The Lion, The Witch, and The Backpack

Hey all. I made it back to the United States safe and sound a few days ago and have slowly been piecing my life in this country back together. So far I’ve managed to figure out how to drive on the correct side of the road. So that is good.

The link here for Foto Friday contains 70 photos! This is to make up for the backlog of weeks when I failed to post. I hope you enjoy them.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lukedoug/FinalFotoFriday20100115

. . . at least that is what my dad liked to call it. Bishkek is the capital of Kyrgyzstan and the objective of the trip through Central Asia ever since Bill and I first conceived of the thing. After finally arriving there at about 4:00am and getting a taxi to our hostel/homestay and taking a long sleep, Bill and I set about to explore the city.

We had heard that there was little to see in the city, but were determined to check it out anyways. Our host indicated that the best way to the center was by intercity bus. We found the bus station and hopped on a bus headed to the center of town.

And after a while the bus stopped and everybody hopped off. We had missed our stop! And didn’t even know it. Hrm, this town wasn’t exactly what we were expecting. The bus turned around, we hopped on, paid again, and rode back through the city. This time we were on our toes and when we pulled up near a Soviet looking square Bill and I got off.

Turns out, unsurprisingly, this square (Ala-Too Square) was just like every other Soviet center. Huge flag, big buildings, a statue, and very brutal architecture. Yet there was one pleasant surprise for us here: cars stopped for us at the crosswalk!

After the craziness of the Caucuses, this put a big smile on our faces and made us think that perhaps the trek halfway around the world was just almost worth it. As it turned out, Kyrgyzstan turned out to be a lovely country full of fun things to explore. Yay Fishcake!

(By the way, I’m not currently in Bishkek. I’m in Thailand. This is just an old story.)

So  I finally managed to make it back onto the water here in Asia, finally finding a place to windsurf in the town of Ban Phe, Thailand.

We (Coco and I) were staying just outside town with Coco’s godfather and uncle, Barend. Coco and him had other plans for the afternoon, so I hopped a song tow (meaning, in Thai, ‘two couches’, this is a pickup truck with two benches in the bed. It is the main form of intercity transport for Thais). After arriving at the edge of town and renting a board, I set about the business of windsurfing.

Yet, unfortunately, this session on the water proved to be somewhat of a bust. A lack of wind and heavy chop made conditions more difficult than the fast, flat water I learned on. Plus, after traveling for so long, eating cheap, and being lazy I was beat after an hour. Still, I called it quits with a big smile on my face.

Getting home was another matter. I had hoped for a song tow to show up and take me home. No such luck. After waiting for twenty minutes and enjoying a strange, sweet, and sticky drink sold me by a Thai lady from the sidecar of her motorcycle I decided it was time to take action.

I flagged down a motorcycle taxi and hopped on. I would say it was poetic to ride along the beach-side road with the wind in my hair, except that picture would be a little much. My motorcycle taxi was really just a scooter, so we never broke 50kmph. And though the wind was in my hair so was my towel, which never ceased to flap around and bother me and my driver.

Despite that, as I saw the sun setting and sipped my unidentified fruit juice on the back of the motor-scooter zipping along the Thai coast, I couldn’t help but think that this is what travel is really all about.

Hey all, just figured out how to add twitter to the sidebar of the site. Not sure if I’ll really use it, but I think its cool. Check it out to the right. This should allow me to do smaller updates as little things happen day to day.

A few nights ago Coco and I decided that it would be nice to share a bottle of wine with our dinner. Unlike in the ex-Soviet states, in India (and especially Kodaikanal) this is a rather difficult proposal. We had heard of a packy (what we call liquor stores way back in Massachusetts) that existed somewhere in the more local area of Kodai, called the ‘Budge’. I have no idea why it is called that. Nobody else does either.

After heading down to the Budge and asking around, the best directions Coco and I could get were that the store was across from the ICICI Bank. (Yes, this is a real bank in India. Great name.) We found the bank and across the street there was nothing but closed storefronts. A man outside the bank, intuiting what we were after, gestured that we should proceed down an ally to the left of the stores.

Down the ally we encountered the packy, located in what was basically a closet sized cutout in the wall of the building. The closet contained boxes of little bottles of cheap alcohol as well as a small and seemingly nervous Tamil man. While Coco and I are trying to convey our desire for a bottle of wine, several other nervous Tamil men come up, buy small flasks of brandy and whisky, and furtively hide the bottles in various pockets about their persons.

