Hyderabad - Day 13 - Train and Film City

So this morning we caught the 6am train to Hyderabad.

I was actually quite sad leaving Vijayawada. Its funny how you can become attached to a place even after 4 days. I guess that that was due to Armpits family treating me like i was their own son. Its funny bacause i instantly felt comforatble being there from the 1st day. But as Arnie says, "I'll be back". And i know i will one day if not next year.

So the train was 6hrs again! This time it was in the day so could look out and see India. Although i did sleep for about 3 hours even tho i tried not too. O, and the cockroaches!!!! Now, i lived with them for 2 months in 2003. i became one with them during my year of study and thought that i could live in peace with them. I don't kill them, they dont crawl up my nose during sleep. Fair deal. But these bastards on the train!! They just seemed to be everywhere. After about an 1hr of caring you just have to learn to not worry about them anymore. I would be quite happy if i never saw another one again tho.

When we got to Hydrobutt Armpit had to ditch me because he was very ill with his fever. I felt a little guilty leaving him to go to the film city. Rajovi film city was pretty cool and lets just say, A very funny xperience! I will tell you in person haha. I did get shown around the studios which was awesome. Huge studios!! On the way back to Hydrobutt i saw a girl get hit my a car. I was in shock and that image will stay with me forever. So this years new years eve will be a different one for me. With Armpit in bed with a fever and me still in a small state of shock i, for the 1st time felt a little home sick. Especially after thinking about friends on the beach around the fire. I am ok now tho and wanna get back into the fun of being in India!!

Anyway, almost got killed trying to write this post because of the traffic,

Will go, only 2 hours till the new year for me here. I will update this day soon.

Have a happy new years everyone!!!

Lance

Vijayawada - Day 12 - Fever Goddess

Today was a kinda relaxing day compared to every other day.

Armpit had caught a really bad fever so our plans for the day kinda dissapeared. I was fine with that because it was kinda nice having a relaxing day seeing as our next few days will be hectic. So we stayed at home and looked after the Armpit. One thing we did do today tho was take family portraits as it was the last day in Vijayawada. So that was cool and now i have an invite back to India next year to be the photographer for Veni's wedding. Will definately take that offer up (Veni if your reading this) and if i am not busy. Fingers crossed i have a couple of weeks.

Me and Jayachand (Armpits dad) went to Kanakadurga temple on top of a hill later on in the night. Amazing as all the temples are here! This temple was devoted to the Goddess Kanakadurga. She is a very beautfull goddess and also has 8 arms and a very long tongue. It was incredible standing in front of her with everyone around chanting and praying. The funniest thing tho was with 2 kids in front of us getting blessed by the priest. You know when your at a fireworks display and everyone sees a pretty average one, they all go "Oooo" and then they seee a better than average one they go "Aaahh". And then there is the final display and the crowd goes "Whoa!!" Well, these two kids were in front of Kanakadurga looking pretty bored and praying to the goddess. As soon as they turned around and saw ME they both went "WHOA!" quite loud hahaha. I cracked up and then a few people around came out of prayer and laughed! I was just thinking, here i was looking at Kanakadurga, a very powerfull goddess, thinking to myself "whoa". And then these 2 kids not even noticing her but saying whoa to me!!!! hahaha. If i was her i would be a little annoyed ahaha.

As we were leaving the temple we walked past these people doing a ritual. This guy had a pitch fork (A PITCH FORK!!) sticking through his tongue! He was covered in ashes and paint. It was amazing and i could see that he was in quite a bit of pain. He was carrying jewels and flowers and food to give to the goddess. wow.

So, then we packed because we had an early morning train the next morning to Hyderabad (Hydrobutt - just for you Vicki :) I ended up sleepin on the couch (me and Armit had a fight). Na, because i did'nt want to catch whatever it was he had. So it was the first night that we havent slept together for about 2 and a half weeks. I could'nt sleep bacause i missed his muscly man arms wrapped around my body. YUCK! just joking!!

Sorry bout that image.

will go now


Lance

India - Day 11 - Amravati Temple

Bad thing happened this morning.

I was in the loo and i dropped the toilet paper!!! The floor was covered in water and as you know, toilet paper is very absorbent!!! :(

Update rest of day later


Lance

Update: Ok, so after a rather hectic start with the whole toilet paper dropping thing, the day started rolling smoothly. We went for a long drive to Amravati Temple in Amravati. Really interesting drive as there was just soo much to see, as always here in India. The temple was quite amazing and i got an amazing sense of peace whilst inside. It kinda reminded me of a scene from "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". Just because of all the chanting, the clothes that a lot of people were wearing and also this plate full of fire (you touch the flame!) to pray. Outside there were a lot of beggars so me and Veni gave them some money and i took a couple of photos. It is really hard tho because as soon as you give just one coin/note away, everyone wants some. So you just have to be tough and say thats enough. There were 3 kids with a monkey so that made a wicked shot :)

After, we travelled to Sai Baba temple which Lakshmi (Veni's mum) is a treasurer and helped build. Beautiful building! So we spent a while in prayer to Shirdi Sai Baba. The other day with the fortune teller, the card i got was of Shirdi Sai Baba so in a way i felt connected to this saint god. Especially with what the teller said.

