains. i'm generally a fan of all things old and cheap so flea markets are sort of my thing. and any flea market that includes things like ancient cameras, rusted old tea tins, and vintage bollywood posters has my seal of approval. this goes without saying, but also a great place to hone your haggling skills. you know, if you [scoff] need that sort of practice.

standing

well as long as we're talking about old things, i feel i have to mention the national park. a bit of a hike, up at borivali (though really only a train ride away) the national park contains the kanheri caves, some of which date back as far as 1st century BCE. while, true, it's no ellora, you will still see some pretty old buddhas without having to leave the city limits, or spend the better part of your day on a boat to the elephants caves (which i am told are overrated). the caves are carved right out of the hills and the shallow steps criss-cross all over the gently sloping rocks. i never did figure out the number system, but suffice it to say that there are over 100 caves. even if you don't make it to them all (and really, i doubt you would) you'll see your fair share of pretty impressive statues and deep relief carvings (and some that are less deep: 'vijay 2004'..). definitely worth the trip. but maybe don't wait till midday in one of the hotter months to go there, like we did..

sun down, lights on

rounding out the list of typical must-do highlights on the mumbai list is haji ali. it's on every major tourist list, and for good reason. it's sort of like the mont saint-michel of the city, a mosque you can only reach at low tide. when i visited it happened to be the perfect time of day. the sun was low in the sky and the breezes coming in off the sea were blowing our dupattas around our shoulders. we made the walk on the raised stone path, leaving the tall city buildings and stones near the shore behind us. we walked all over the mosque itself, buzzing with activity before the evening prayers. then just as we were getting ready to make the trek back the lights came on and the call to prayer began. the mosque looked so beautiful in dusk, with the strings of lights coming on, so of course we stuck around for a bit. when we did make it back to land we rewarded ourselves with an obligatory stop at the famous haji ali juice center. overpriced, maybe, but where else could we find custard apples out of season?

marine drive-by

much of the appeal of haji ali (apart from the juice) is the water itself, of course. no matter what time of day or season - even in pouring rains - people can always be seen along marine drive just sitting facing the sea. young couples arm in arm, kids kicking around a football, or men just staring out at the water. the calm constancy of the sea seems to be a good antidote for the craziness of the city. even as cars whiz by just a few meters away, people seem to take solace in water and soak in the tranquility of the sea. i think there's just something undeniably peaceful about looking out and seeing nothing but rippling water.

paperback heaven

the last - though certainly not least - of my favorite things to do here is shop. india's a great place to shop in general so in mumbai i've found time to uncover some little pockets of great finds. the first of these is flora fountain, my first go-to book stop. sure there are little stalls and streetside blankets set up with books around the city. but those are very hit-or-miss and often filled with pirated books (boo!). i prefer flora fountain, which has piles and piles of secondhand books attended by friendly and incredibly knowledgeable bookwallas. i just hand them my list and they can tell me immediately if they have any of the titles and, even more impressively, where in the massive stacks they are. most days when i stop by i come home with at least one or two new finds.

then of course there are clothes. down on colaba causeway you can get all manners of shirts and scarves (you can find some nice silk ones if you dig a little) but of course you have to put up with the constant hassling from vendors who at first assume you are a silly tourist. a little farther north on MG road you can find all sorts of men's shirts, belts, underwear - which vendors will try their best to pawn off on you despite being both a woman and clearly uninterested. to round out my shopping i go to hill road, just a short walk/ride from my place in bandra. all kinds of dresses, shoes, accessories, but again, you have to be willing to dig. i have a few favorite go-to spots along the road.. but i can't divulge all my secrets, can i?

bangles, books, and beaches

the next trip, and one of the last, actually, was a quick trip south before ending up in goa for the roommate's birthday (something that's been in the works since, literally, the moment we got back from goa the first time).

