Post #107 – January 26, 2013 – Munnar, Kerala, India

What we did: Switched hotels

Budget: 3500R/$70; Spent: 3744R/$75

Today was a momentous day. Today, Patty made a grown man cry. But I’ll get to that in due time.

We woke up to a nice breakfast at Dew Drops, consisting of toast, fruit salad, coffee, and omelettes. Hilariously (to me, not to Patty), the server only asked me if I wanted an omelette so they actually didn’t bring any eggs for Patty at all. We all know that you’re playing with fire if you mess with Patty’s food. Needless to say, she was unhappy. When the server returned to the eating area, Patty marched up to him and told him she would like an omelette even though she wasn’t asked whether she would like one. For Patty, this was just another example of Indian men completely ignoring her. And I have to agree, it’s getting pretty ridiculous.

We wanted to check out of Dew Drops as soon as possible so that we could find another hotel and have some time left to explore Munnar and book a tour for the following day. We packed our things, asked the hotel workers to call us an auto-rickshaw, and then called a bunch of hotels recommended in Lonely Planet, with no success. Some hotels were full and others didn’t answer their phone.

The ride into Munnar was long and bumpy. Again, the traffic was seriously backed up. Several times we were just stopped behind a huge lineup of cars for so long that the driver turned off the engine. When we got closer to town, Patty ran into a couple hotels to see if they had rooms available while we were waiting in traffic. No luck, except for one hotel called Bellmount, which had one room available tonight. Not exactly ideal, but we kept it in the back of our mind just in case.

Turns out that this weekend is one of the busiest times of the year in Munnar. Not only is it a weekend (bad enough), but there is also a Hindu festival going on. Many Indian people were taking four days off to come to Munnar. Bad luck for us! It was clear we were going to have a hard time finding somewhere to stay.

The driver we had spoken to last night had recommended a travel agency and given us its phone number. We asked the auto-rickshaw driver to call with his cell phone so that he could take us there. Once we finally arrived in town, we got there after only getting lost once. The man at the travel agency was quite friendly and helpful and didn’t expect anything in return for finding us a hotel, although we did hint that we would take one of his tours. The room he reserved for us is at Archana Hotel.

Once again, neither Patty nor I had the energy to be very friendly with anyone. Hopefully we didn’t come off as absolute jerks. A couple people had asked whether we were really tired or hungry, clearly indicating our moods were apparent. We’re not sure what’s causing us all this stress, perhaps we’re not sleeping enough.

From the travel agency we walked down the street into a more expensive hotel in Munnar called EastEnd to have lunch. Although it was slow in coming, the lunch was pretty good. A little on the expensive side, but worth the cost. We were a little shocked to see some people on either side of us eating their rice with their hands. Hopefully we didn’t offend them by staring, but typically we’ve seen Indian’s using bread to mop up their food, not their hands. This was particularly disturbing for us because of our newfound phobia of bacteria and obsessiveness with cleaning our hands and not touching anything we eat. Perhaps we are the freaks after all.

We decided after lunch to go to an internet café to search online for other hotel options. The travel agent really hadn’t sold the Archana Hotel to us very well, so we thought it wouldn’t hurt to find another option. It was a short walk and after 45 minutes of internet searching and phone calling, we found nothing for today, but another hotel for tomorrow, if we wanted. We called them up and reserved a room for tomorrow night because we had found excellent reviews for this hotel online. For today, though, we were thankful that we had been able to reserve a room at Archana Hotel. We jumped in an auto-rickshaw and about 10 minutes later we pulled up to the hotel.

Almost immediately we knew that something was wrong. They had my name… “Jack” (we had heard the travel agent mispronounce my name on the phone)… but three employees were talking with each other behind the counter, and not in English. They told us to sit down and a minute or two later informed us that they’d given our room away to someone else because they didn’t think we were going to show.

Well, I can tell you that my blood soared to 100 degrees faster than it ever has in my entire life. We both had a feeling this was a possibility and we have been so irritable lately that it felt almost natural to get mad. Immediately I raised my voice and told the guy this was unacceptable. He tried to explain to us that we had taken too long to reach the hotel and we tried to explain to him that no one had given us a time limit on our reservation.