We then travelled to Amits old school which was cool. It was really funny just imaging a little Amit running around being cheeky. Took a couple of cool photos there. Its funny the beautiful things you see that most people would never look twice at when you just look around. Will put them in the gallery.

So we got home and then it was Amits turn to get his fortune told by the parrot. It was funny because he got similar things to me with the business and money side. So maybe that is a really good sign that we will be in for a good year next year. One thing i learned is that the lines on your palm change all the time depending on what direction your life is taking. I was'nt going to get my fortune told again but i did end up getting my palm read. So i am going to be wealthy, very happy, i will become famous, i will be on TV some time next year, people will be jealous of me for some reason, i will have a life changing event in the next 3 months, he also told me that i was due to have a serious accident but for a strange reason it did'nt happen. The rest of the deep stuff i will keep for myself ;)

One thing that is different about Vijayawada are the mosquito's!! We have just walked back and were eaten alive! And when i say eaten, i mean EATEN!! They are vicious and if you don't cover up then you will look like a prune. We are about to go to a club (not a night club) where we will play games and have dinner. Cant wait!

will leave it at that


Lance

India - Day 10 - Tukkuluru Village!

This will be a quick post for now. Will update when i can.

Went to Tukkuluru village today. This is where most of Armpits family live and they have a wicked family home there that is 88 years old!! Met all of his close family and they are all such lovely people! There i met my first buffalo calf. She was really cute. Maybe i could bring her home as my indian wife.

We then went to Veni's mango farm. If my life dos'nt work out when i get back to NZ this is where i will end up spending the rest of my days as a mango farm boy. But if the fortune tellor was right the other day this will not happen :(

The kids at the village had never seen a white person before!! So when one saw me suddenly i was surrounded by about 15!! They were just staring at me in amazment with their bright white eyes. I took quite a few photos of them and when i showed them to them, at first they did'nt know who they were looking at. But when they realised that that was themselves they were amazed!! A couple of them jumped back in shock which was really funny!!!

Anyway, gotta have a bath now so will update later

lance

Vijayawada - Day 9 - Subject: Trains and Fortune Teller!!

Wow, what a cool day!

We arrived in Vijayawada at 5 am in the morning after a 6 hour train trip through the night from Hyderabad. I LOVE trains!!! It was soo much fun. Had to share a cabin with 8 other people which was cool. Here in the South you dont eat with utensils so had my first experience with eating rice with my hands. Must say it is a little tricky with limited space and also a moving train but i did'nt make too much of a mess :) Amit had a really bad stomach due to mixing ice coffee and tea at the airport so he went straight to bed. Going back to yesturdays subject about toilets now. The toilets on the trains are really cool!! They are just holes in the floor and you can see the tracks below. I must say that i actually spent most of the time just staring down the hole in amazement!! And the sound of the wheels on the tracks is wicked.

So then we made our beds and everyone slept. I could'nt really sleep because i was so excited about being on a train. So me and this little girl that slept across from me played Peekaboo until she got told off. Then i just had to sleep. It was a nice feeling lying there with all these people around. Most poor, some sick and then this little white guy from NZ. It made me think a lot about life and how we are all the same, just born into completely different lives. Why was i born so lucky? I could have easily been born to someone in India who lives on the streets and then i could be one of the beggars. Was it meant to be? i dunno what im trying to say but everyone is the same and the lucky ones like me should try their best to help others who are'nt so lucky.

Vijayawada is a quiet little city (compared to Delhi) and has a population of around 1 million, but the area is a fraction of the size of Auckland so seems a lot more packed. We spent the day hanging out with Amits family at home which was really fun! Veni (Amits sister) is really cool and one of the easiest people to get along with. We have come up with a plan that i will move to Vijayawada next year and become a mango farm boy. And to be honest that does actually sound pretty cool. Going to the mango farm tomorrow so will have to make up my mind then ;)

Veni and i went for a walk later in the afternoon. I was wondering why everyone was staring at me more here than in Delhi. Then i found out that most people here had never seen a white person before!!! Travellers do not usually travel to this part of India, and whats even cooler is that tomorrow, when we go to Amits grandfathers village, i will be the first white person to go there!! Pretty cool stuff and i cant wait. Also on the walk we went past this fortune teller. So we both had our fortunes told. He let out a parrot from his cage and told the parrot my name. The parrot then looked at all these cards and picked out the one for me. It was actually quite weird because the parrot actually was sifting through the cards and looked like it was thinking. I thought it is a well trained bird but then what the fortune tellor told me was quite incredible!! Im not going to say what he said (maybe later) but i now feel like i have absolutely nothing to worry about. The stuff he knew tho was a shock!