a beautiful site.. and char minar behind

first stop hyderabad to visit a good friend. while i had a lovely time catching up, seeing movies (kahaani! fantastic) and even doing some work, i neglected to do much that was terribly touristy or exciting. i blame this partially on my friend's laziness, but i deserve some of the blame too. i did eat plenty of biryani (although we didn't make it to the famous 'paradise') and i did manage to make it to char minar one day where i spent an inordinate amount of time strolling through bangle shops. and buying a few (dozen) too. i regret not seeing more of hyderabad, i've heard such good things about the palaces and museum. ah well, there's always next time!

bangalore's ngma, worth a visit

bangalore was.. well more of the same, really. not that there's all that much to see in bangalore. i had big plans to check out pottery village and wander through the lalbagh gardens, but well, it just didn't happen. i will say, though, that bangalore was lovely. the weather was perpetually beautiful (as promised) and the shopping was fantastic. between the two recommended bookstores (blossom and bookworm) i spent several hours roaming through stacks and came out with more books than i should have. also, at bookworm they gave me coffee which i thought was a nice touch. the shopping on 100 foot road (where my friend lives) was pretty great too - sales and all kinds of gorgeous anokhi-style clothes and housewares at (a little) under anokhi prices. i also visited the NGMA which has a shady, pleasant campus (although no one knows where it is! bah. but that's a rant for another day) and several promising children's programs, which is exciting to me. they, along with the AF and geothe institut also have pretty regular film screenings and events and there's a decent music scene (more than just metal). these things combined make bangalore a town i think i would enjoy living in. once they actually get the metro finished it will be downright pleasant.

sunny flowers, sandy beaches

and then, on to goa! another night bus (we're getting quite used to these) and we were there. from margao it was another not-unpleasant city bus ride all the way down to palolem. the beach was evidently all but empty as recently as 9 or 10 years ago. now it's developed but without being overly crowded - beach shacks, restaurant/bars, pretty much what you'd expect. after a day our other friends arrived and we were in full-on relaxation mode. the basic pattern was breakfast, sun, jump in sea, read on beach, lunch, sea, read, happy hour, etc. etc. you get the idea. we interspersed our beach time with other activities - shopping, yoga (for some), wandering and taking pictures down along the coast, and even kayaking one day. ambitious, given that the birthday celebrations were the night before. we went all the way out to a nearby island - much easier to get to than to get back from, as it turns out.

colors of agonda

we mixed it up a bit by heading to agonda one day, a lovely very quiet beach just a few kilometers north. (we had gone in hopes of finding hookah, but there was none to be had there either.) the beach seems almost deserted - it is low season, after all. we enjoyed some fantastic calamari, had a few g&ts and jumped in the water one more time before heading back to palolem for their 'silent noise' party. let me explain for you old fogeys reading this. the beach has a noise restriction after 10pm (to protect the sea turtle eggs.. or maybe because the locals just want some quiet) so to get around this one bar has a party every saturday where the music is disseminated through headphones that everyone gets at the door. it was a new experience and i think it's safe to say everyone had a great time.

leaving goa was, as always, a struggle. but i suppose there's a limit to how much you can sit on the beach and do nothing.

just kidding. of course there isn't!

holi moly!

following a quick trip to kerala for a fabulous fulbright conference (all expenses paid!) i jetted straight off to delhi to spend holi with friends. this was probably the most anticipated festival for me. probably? who am i kidding. it's on my bucket list, for goodness' sake. i was really excited about this. i mean i'd played holi with friends before in the states. but something about being in india where everyone around you is dancing and celebrating and covered in color just seemed fantastic.

i arrived the day before holi, which is actually holi itself - people light bonfires at night; the color part comes the day after. the next morning we rose early to the sounds of drums that seemed to be right outside the window. and, in fact, probably were. we hesitated a bit before going outside, content to enjoy our breakfast before getting totally covered. we managed to hold off for some time but eventually a few of the neighbors came over to play. toto (my friend's dog) was the first to get it: pink water, right on the nose. a few of us began to venture outside, receiving the obligatory cheek smear and 'happy holi' greeting from friends and neighbors. a group of women encircled me and pounced. fresh meat. (imported, even.) and then it was all over. colored powder was in the air, the dhols were out, music was blasting from car stereos, dance circles began, and fried foods were being dished out at the neighborhood celebration in the alley.