Nothing came of our five minute conversation so they called up the manager. I spoke to him and it was an utter disaster. I have never been so shameless in public. I was basically yelling at the guy over the phone while he was telling me that it was all our fault for being late. I even looked up and saw countless guests just staring at me, and that still didn’t faze me. The thing about India’s service industry is that it is never their fault if anything goes wrong. Being a little more rational now, I understand where he is coming from and, if we are being honest, we were looking for other accommodations even after reserving a room at this place. But being the crazy jerks we are, I completely flipped out on the guy. He was really encouraging my anger by not conceding any responsibility though. Something must be done about my psychotic-ness.  

Finally, the manager told me to pass the phone back to the receptionist and I gave it to him. It was then I realized that him and Patty had also been going at it. The receptionist took the phone and went into the other room and Patty explained that she had yelled at him and had swore at him. I had heard none of this, but considering how I had been over the phone, I wasn’t that surprised. The man came back and asked if we’d like to see the room. It was at this point that Patty apologized to him for swearing at him. The man just shook his head and said that it was not right, and kept sort of repeating himself over and over. Patty kept apologizing and then he said it was his first experience of that kind and then tears began to well up in his eyes. It was sad to see and Patty almost began to cry. She apologized again and then he told us to follow another employee to check out the room.

As we were going up, Patty was horrified by what she had done. I think seeing the receptionist cry was a little too much for her. We went to check out the room and discussed whether we even wanted to stay in the hotel given that we had acted like crazy people in front of so many employees and guests. We decided against staying and went down to reception to inform them. When we said we didn’t want the room, the receptionist offered it to us for 2000 rupees, including tax, down from the original price of 3000 rupees. We couldn’t argue with this price so we accepted and while we were filling out the paper work, he threw in a free breakfast, too. We weren’t sure why he was being so generous, but we accepted as graciously as we could considering everything.

After taking our stuff to our room we talked about how crazy we were becoming. We couldn’t understand what was causing this, but we knew it had to stop. Patty explained that she had gotten so upset because the receptionist had pretty much laughed in her face about our predicament, that is, not having anywhere to sleep tonight, which was partly the hotel’s fault. After this, she had felt the receptionist had zero sympathy/empathy for the situation we were in and so she exploded. Typically, though, Patty doesn’t face confrontation with anger. She usually tries to be the bigger person. Without condoning anything, which she’d not let me do anyway, I think it was a good experience for her, and I think she reluctantly agreed. Don’t get me wrong, it was awful, and she still feels awful (and so do I, for that matter, but I didn’t make a grown man cry…) but I think she also feels like she stood up for herself. Perhaps it wasn’t in the way she would do it if she could go back and do it again, but nothing is ever perfect the first time you try. Once again, we felt like India was forcing change upon us.

After contemplating our psychotic episodes, we decided to try to catch the sunset. It was already quite late in the day and we hadn’t really seen anything of Munnar, so we thought sunset would be nice. We had to backtrack to the hotel a couple of times because we forgot things, but eventually set out in the direction we wanted. Unfortunately, our walk proved futile and we didn’t make it very far to see anything. We asked a rickshaw driver to take us along the main highway out of Munnar for a couple minutes so that we could see the valley. By the time we got to a nice spot, the sun had already fallen below the hills and it was getting dark. We took a couple pictures and then headed back into town.

We stopped at a restaurant recommended in our book called SN Restaurant. It is Indian food, though I would hardly call Keralan food Indian, especially the seafood. The Keralan dishes tend to be far less spicy, and the spices they do have are different from other Indian dishes. The experience was enjoyable. We got to watch an Indian family stare at us as we cleaned our hands with our sanitary wipes. It was hard to tell what they were thinking, but I saw a smirk or two.

We walked back to our hotel after dinner and started watching Dead Poets Society, with Robin Williams. I think we’d seen this before, but it had been a long time and I didn’t remember much. We only made it about 30 minutes into the movie before we were too exhausted to continue. We are checking out of our hotel in the morning and we are hoping to get an early start to the day.

Post #106 – January 25, 2013 – Kochi, Kerala, India

What we did: bus to Munnar

Budget: 3500R/$70; Spent: 2680R/$54

We got up feeling very sleepy but managed to drag ourselves down for breakfast. It’s been great the past few mornings. We have been playing loud party music first thing and that has been giving us a serious boost of energy. Why don’t we do that at home before work?!