We decided to hold off on a purchase for now and Coco pulls me away from the ’store’. She, being more perceptive than I, points out that the men were all nervous because she was there. I hadn’t even noticed! Apparently buying alcohol is solely a male activity ’round these parts.

Armed with this new information, I head back down the alley alone while Coco hangs out at the ICICICICICI Bank. I try to get a bottle of wine and it turns out they only have half sizes. Fine, I’ll take two then. And they have a broad selection of 1. So I guess I’ll take that then. $6 later, I have two small bottles of red wine hidden in my jacket. I don’t know why I decided to hide them too. It just seemed like if everyone else was doing it, I probably should too. Weird how one gets brainwashed. . .

So the above story doesn’t get one’s hopes up for the quality of the wine. And I assure you, it was a spectacular disappointment. Sweeter than manischewitz, Coco and I are only able to drink it cut with Coca-Cola at about 2 parts Coke to 1 part wine. Gross. We didn’t even open the second bottle.

So this is the first of a series of posts cronicleing what happened to me over the past month or so. I dub them ‘Retro Posts’ since they are being written retroactively. I know that is stretching the definition of the word, but I like it so I’m using it. Hopefully these couple posts will make up for the time spent basically outside the connected world. Believe it or not, it was possible to escape the internet.

Anyways, this post is dedicated to the small amount of time I spent in Russia. My flight from Yerevan to Bishkek went through Moscow, with a five hour layover in Sheremetyevo Airport. These were a dull five hours, but noteworthy for one main reason: Bill and I experienced what it is like to have no money. Absolutely none. I can say that it makes one hungry, thirsty, and bored.

The situation was simply a result of both Bill and my being very stingy and very stubborn. We could have very easily acquired rubles (the currency of Russia) if we had so desired. But the cost in time and money made it not worth it. Because Sheremetyevo was under construction, there were no places to exchange Armenian dram or USD for Russian rubles. We did find one ATM, but considering the fees charged and the additional fee to convert the currency in Kyrgyzstan, we decided better to wait. I mean, just what is one going to spend money on in an airport besides water, food, and maybe duty free alcho. And no matter the lack of tax, after all the fees that particular booze wouldn’t have even been cheap. Plus, what do we need it for anyways? Life in central Asia was more than bizarre enough already.

So Bill and I sat and read Russian literature (in translation). I worked on War and Peace and he on The Brothers Karamazov. It should have been funny, except there was nobody around able to read the English book covers.

To add to the fun was the typically Russian provision that occasionally, depending on how the border guards were feeling, foreigners need a transit visa to sit in a Russian airport. The fact that this could have been leveled upon us either entering or exiting the airport added to the fun, as well as the $150 or so price tag that the thing has. Not to mention any extra ‘fees’ and such that always seem to crop up. Luckily we were not hassled and escaped with nothing more than un-fond memories of construction and expensive (and unacquirable) gross looking soups.

Maybe Russia is better outside the airport.

No Foto Friday today. I’ve given my camera the week off.

So I finally made it to Kodaikanal (in India) a couple days ago. Apart from the rain (which seems to be ever-present), the place is an ideal rest stop on my voyage.

The town is quite small and seems to be centered on the Kodaikanal International School. This suits me just fine, as I’m staying with Coco (who is a teacher at the school) and I am thus afforded all the benefits of being on staff.  I’ve made friends with the guards and am free to move about with no problems. I’ve also managed to make it to the hospital and am working on getting my health back. I’m eating better and have even managed to hit the gym a couple times. Life is good.

As for stories about here, not a lot springs to mind. Kodi is a haven of sorts from the chaotic INDIA that seems to exist once one steps foot in Delhi or any other big city. There is very little hassle, people are nice, and the restaurants are cheap. There is no malaria risk because the town is so high in the mountains (yay no pills!). I think my two weeks or so here is just about the perfect amount of time though, as any more could very easily lead to boredom. Still, I’m very happy to be here and I look forward to catching up on the blog posts. I have a bunch of amazing stories to share. Keep an eye out for a post about my sprint overland along the length of the Indian subcontinent.

Here’s this weeks shots. As I spent most of the week on different kinds of transport, most of the shots are of the Taj Mahal. Boring, I know. Sorry.

As for the transport, I took two overnight trains, one 3-day 2-night train, and an overnight bus. I’m fine without any sort of bus/train action for some time. The first photo of the series gives some idea of what those trains were like.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lukedoug/FotoFriday20091113

These photos taken in Kazakhstan and India, specifically in the cities of Almaty, Delhi, and Varanasi.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lukedoug/FotoFriday20091106