beware the small canisters

a friend arrived and, after properly welcoming him with a face full of colors, we ventured out into the city. i should mention here that delhi on holi can be a daunting place. colors aside (which are usually made with some sort of toxic chemicals), there are people who like to play 'dirty' holi, which can include dumping eggs, grease - you name it - on unsuspecting passersby. not to speak of the drunken groping which can happen later in the day. needless to say, we were hoping to avoid these things. but it was still early and the streets were fairly empty. on the way we passed some typical sights - children chasing one another, men pouring out bhang lassis, and of course plenty of stands selling gulal (colors). we stopped at one such stand to stock up on necessities.

then across town to another neighborhood where we found a place to park and walked down into the other friend's neighborhood. on the way we were subject to attacks of projectile colors (mostly in water form) from the kids on upstairs balconies. they were so excited when they got the gori (that would be me, folks). we retrieved our friend, who greeted us with all-natural gulal (fancy!), and we returned to the main road, opening ourselves up to overhead assaults once again. we arrived on the street just in time to greet my friends who had arrived from england just a few days prior. they're pretty fair-skinned even by british standards so you can imagine how white they must have looked next to all of our color. well, naturally we wasted no time in taking care of that. before long they looked like all the other tourists they had been making fun of in their hotel that morning. we had a quick stop at another gulal stand and had a quick bite - samosas and pakoras, with probably a dash of chemicals from our colored hands.

aftermath (this used to be white)

from there it was back to my friend's place (the first one). and, yes, the car had been suitably prepared for the inevitabilities of holi (read: trashbags and old towels on the seats). by the time we got back the main celebrations in the neighborhood were over but it didn't stop us from having our own fun. plenty of color attacks and lots of dancing, accompanied by a little whisky (parading as appy fizz). in the end we were covered head to toe. one friend, in a particularly malicious move, got us with the tiny canister of color concentrate: just add water and you'll be pink for a week. guaranteed!* after we'd had our fun we took our turns in using the bathroom, turning the tiles and towels successively pinker one by one. my hair, neck and parts of my face remained quite pink, even after several scrubbings and even using that horrible green soap that's only used on dishes and, probably, hulls of boats and rusty tanks. that may have been more damaging than the toxic colors, all told. after we were (marginally) cleaned up we met and gathered at a different friend's place across town for a night of food and relaxing.

overall it was a great introduction to holi. while it was pretty tame, i didn't want to go too crazy and venture out into the chaos of the city. although i do regret not taking more pictures (my main camera still has some colors on it; i switched to my little point and shoot for fear of permanent damage) and getting closer to some of the action. i'm sure i'll be back, though. and next time i'll get a little more into the mix. really get my hands dirty.

*i now know this to be true for a fact.
 

lots of wats

our final stop was cambodia. we arrived at the tiny little siem reap airport and got a taxi to our hotel. the driver snickered as we gave him the name, later explaining that it was a 'gay' hotel. the golden banana, go figure. no matter, the place was gorgeous - filling several complexes, each with rooms surrounding salt water pools with waterfalls of various sizes. not only that, our room had a second story balcony with a private tub and padded lounge chairs. oh, and just about everything in the room was branded with a 'gb' (my intials, heh).. i pretty much took everything that wasn't nailed down.

that first night we roamed outside towards the night market. we didn't make it quite that far, though, because we were pretty hungry. we popped into a little resto with lots of locals and had some pretty bland soup and a couple cold beers. after that it was back to enjoy our fabulous hotel room.

on the bike ride

the next morning it was off to angkor. the temple complex is only about 5-6 kilometers away and apparently a pleasant ride so i was hoping to bike. mom figured she'd better pass and save her energy for temple exploring. so i rented a bike for $2 and had a nice (if sweaty) bike ride to the site.