At breakfast we met very nice couple from San Diego, California. They really know how to travel and it sounded as though they were having an amazing time in India. They managed to find several hidden gems that not too many tourists go to. They had a lot of experience travelling, especially the man. He had been all over. He was telling us about his time in Calcutta and giving us advice on where to go in Thailand. The key to their success in India seemed to be their ability to make friends easily. They said that’s how they would end up at unique places, just based on advice and experience from others. We’re going to try to challenge ourselves to start talking to more strangers from now on.

We ended up talking too long and we checked out a little later than we had hoped. We needed to catch a rickshaw to the ferry to get across to Ernakulam to grab a taxi to then catch the 11am bus to Munnar.

We managed to get to the bus depot no problem and hopped right onto the bus headed for Munnar. It was another scorcher and it seemed we chose the wrong side of the bus. Half my body was in the sun for a lot of the trip until finally we figured out how to close the window. It was overall an uncomfortable 4.5 hour ride into the hills of Kerala, but for less than $4 for the two of us, we can’t complain too much. We did sit in a tight space with no AC packed in like little sardines in the heat for 4.5 hours, not to mention with all our bags sitting on top of us, but for $4 and a safe arrival to beautiful Munnar, it was worth it. Climbing up the green hills, India was unrecognizable. I have never seen anything like this place. I have never even imagined a place like this. I can’t even really compare it to anything we have ever seen. It is so different. I could compare it to what I imagine the hills of England and Ireland look like but it’s just not a good comparison. The sun is too bright and the sky too blue in Kerala. There are coulourful wild flowers that grow everywhere.  There are these perfectly symmetrical tea trees in the valleys below the road on the hill. It’s a stunning sight. Some of the best views we’ve seen the whole trip: tea plantations on the sides of huge hills as far as the eye could see, beautifully manicured plants, tall, elegant trees, areas where the trees were planted around huge rocks sticking out of the ground; it is an amazing place that hopefully we can get pictures of!

Fortunately in the hills the temperature is much nicer. We got off the bus feeling excited to be there and explore. The first item on the agenda was seeing if a cheaper alternative to the hotel we already booked was available. We decided it was a better option for us since it was closer to town, giving us more options, it was also cheaper and Lonely Planet’s top choice for accommodation. Sadly they were completely full. So, we moved to plan B and decided to head to the place we booked. We were still positive about it though since the Trip Advisor reviews had been glowing with an unreal 67+ “Excellent” ratings. And it was also one of Lonely Planet’s recommendations. So we figured we couldn’t go wrong. The only downside would be the location, which was 22 km from Munnar. It’s quite isolated. The hotel offered cheap pick up from the town so we gave them a call for a ride using our taxi driver’s cell phone. A guy told us they would be there to pick us up in 10 minutes right outside the Green Leaf restaurant in Munnar.

Munnar has a traffic problem; it took us about an hour to move a kilometre or two into the city centre; traffic was actually just not moving for 5-10 minutes at a time; we would inch forward then stop again. Before getting picked up we realized we needed to take more money out so we ran to ATM and then went in search of the Green Leaf restaurant we had seen on our way into town. I couldn’t remember where I had seen the hotel so we grabbed an auto-rickshaw there.

We waited for about 20 minutes for our ride to show. We started panicking a little because we thought we had missed him. Finally just as we had asked a stranger to borrow his cell phone to call them again, an auto-rickshaw showed up.

The ride to hotel took about 45 minutes and was a bumpy one. As we got closer, we realized it wasn’t anywhere near the tea plantations or the views we loved so we were somewhat disappointed.

We were greeted by a worker and led to our room. We had the choice between two rooms and we chose the cheaper option. The other room was a little more expensive but included dinner; we inquired about the cost of dinner and it didn’t seem to make sense to go for the more expensive option.

We were starving and decided to go check out the restaurant and the view Lonely Planet mentioned was quite lovely. The view was okay but nothing worth noting. It was no different than the surrounding areas of the rest of the hotel so I’m not sure why they made any mention of it. So this was also slightly disappointing for us since we had banked on having some wonderful views of the area at this hotel.