So today was very interesting and one that i will never forget. It may have even changed the way i think and see even more. I am really excited about tomorrow.

Lance

Delhi - Day 8 - Hyderabad

So today we left the chaotic Delhi and flew to Hyderabad where we caught a train to Vijawada. So our flight was meant to leave Delhi at 3.30. I ended up leaving at 7.15!!! I was quite a long wait in the airport. Amit and i bought ourselves some lemon tea hmmm, and we then had a coffee. Although that combination did'nt do Armpit justice at all. He ended up having a bad stomach on the plane and train. To make things worse, He sat next to two very dissabedient men, whilst i sat next to an Indian air hostess who was very pretty haha, poor him!

The first thing i noticed about Hyderabad was how clean and less populated it was to Delhi.

Got to go, will finish blog later

L


lance

Delhi - Day 7 - Subject: Xmas and Toilets

Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Today is christmas, but in a way it did'nt really feel like it for me. Guess it is just because it is not really celebrated that much over here. So in a way i did feel like i wish i was home for christmas, being with family and having shrimp on the BBQ, and the sun and close to friends. But as soon as i stepped outside of the house again in Delhi and experienced this amazing country and life, the feeling dissapeared completely and did'nt come back. So this will be a memorable christmas ;) Plus got heaps of txts from friends in NZ which always makes me smile!!

O yeah, this morning was the first day that i have used my mobile since leaving. I originally was'nt going to bring it with me so that i could completely get away from NZ for 3 weeks. But i forgot to take it out of my pocket at the airport so ended up bringing it. Now i am really glad i did :) Although i did'nt charge it before i left so really have to rashin the battery life. So i just turn it on at night (Apart from xmas day). I learned that here, you can charge your phones at McDonalds so will do that at some stage.

Started the day with a light breakfast that consisted of toast and jam. Had to have this because i have had Delhi Belly for the last 2 days. I am glad to say that i think (THINK) that the worst is over. That is the thing tho, I really cannot tell. It just happens.

Now, todays subject is on toilets. I have now become really religious and now worship tiolet paper! When i get back to NZ and smell the aroma of scented toilet paper, soft on my bum, and 4 ply (Bless my little cotton softs) i will worship the toilet paper and also build a shrine to it in my room. On Sundays i will dance down Queen St banging on the tamborine and singing "Haera toilet paper". I respect it. Hard to believe i have only used half a roll since i left NZ!! That is incredible and a huge victory for me.

Toilets in India are actually hard to find from my experience so far. If you are in a shopping centre or restaurant then you are fine. But if not, you are not fine. Especially when you are dribbling, (but not from your mouth) as Vicki calls it. Places you do not want to go for a number 2 are in public places. I consider myself to be a pretty easy going person, and i dont think i complain much about anything. But some of these toilets are pretty bad. As in, i would rather do my business in public, where everyone can see me. I havent taken any photos of the toilets yet. I will leave that for people to experience themselves when they come to India. I know that i will be back one day.

But enough about todays subject. We had a lunch meeting today with family friends of the Trips. Very nice family and it was sooooo good to be able to eat proper indian food again!! And once again, the tea was beautiful!! I have only experienced one beggar since i made my deal and she worked for her money. She was sitting on the side of the road with drums. When the lights went red she got up and did these wicked tricks. I whipped out my camera and took a few shots. Then gave her some money. Will post a shot here when i get to NZ.

Anyway, heaps more to write but soo little time.

Merry Christmas All!!

Lance

Delhi - Day 6

Went to CP and met up with Amits friends. Had another rout of Delhi Belly!! Will update soon

Lance

Delhi - Day 5

Met up with Uday and D.O.P from bollywood. Got Delhi Belly

Delhi - Day 4

Agra! Taj Mahal and Agra Fort!!!

Delhi - Day 3

Red Fort
Dinner at Binny's

Delhi - Day 2

Hey

Delhi - Day 1

hey

Hong Kong - India!!

hey

Hong Kong!!

hey

First Post

This is my first post

Going to India tomorrow!!
Excited!
A little nervous and will miss a few people!!

1am at the mo, sooooo, am going to go finish packin and get some sleep.

Bye for now

law