view with requisite symmetrical palm tries

i met my mother there where we reluctantly decided to get a guide. we normally eschew such things but this particular complex, we had read, was so sprawling that we'd never know where to go, especially given that we only had a day. to his credit, the guide seemed to know what he was talking about. we walked over the bridge and through the entrance building, which already had some pretty fantastic sculptures. through that chamber was the main temple. the site (see below) is what everyone probably pictures when they hear the words angkor wat, though it's just the main temple among a site that is vast and made up of dozens and dozens of such structures.

epic walls

we made our way towards it and started out going counter clockwise along the exterior walls - well, interior exterior i suppose. there was an arcade that went along the outside of the inner courtyard. the walls were covered in intricate low reliefs of the great hindu epics. oh, by the way, this particular temple was originally hindu (a krishna temple) but was then later converted into a buddhist temple. many other temples on the grounds were the reverse. anyway the reliefs were impressive in both quality/attention to detail and just sheer quantity. in addition to the mahabharata and ramayana (not pictured: sita. interesting, no?) there were depictions of hell as well as the gods churning of the sea of milk (the fish were particularly good).

once we had explored the outer walls we went inside, where i climbed up to the central tower. many of the statues that would have been there are of course gone, but there were a few buddhas here and there. and a few nice wall carvings. the view from above was slightly underwhelming. the best vantage point is really from the ground.

believe it or not, by then it was already getting to be lunchtime. so our guide took us to a nearby restaurant. i had beef loklak, one of the few dishes i had read was a specialty of cambodia, along with a mango shake (fruit shakes - another supposed specialty. although this are all over southeast asia and universally delicious). both were fantastic, although pretty much anything would have tasted good after lots of biking and walking in the midday sun.

angelina jolie was here. so that makes it worth seeing, right?

from lunch we went to ta prohm, a former buddhist temple which was supposedly kept intact by the incoming hindus because prohm sounds like brahma? seems like a stretch to me. at any rate, it was pretty spectacular. it was apparently used for filming part of the tomb raider movie. when you're there it's easy to see why - the crumbling walls are covered in moss and tree limbs, climbing up walls and splayed over doorways. the setting made for good pictures and i enjoyed tramping around trying to find shafts of light or mossy corners. we declined, though, to wait in the line to take our picture in a particular doorway.

profile

the next stop for us was bayon temple, the most recently built. its signature is the giant four-faced pillars found throughout. like ta prohm, it was originally buddhist but was apparently not razed by the later hindus because the four heads resembled brahma (again, dubious). in any case walking right up to these massive faces - most of which seem like they're dreaming peacefully - is pretty surreal.

pictured: lots of dragonflies. probably.

from there we did some quick stops at a few other places - the elephant terrace, the 'leper king' statue - but we felt we had hit most of the highlights and were winding down. mom was pretty beat so she took the rickshaw back to the hotel to rest. luckily i still had my bike so i elected to hang around a little longer to catch the sunset. the best time to see angkor wat is really at sunrise, but i never did make it for that (i do regret this a bit). i figured sunset was the next best thing and that, perhaps i would catch that golden evening light on the temple facade. well i didn't. but i did manage to see the sunlight glittering on the lily pond. which was pretty nice in itself. side note: apparently dragonflies really like to sit on water lilies. often perfectly still (handy for us would-be photographers). i enjoyed that for a bit too long, and then biked home just as it was getting dark though. the sun going down didn't make the ride any less hot though.

oh i almost forgot. on the way back to the hotel i stopped just across the river at the night market (yes here too!) for postcards (guess what scene was on them. go ahead, guess). i parked my bike and was locking it up to one of those little fences around a sapling on the sidewalk. well as i was trying to get the key in the lock it fell out. no problem, how hard could it be to find a key in a little 2x2 foot space? as it turns out, very hard. within a few minutes i had attracted a small crowd and had about half a dozen people on their hands and knees digging through dried leaves and dirt to find this key. an elderly woman had her son fetch a flashlight for us. so nice! after about 10 minutes (no, really) someone found it on the opposite side of the tree from me. good grief. by the time i got back to the hotel i was sweaty, dirt and pretty thoroughly exhausted.