It turned out the restaurant didn’t open for an hour. We went back to room to shower, but couldn’t get the hot water working so we went to check whether the hotel set up any tours and discovered that none of the workers really spoke any English at all. We got more information from a taxi driver that had been hired for a couple days by a guest. He told us about a nice route we could take. By this time we were starting to feel pretty negative about the hotel, its staff, and its location. We should have known better, but I guess we figured if a hotel is going to be situated in a forest, 22 km away from the main town, there would be tours and transportation to and from the town available… or at the very least there would be staff who spoke enough English to assist us with making our own arrangements. None of the above applied at this place so we were beginning to feel a bit trapped and as though India was taking back 10-fold what Mr. Walton’s had given us. This is another example of the extremes in India. Outstanding service in Kochi, and poor to non-existent service at this place. Dew Drops is the name of the hotel.

So, disgruntled, we began asking ourselves if maybe we were just tired or being too negative or high maintenance. We sat in our room discussing our options and decided we would cut our losses and head back into town to find somewhere else to stay. By this time it was 7:30pm and we were hungry. We sat down at the table. Naturally there was no menu. The meals were the same for all guests. We could only choose between veg and non-veg; dinner was OK. In good Patty fashion, I dropped our bowl of rice in the veg dish I was enjoying.  Being so terrified of bacteria, I decided not to eat the rest. The taxi driver we had met earlier sat down next to us during dinner and we chatted with him for a bit. He said he would give us the name of a reputable travel agency in town so that we could arrange for a tour in the coming days. What a gentleman. This guy didn’t even work at this hotel. He kept assuring me and Jeff that this was a nice place to stay, but that they were simply understaffed and the service was lacking. He almost sounded apologetic for them. He even started clearing our table of the dishes to help the server out. I wasn’t too fond of the German guy he was driving around though. He was much too interested in what Jeff had to say, and had little interest in anything coming out of my mouth. I’m beginning to notice this trend more than ever here. Indian men all too often won’t even acknowledge my presence. They won’t say hello to me, they direct all their questions and niceties to Jeff. I open my mouth and have to repeat myself several times. Just today, I asked a guy if I could use his cell phone. I asked him 3 different times in the exact same volume and tone and then finally he said “Oh, cellphone!” They won’t even look at me. Then there’s the European men we’ve met who will say hello, but then have no interest in holding a conversation. I have never felt so invisible before. It drives me crazy. And it’s too bad, really, because now I have stopped trying. I have to keep reminding myself that it’s not everybody. And by closing my mouth, I am perpetuating an unacceptable cycle of treatment of women. I’m worried I’m going to open my mouth in the wrong way, though, and say something I will regret.

After dinner we met up with the taxi driver and he gave us the contact info of the travel agency. We went to our rooms and showered and watched Django Unchained while eating KurKure chips - a blessed snack invented by the Indians and real joy to munch on these days. Django was a disturbing depiction of slavery in the several years prior to the American civil war. I literally had to turn away from watching some scenes. Tarantino has got a twisted mind I tell you. Aside from the unnecessary violence I enjoyed it. Jeff not so much though. I have to say that Leonardo DiCaprio was amazing in it. The bad guy from Inglorious Basterds also gave a great performance. But both Jeff and I have been noticing more and more that movies these days lack heart. Almost every night we have been watching movies both recent and old. And it's become apparent that nobody dares get too emotional in their movies nowadays. Good stories like Lincoln and even Django Unchained have very little character development and there's often no moral to the stories. Again there's just no heart. Does anybody else agree with this? Anyways we've been ranting about this lately but I won't delve into the details of our conversations to save you from boredom. 

Post #105 – January 24, 2013 – Kochi, Kerala, India

What we did: Mattancherry Palace, wandered around Kochi

Budget: 3500R/$70; Spent: 4050R/$76

Neither Patty nor I slept very well last night. For me it was the fact that the absolutely necessary AC was blowing directly on me most of the night. We couldn’t do anything about that, so Patty and I actually switched spots halfway through the night since Patty didn’t seem to mind. I’m not really sure why Patty couldn’t sleep…seems like she just had a restless energy all night long.

So, we both woke up on the tired side and dragged ourselves down to breakfast that is only served between 8:30-9:45am. When we arrived there were no seats at either of the two tables provided, but two people saw us coming and removed themselves so we could sit down. That was nice.

The breakfast was actually pretty elaborate. I guess this is what we get for staying at a homestay. We were given watermelon, pineapple, papaya, toast, eggs to order, and coffee/tea. We could eat as much as we wanted, with people actually serving us! It was lovely.

