Friday, February 14, 2003

 

india didn't let us go, just like that! because of a computer problem our take-off was delayed more than two hours. the bad thing about it: it happened in the early morning at an airport where no snacks and coffee were available. however, finally everything was ok and we had a save flight to thailand with lots of food and some cool beers;-)

we reached bangkok more than a week ago, on the 5th of february. for our first night, we pampered ourselves at a beautiful hotel just next to the airport, where a friend of ours is general manager. the dinner was delicious and the room out of a fairy tale, a really royal welcome at the kingdom of thailand.

then it was time to go downtown! what a different world to calcutta. bangkok is a real metropole with huge skyscrapers, highways running over the regular roads, skytrains... we have almost forgotton, that there are places like this. our guesthouse was surrounded by new shopping-centres, each jampacked with all kind of shops, international fast-food chains and several cinemas. everything was so clean and tidied up, we were completely taken aback and it took us some days to get used to modern life again!

once we had addapted to the new environment, we were ready for some of bangkoks finest sightseeing. we went to see grand palace with wat phra kaew (wat is a buddhist temple in thailand). it was superb! the buildings represent thailands finest architecture; they are covered with ornaments and glittering in all possible colours. the famous emerald buddha at wat phra kaew looks graceful down on the countless visitors. wat pho is the biggest temple at bangkok and well-known for its awsome statue of the reclining buddha (length 45 m, height 15 m, covered with gold of 24 carate).
furthermore we saw golden mountain (good for a fine view over the city), democracy monument (good example of art deco style introduced by immigrated italian corrado feroci) and jim thopsons house (excellent insight on traditional thai housing).

posted by christoph 15:04

Tuesday, February 04, 2003

 

on our last day in calcutta, we went on a sightseeingtour. we were surprised how much the city has to offer... once you know where to look for; -) the most impressive attraction is doubtlessly victoria memorial , a beautiful monument made out of white marble (the same used at taj mahal) in raj style. further highlights were jain temple, whose walls were covered by amazing mosaics of glass and small mirrors, and dakshineswar kali temple with its notorious statue of the blood-thirsty goddess.

yesterday morning we had already said good-bye to the sisters of charity by joining their regular morning service. we really admire the sisters and volunteers for their selfless service. there's a lot we can learn from them and it also made us realise, how much we have to work on ourselves in order to put our small egos on the backburner in favour of a friendlier and better world.

time is running out, tomorrow we are going to leave this country. our flights are "confirmed", the visas organised, what had to be done is done - bangkok, we're coming!
once more india polarizes my feelings: i look very much forward to the new experiences at thailand - it's so hard to leave the always-moving subcontinent with its beautiful landscapes, astonishing buildings and openhearted (sometimes annoying) people. india, we'll be back!

posted by christoph 13:40

Monday, February 03, 2003

 

calcutta, what associations this name awakens! it origins from kali - kali: bloodthursty goddess, impossible to satisfy her. the city is trapped in the circle of death. here everything begins with death, it's followed by birth, the growth and strengthening of life and finally comes back to death again. here life starts at it's very own end!

this is one side of calcutta, a true and oppressive one. still the city attaches and fascinates. i've never seen that many people living in the streets, their houses are right on the pathway. one walks again and again cross their "livingroos". restaurants are rather rare, cooked and eaten is at the countless streetkitchens. around water pumps (luckely there seem to be enough around) people brush their teeth, have showers, wash laundry and pump water into big waterbags. the roads are stuffed with yellow caps, buses, rickshaws pulled by man (last ones remaining in india) and street vendors. everyday people fight to survive and in a miraculous way they keep themselves and the city going. to my surprise, there are not more beggars around than everywhere else in india and people behave very friendly. an amazing place!!!

we also visited the sisters of charity of mother theresa. for one day we went to volunteer at a place for handicaped children. it was very moving and stiring. we weren't prepared for alike. there are many westerners working as volunteers for weeks, months of even years serving the poorest of the poors. what they're doing is real charity and selfless service! all of them deserve our greatest respect.

posted by christoph 12:56

Sunday, February 02, 2003

 

the citytour joined at chennai was the strangest one we have experienced so far in india. it all started that two sights were closed and therefore replaced by other ones due to republic day on 26th of january. then the driver was celebrating his wedding-day, which meant his wife joined the tour, too. off we went to see our first temple. we (3 mexicans, manuela and i) were left alone in the courtyard by our guide, who went to deposit their personal prayers in front of the gods together with the drivers wife. afterwards we were lead straight to a shop, where the celebrating wife could choose a saree for her special day. finally the driver and his wife had done their job and we went to see elliot beach and velankanni church (the two replacement sights). well, they weren't really worth a visit. next we visited the well-mantained snake-park. as we had made our way to the very interesting poisenous ones we unfortunately had to leave, because time was running out. we drove past some other memorials and nice looking buildings, but didn't stop anymore... this tour was good fun, though we still wonder where chennais sights might be!

in the evening we catched a train to bhubaneswar. the ride was rather unexciting, our neighbours were only occupied by eating and sleeping.

to explore the many orissan temples we booked once more a sightseeing tour. since we were too little people, we and an indian couple were put into a taxi, which drove us to the famous temples of konark and puri. unfortunately a guide wasn't provided for such a small group but the transprotation by taxi demanded a rupee 50,-- surcharge. hahaha, we got the lucky punch again!

the famous suntemple at konark is just stunning and attracts the visitors with many erotic sculptures. there were even more than in khujaraho und the work was done in brilliant and detailed way. the temple was constructed in the 13th century by narashimhadev I, king of orissa, many historical questions remain unknown up to these days, so there is much room for myths and stories. our guide loved that very much and was telling us story after story. as he said, the sculptures are said to be very inspiring. obviously they were for him, for he couldn't get his eyes off manuela. he was quite annoying and we had rather explored this monument by ourselves.

the second destination was puri and it's powerful jagannath temple. unfortunately non-hindus were not allowed in the temple-area, so all we got was a glance from a rooftop terrace. naturally we were asked for a big donation, which made me loose my temper a little bit and complain loudly about the tour to the taxidriver and rooftop-owner. enough is enough, some indians have really strange ideas about this world and how they behave. fortunately they are very few!
we also got a chance to stroll a little on the famous puri beach, which helped to calm down. it's a huge beach. unluckely there are no trees around so one really has to like the sun in order to enjoy this place.

the next day we explored the many temples of bhubaneswar. in days gone by, about 500 were supposed to have been in this area; that's why bhubaneswar is also known as temple city. we were still demotivated by the experience of the day before and therefore simply passed by many temples, avoiding getting to close to the locals.

at 21.20 pm our train to calcutta was supposed to leave. supposed to... it all started with an announcement of the train being delayed 5 hours. at 2 am the train was said to arrive at 3 am. finally we had a beautyful sunrise at the station;-) as another train to calcutta arrived, we managed to get some seats on it. all in all we had spent waiting more than nine hours at this boring station with no one around willingly to inform and help us properly...
don't know if our original train has ever made it's way up north.

posted by christoph 13:52