but if there were any place to feel rejuvenated, this hotel was it. that night my mom and i treated ourselves to room service dinner and wine while we watched the replay of the academy awards. i followed that up with a nice bubble bath in the private terrace. not bad, golden banana.

lake living

the next day (long after the sun had risen.. sigh) we were up and, after another great breakfast of croissants and juice, off to tonle sap lake - the largest in southeast asia, which literally doubles in size during monsoon season with melting snows from the mountains that trickle down the mekong. the drive was quite nice, passing modest, colorful little houses and green rice paddies. the lake was less exciting, a sort of muddy greenish brown. we took a boat ride (for some reason we had this to ourselves), which started off near the floating village - house and little shops. our boat driver said living here was 'not good'. we stopped at a small shop where we were encouraged to buy things to bring to the nearby school/orphanage. a noble idea, but the prices were extravagant - higher than they would have been in the US even, and certainly much higher than the cost of 'transportation' they required, i imagine. still we bought some things and dutifully delivered them at the school - which was a madhouse. not surprising - i've been in such orphanages before. it was a little odd. we met a few of the kids but they were mostly distracted by the distributing of goods brought by some japanese tourists. like i said, madhouse. it's too bad we couldn't have stayed longer and actually played a bit. but our boat driver continued on to.. the crocodile farm. yeah. a bunch of them were gathered into a watery pit where snakes and other snacks were routinely flung in. there were boxes for donations but as these crocodiles seem to be principally bred for either purses or to be eaten, i was not terribly inclined to offer anything.

a quick ride back to the dock and then a drive back to town. by the way, we decided of the four countries and their respective tuk tuks, cambodia's were the most comfortable. for what it's worth. we almost ran out of fuel at one point. but no matter, the driver pulled up to someone's house that had old plastic bottles of gasoline out front. handy.

going amok

once back in town we grabbed lunch at a small place down a small alley. we tried fish amok - the one other cambodian special we'd read about. it was a little on the bland side, but not bad. also tried some khmer dumplings, filled variously with vegetables, egg and chillis. a little on the raw/doughy side, for my taste. washed it all down with another fruit shake, (naturally) which we lingered over as i wrote the last of my postcards. walked around the shopping area nearby, stopping at a used bookstore that had crazy prices! even by US standards. $10 for a bunged up used paperback?? no thanks. had better luck at a nearby thrift store, where i found a nice (but short) flow-y dress that i'll have my trusty tailors make into a shirt. isn't asia great.

we went back to the lovely hotel to make the most of the salt water pool and relax before heading out again. into the night market, where i scored a new purse (india has proved really great at destroying my purses) and a couple cheap t-shirts. how can you say no to two t-shirts for $5? i ask you. after some light shopping we set out in search of a french place. i had heard that one could find cheap french places in cambodia. well all the ones we saw were stupid expensive. we even ventured down 'pub street' - marked by a neon sign as well as loud western music coming from every continental restaurant on all sides - where i had sworn to my mother i would not go. in the end we found a suitable belgian place (close enough) where we had mojitos (fine, not french) and fantastic steak au poivre with belgian fries. maybe it's just that i haven't had a steak in quite a while but i savored every bite. we capped off the meal with ice cream down the street. though, sadly, my caramel tasted like coffee. and with that it was back to our hotel and off the next day.

the travel wasn't quite as eventful as we'd hoped. our leg to bangkok was easy enough. but once in bangkok we had to leave security and re-check in. well every line was encountered was long and slow. including the check-in line where every other person had one or two large screen TVs. i guess jimmy wasn't kidding about bringing him back one. sorry, jimmy. our hopes of duty-free dried fruits and one last tom yum/iced coffee in the airport were dashed by insane immigration and security lines that seemed to not move. we rushed to check in to our flight, only to sit on the plane for another 20 minutes. the indians on our flight knew better, sauntering in after us, mocking us with all their duty-free goodies (well, okay, not really). at any rate, we made it back to bombay easily enough where we were welcomed back by joining the immigration queue with passengers on a flight from riyadh. there was lots of pushing and grumbling in hindi.