We had conversations with a Danish woman and an English man. Patty is pretty sure the Danish lady made an extremely awkward comment toward a transgendered (we believe) person sitting at the table, who promptly left. The comment was directed toward her husband and went something along the lines of “So, she’s a woman.” Her husband also promptly left. Patty thought that perhaps the comment was just one of those really embarrassing things that slip out at an awkward time.

In any case, the Danish lady otherwise seemed like a very nice person. She told us about her daughter who lives in Australia, where they had been traveling, and how they don’t want to go home to the cold. The English man was very soft spoken and at times difficult to understand, but he did tell me that he had been to Winnipeg some 30-odd years ago on a North American tour with his friends. Sounded like an awesome time! We’ll have to do that one day.

After breakfast we went to check to see if the café next door (that has free internet!) was open. Unfortunately, it was not. So, we wandered down the streets looking into various shops. It was only about 10am, but it was already scorching hot. I basically ran from shaded area to shaded area. We ended up at a store that is recommended by Lonely Planet called Cinnamon. Turns out that simple tunics and kurtas for women cost more there than what Patty would like to spend on a Lengha, a formal-y dress she could wear for a wedding. Basically, these items of clothing started at around 8000 rupees, or $160, and after Patty saw one for 12,000 rupees, we walked out. Not our kind of store.

By this time it was close enough to 11am (the café’s opening time) to head there. It still wasn’t open when we arrived, but it’s attached to a hotel, so we just sat there, using the free internet until it did open. We ordered some coffees and two apple streusels (like muffins) and did internet research, checked email, and worked on the blog. We wasted away a couple hours doing this and didn’t leave to do any sightseeing at all until after 1pm.

To be honest, though, we really didn’t do much of anything today. We did take an auto-rickshaw to the part of Kochi called “Jew Town” (interesting name…), where an old palace is located. The palace is called Mattancherry Palace and was a gift from the Portuguese to the Raja of Kochi in 1555. The Dutch also took it over at some point. The palace itself was pretty boring. There is a lot of discussion of the history of Kochi, a couple neat artifacts, like seats people used to be carried through the streets on, and some beautiful murals on the walls, but honestly none of this was particularly interesting in 35 degree weather and sweat pouring down our backs. To be fair, though, it probably wouldn’t have been any more interesting at a more reasonable temperature.

After our disappointment, we naturally sought out food to make things better. After wandering around a bit and some good directions from a shop keeper, we found a restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet called Casa Maria. I’ve been getting used to ordering fresh lime sodas with most of my meals, and this was no exception. They are the most refreshing drink of all time, and I’m pretty sure they are just made from lime, soda water, and sugar. Yum.

Our lunch was unfortunately not as good as our drinks. I’m still averse to Indian food, so I ordered a pasta, but it was nasty. The sauce was just way too sweet. Patty ordered an Indian lentil dish (Dahl Fry) and I could barely stomach it. I ate it because I knew it was good for me. I started out liking Indian food so much, too…

There is a Synagogue in Jew Town that is supposed to be worth seeing, but neither of us were up for it. We caught a ride back to our hotel and headed up to our room for some AC action. We were also both dead tired. I set my phone to ring after 20 minutes and we curled up at the foot of our bed and fell asleep.

It was a beautiful 20 minutes. We both passed out hard, and there was definitely a pool of drool next to my face when I woke up. Best nap of the trip!

Feeling revitalized, we decided to head down to the café next door and use their free wifi. We bought espresso shots, which were quite tasty and also justified our presence in the store. We had some booking to do, including a flight to Bangkok from Kolkata and a hotel in Kolkata. We managed to confirm both before heading out for dinner. Actually, we got a great deal on our flight to Bangkok on Air Asia. It looks like we’ll be heading there just in time to attend Mintoo’s cousin’s wedding. Should be fun!

We decided to go back to Casa Linda for dinner, since we had enjoyed it so much the night before. Thankfully, tonight was no different. I ordered a spicy grilled fish and Patty ordered a grilled fish that was a little simpler than mine. Both were ridiculously good. Definitely the best Indian-food restaurant in all of India for us so far. Every spoonful was amazingly flavourful. Kerala, it seems, is the place to go in India. Besides the food, though, we had a very deep discussion about the nature of reality, prompted by my brother, Ivan, sending us some videos criticizing Deepak Chopra, who is the author of a book we are reading now. I won’t bore you all with details.