i'm home!

down by the bay

the next portion of our trip was one of the most highly anticipated - our excursion to halong bay. we set the trip up just a day before, with our super friendly hanoi hotel staff. the price difference between the mid-range and top-range boats wasn't much and we'd heard the food was substantially better, so we opted for a slightly nicer package. and so, the next morning we found ourselves in a van with a bunch of other tourists, who i assume were all, like us, trying to determine what in the world our guide was talking about. something about bridges? where he went to school? who can say.

on board

the trip (after he stopped talking) was pleasant and largely uneventful - except for a stop at a horrific shopping warehouse. you know, the kind where they have faux greek goddess statues and giant paintings with gold flecked backgrounds and everything's eight times what you'd actually pay for it. the kind of place they must go to decorate every single cruise ship. and we were left to peruse for forty-five minutes. i think i left with a postcard and a pack of gum. anyway - after a few more miles of rice paddies we arrived at the bay, where we boarded the tender (weird name) to our junk (even weirder name). our little boat was quite cute. we had a cozy little stateroom (isn't it weird that there's a 'stateroom' on a 'junk'? such a disparity) and, upstairs, a shared dining room/common area and, above that a deck with some lounge chairs.

it was about lunch time by then so we all sat down at the table and prepared to tuck in. this seems like a good time to introduce our boatmates, as it was when we actually me them as well. there was the russian couple.. the male part of which looked exactly like a butch-er ron weasley - his face was as red as his hair - who generally kept his arm firmly around his girlfriend (probably because she did seem rather out of his league. but really, on this boat there was not a lot of competition). then we had a fun chinese couple from singapore - he liked to make jokes then sometimes repeat them in case the whole table hadn't heard; she tempered him and told interesting anecdotes, following every phrase with 'yeah..'. then two portuguese men who we assumed were either together or a very odd father-son duo. and finally a german couple who looked like they walked out of a nursery rhyme - he was so slight he could have been walter mitty (glasses, mustache and all) if it weren't for the thick, almost stereotypical german accent. she, on the other hand, was a rather zoftig women with beady little eyes who, unfortunately didn't speak much english. it was a fun bunch.

green waters

oh right, lunch. it was delicious! the plates just kept coming and coming from the kitchen. pear papaya salad, shrimp cocktail, stuffed crabs (di-vine!), fried fish, spring rolls, french fries, bak choi, tofu, chicken. i'm pretty sure we cleaned every plate - all 37 of them. then we had a few hours to lazy about and enjoy the views of the bay which were, by the way, beautiful. 'ha long' evidently means dragon, which makes perfect sense when you see the cliffs (karsts, apparently) rising up out of the water like scales. it wasn't as clear as it might have been in the summer and the water was probably not as bright. but even in the misty weather it was dramatic.

surprise! it's a cave

after an hour or two we arrived at our first stop: surprising cave. there are generally two cave options for day-trippers: this one and dragon cave. we had heard the former was better so we set out to see the surprise for ourselves. i guess the first surprise was that we had to go up a bunch of steps to get there. actually we're still not entirely sure what the real surprise was. perhaps that it was so big inside? (some might say.. cavernous..) at any rate it was well lit with greens and oranges and we dutifully wound our way around the path inside.

once back on the boat we had a few minutes before our next little excursion: kayaking! neither mom nor i had ever kayaked before. we seemed to get the hang of it pretty quickly. and what a beautiful setting! we made our way out away from the boats and paddled along the sides of the cliffs. the water was so clear and bright turquoise from down there. about 45 minutes later we were back on our boat, a little wetter and sorer but certainly better for it. we popped upstairs to the deck to chat for a few minutes before dinner and watch the sun go down.