We wandered back to our room after dinner, stopping to pick up some junk food for a movie. We ended up watching 12 Monkeys. Odd movie, and I didn’t really get the ending at first. Patty explained to me that it seemed like Mr. Willis had accomplished his task because of the last scene in the airplane. Anyway, I’m not sure I liked it much.

Post #104 - January 23, 2013 - Kochi, Kerala, India

What we did: travelled to Kochi, Ferry to Fort Cochin
Budget: 3500R/$70; Spent: 4510R/$90

Patty here.

We woke up at 9am to eat breakfast so that we could catch up with our parents on Skype before our flight today. I spoke to my dad a bit and he told me that it has been frigidly cold in Winnipeg. Even still some how I miss the snow and the winter back at home. There's something really cozy about winter. There's nothing cozy about India, as beautiful as it is in many ways.

After breakfast and speaking with my dad I went back to the room to start packing while Jeff gave his parents a call.

Finally we're all caught up on our blogs! It has been a rough couple weeks in India what with being sick continually. Yet somehow, I am still very fond of this country. It's here I feel we have grown the most, made breakthroughs, been able to reflect on our journey and faced our biggest challenges. Up until arriving in India our travels hadn't lived up to my expectations... naive as it may seem I thought I would be constantly encountering new and exciting things that would change us and inspire us. As it turns out, it's just not that simple. You need to seek out that which you find exciting and inspiring. Before you can even do this, you need to know what it is that excites and inspires you. Finally I think we know what we're looking for - challenges, positive ones.

India can be infuriating at times. It's at those times though that I have actually felt enlightened. It reminds of the time we were carrying all our belongings from one end of a train to the other from Aurangabad to Mumbai. It took us about 20 minutes to make the trek in the heat through what felt like dozens of train cars, brushing up against masses of people everywhere including the floor. In most cases this would be extremely stressful and I guess it was. But at the same time I looked around and nobody else was stressed about it. The locals all had a zen-like cool about them. They had more important things to concern themselves with. It made me immediately aware that I was creating the stress for myself. It's little moments like that I will never forget about India.

After packing we checked out and met our non-AC taxi outside our hotel. Not having AC the whole ride was rough. The trip to the airport was a long one. It took a little over an hour to get there and then we were greeted by India's renowned chaotic and archaic processes. Even with the hotel's guidance we were running late and only arrived at the airport with less than an hour before our domestic flight. Before even checking in for our flight with "Spice Jet", we had to wait in a long and slow moving queue to have our luggage scanned through security. This took at least 20 minutes. We then got in another line to check in for a our flight. We thought that was the end of our troubles but then we were greeted by another massive line to get through more security. Let me know point there were no signs anywhere directing people to their respective lines and in good Indian fashion there was nobody to ask because all of the workers were in big clumps just chatting away and socializing while the tourists all freaked out about where to head next. We finally figured it out and then waited in line but quickly realized we were seriously running out of time to catch our flight. We became particularly concerned when we read the notice on our boarding ticket that said doors to the plane would be closed 20 mins prior to take-off. The moment we read this we looked at the time and had 15 minutes to get through security and on the flight. We knew we weren't going to make it on the plane in that time. The line was bottle necking at a doorway and it seemed like we only moved a step forward every 2 minutes. But then here's another amusing example of India's quirks: we stopped a worker passing by to explain we were going to miss our flight and he shook his head and said "your plane won't leave without you, I assure you sir". It turned out everyone in line was on our flight. That 20 minute rule we read, wasn't a rule that anybody followed! Plus we would be departing later than expected. We waited in line and didn't get to the security guard until the scheduled departure of our flight. I was extremely stressed and irritated at this point. I knew full well we would make our flight but I was frustrated with the whole process and being out of the loop. Then there was the security guard who was so friendly to us. He didn't have a care in the world, and somehow neither did Jeff! Jeff had a friendly conversation with the guy and then we boarded a bus to our plane.

The flight was uneventful. We both felt kind of out of sorts on the ride. We read our books and just relaxed most of the way.