one fish, two fish, shellfish, squiggly thing

the europeans were discussing the economy - the portuguese and german views were predictably different. then down for dinner - more of the same from lunch. different dishes, all delicious, that just kept coming out of the kitchen. we lingered over the empty plates discussing this and that and all retired to our little rooms stuffed and satisfied.

mobile market

the next morning it was up for a markedly less exciting breakfast and to enjoy the view. a quick stop to the local fish market was pretty much all that was on the agenda for the day. that itself was fairly interesting though. who knew you could eat so much of what's in the water? or that some of it was so weird looking.. and striped. nearby were a few houses with clothes hanging outside.. pretty normal-looking except surrounding them was just water and giant cliffs. there were a few floating markets too. some with candy bars and essentials, others with fruits in just about every color you could imagine.

from there it was just another hour or two on the boat, enjoying the last of the view. by noon we had reached the harbor and we had one last meal on the boat (one wonders why we couldn't have done this farther from the rather ugly shore) before heading out. we stopped yet again at a giant warehouse - a nearly identical but different warehouse with the exact same merchandise - in the middle of our drive and as we reached hanoi were dropped off at our respective hotels.

every meal a new dish

my mother and i had one more night and half day in hanoi. the night we spent, of course, eating. after thailand, vietnam had some of our favorite food of the trip. this time we went out in search of com ga, seasoned rice with shredded chicken and lemon. the place we found it, like many of the others i had found recommendations for, happened to be within walking distance of our hotel, which was very handy. this particular walk also provided us with a promenade along the night market (yes, one in every city it seems) - one of the less exciting ones though, mostly cosmetics and fake leather bags.

the next day we went to see the last places we had on our list before our flight. this meant several taxi rides and a little bit of rushing. mom had really wanted to see the vietnam museum of ethnology, which i was all for. the inside had a few displays which looked interesting, but we breezed through it in favor of the traditional houses out back. the size of this section was really quite impressive. there were all sorts of houses - one something like an iriquois longhouse, another with a roof as tall as the stilts on which it was built (which was, uh, pretty tall). each was well signed, with good information on the region it was from and the people who would live in them, along with - of course - who sponsored its construction (a lot from germany).

we wrapped up there a little early, missing out on the last few abodes. but we wanted to be sure to get back to hoa lo (aka the hanoi hilton) before it closed for lunch. the prison was initially used by the french to hold vietnamese prisoners. the vast majority of the space was devoted to that. and it did seem that the conditions there were pretty grim. i mean, there was a guillotine. but when you get to the two rooms devoted to the american soldiers it was all sunshine and christmas parties. the videos and text actually proclaimed that soldiers enjoyed the "best living conditions". no mention of the physical torture or mentally crippling isolation. sigh. but then, i suppose it is still a communist country. (did i mention they had blocked facebook? not quite the same, just another aspect) it had us both a little annoyed, but luckily this came at the end of our journey in vietnam so didn't sour our perceptions too much.

from there it was off to cambodia! our last country of the four

hectic hanoi

welcome to hanoi and the lake

another flight (apparently ground transportation in most place is slow/unreliable at best) and we found ourselves in yet another country. from hanoi we got our new currency, booked a taxi and were on our way toward the old city. it was evening, the sun was down and lights were just coming on throughout the city. my first impression was that most of the buildings were quite narrow and about 3-5 stories. our hotel was no exception. just a stone's throw from the lake in the old town, the location was ideal and the staff couldn't be friendlier. (also, only time i've ever seen complimentary items - besides water - in a minibar. oxymoron?)

we stepped out to get some dinner, anxious for vietnamese cuisine. we figured we'd save pho for lunch the following day and instead tried to find some other local specialties. that we did - just around the corner we found a place that had a few of the dishes we'd been hoping to try. bun cha and bun bo nam bo (beef/pork respectively with noodles), both were delicious and left us excited about upcoming days of vietnamese food.

yellow yellow

the next morning we set out to see the city, stopping first, luckily, at the water puppet theater to buy tickets. those things get snapped up fast! we had to opt for the 9.30 show and we barely even got tickets for that. we continued on, walking towards the center of the old town, passing all kinds of shops bursting with shoes, backpacks and stationery. looking up, we'd generally see a tangle of wires, sometimes with birdcages hanging from them. sidewalks that were covered with little food stalls (all with tiny plastic tables and chairs - think playskool size) and motorbikes! motorbikes are everywhere. they seem to be buzzing all over the city, and the drivers are particularly aggressive. it almost seems as though they're trying to run you down. we continued walking, along the busy streets past slightly crumbling yellow buildings (i swear, they were all yellow) with rusting iron terraces or peeling green shutters.

quintessential lunch

we made it to the opera house - also yellow - and stopped along the way at a park with a grimy fountain where no fewer than six brides were having their wedding portraits taken. we wondered at this and grimaced as we saw the white dresses dragging onto the street. we continued on, walking in search of pho. we walked farther than expected, since my mom was hoping for a place that didn't have tiny tables. we eventually found one, luckily just before the lunch hour started wrapping up. quite literally - the tables and chairs were stacked and put away just after we left. the pho, of course, was delicious but we missed the chilli sauce we usually get with it the states.

from there we hopped a taxi to the ho chi minh mausoleum. man. i'm not sure i've ever seen such an ugly monument. it's not even worth including a picture of - google it if you must. we just missed its opening hours, though i'm not sure i really want to see the man's remains anyway. from there we.. well, we got lost for a while. but eventually we found our way to the one-pillar pagoda. it was rather small - sort of like a treehouse - but impressive in that it was built in the mid-11th century. today it looks rather unremarkable, a stocky pillar coming out of a smallish koi pond surrounded by tourists. from there we went towards the temple of literature. but not before being verbally assaulted by a disgruntled and very vulgar rickshaw driver. lovely. that, combined with the long walk around 3/4 of the temple of literature's giant walls left us rather cranky. i'm not sure what i had expected, but this wasn't quite it. it was very.. chinese. to be expected, since they built it. everything was very red and gold. by the time we had made it through we were ready for a rest. another taxi back to the hotel and it was naptime. (or in my case, watch bad tv movies until dinnertime.)

around 7 we ventured out again, this time in search of a fish. we walked down a few streets and made it to the place. hard to miss, since it had no fewer than three neon signs boasting its name: cha ca la vong (also the name of the fish). this particular one has apparently appeared on lists of foods to eat before you die. i suppose because it's only available in a particular region of vietnam. despite its fame the place was rather quiet downstairs and the owner and other employees all seemed to pounce on us. we literally had ingredients being delivered to our table before we had finished making our drink orders (side note: passion fruit smoothie, delicious). the preparation of the fish contributes the experience - various herbs and oils are thrown into a pan and then the fish is cooked right at your table. it was tough to get a decent picture with all the steam pouring up. the fish itself was pretty good. could i have happily died without eating it? probably. but still a worthwhile experience.

fire and water

from there we walked to the water puppet theater. once inside we realized why the shows fill up so quickly. the place is tiny! and cramped. i can't imagine how anyone taller would have managed - and i'm only 5'5". the show itself was quite good. a nice mix of traditional music (the musicians and singers were on stage to the left of the water) and skits that revealed a bit about aspects of life in rural vietnam - fishing, water buffalo, rice paddies. we never did quite figure out the logistics of the puppeteering.. sometimes the puppets stayed close to the curtain at back, but other times they came out quite far into the water... still not sure where the puppeteers were. they ended, naturally, with a dragon and fire to make it a big finish.

it was a long day in hanoi.. one that seemed all the more hectic because of motorbikes constantly whipping by, giant intersections with difficult traffic patterns, and sidewalks filled with all sorts of obstacles - some stationary, others less so.