Upon deplaning we were slapped in the face with a serious Keralan heat wave. It is HOT in Kochi! We calculated the cheapest and most efficient way to get to our hotel which is on a island off the mainland and we hopped on a taxi and drove another 45 mins in a non-AC taxi, this time in even hotter temperatures. We were both feeling squeamish after the ride and just happy to be almost at our homestay. We then hopped on an old ferry for 10 rupees and arrived on Fort Chochin. We were immediately greeted by a nice guy who arranged an autorickshaw ride to our hotel for 30 rupees. The autorickshaw driver was less than pleased with the price the nice guy quoted us. The guy who made the arrangement for us laughed and told us the driver was mad at him. We had a good laugh and told him that at the very least we liked him. The taxi driver was a nice guy too and gave us advice for our stay in Kochi. We ended up paying him 40 rupees like he wanted and he gave us sincere smile of gratitude.

We then met Mr. Christopher Walton. He is the owner of our hotel/homestay and quite the host. He welcomed us into his office which is also a library and right away we felt at home, like we were staying with someone's grandparents. It was a really nice feeling to be taken care of like that. He gave us 3 maps, drew out the paths to each place he recommended. He advised us to get bug spray and a flashlight. For once we had all our answers without having to ask. He was completely open with us. This is uncommon in India. Most service providers tell you as little as possible and leave as much as possible ambiguous usually so that you spend more money. Needless to say, it was a wonderful first impression of Kochi and Kerala. We finally felt like we could trust someone.

Mr. Walton walked us to our room, showed us how to turn on the AC and the hot water (something nobody else has done for us). We told him we had some laundry and he said that if we dropped it off that night we would have it by tomorrow evening. This was glorious news! At Sun Village, the 3-star hotel we paid and arm and a leg for, we waited 48 hours and had to fight to get it done before we checked out even though it clearly states on the laundry sheet that laundry gets done in 24 hours!! We both agreed Mr. Walton's place was the best value we have seen for our money in India. We are only paying 1600 rupees a night and this includes a homemade breakfast. Homestays are where it's at. We'll be doing more of these.

We had an amazing dinner at a place called Casa Linda which is recommended by Lonely Planet and Mr. Walton. It served superb Keralan seafood. I ordered the Coconut Shrimp and Jeff had the fish Moliee. We also had lime rice and a seafood soup. Everything was excellent. It was essentially what we had imagined and hoped Indian seafood would taste like. After the mostly mediocre seafood in Goa it was very refreshing. Again the service was very good here too.

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After dinner we decided to head to the internet cafe next door to our homestay and we ordered some passion fruit and chocolate brownie gelato in return we got free wifi and Jeff worked on the blog.

We got back to the room, we had wonderful showers in the shower facilities in our room - you travel for 4 months and start enjoying the little things like evenly sprayed water with easily changeable temperatures. These things become luxuries. We watched the end of Hook, the movie, and tried falling asleep. Jeff was too cold, I was too hot. Jeff was getting grumpy, I was restless. I kept tossing and turning. Then I had an exciting idea for a business that I couldn't stop thinking about. I woke Jeff up and slapped him by accident due to my difficulty holding back my enthusiasm for my business idea. Jeff got grumpier with me until finally we decided to switch spots on the bed. We realized the AC was blowing on him not me. This was a good decision and finally we nodded off.

Post #103 - January 22, 2013 - Baga (Goa), India

What we did: switched hotels, caught up on blog, sunset at beach
Budget: 3500R/$70; Spent: 4473R/$89

At last, today we left the worst-value-for-money hotel EVER. It’s such a shame, especially since this was supposed to be a treat to ourselves. Oh well, next time. This is a phrase one must get used to while in India.

We had another good buffet breakfast and chatted about whether and how our trip has been changing us. It’s been a somewhat overwhelming experience here in India, with getting sick, the poverty, the dirtiness, the masses of people, the fighting for everything… It’s been stressful and, at times, horrible. Both of us have been imagining the comforts of home more and more – most especially our families and friends. It’s this struggle, however, that I feel is actually changing our beings.

We’re discovering just how hard it is to change; how hard it is to be different in important, meaningful ways. It wasn't until today, eating breakfast with the love of my life that I realized that I feel different, as if the person who left Winnipeg more than three months ago is gone, in some sense. It’s like I've shed a skin that has been holding me back, weighing me down, from something more. It’s refreshing. It’s a relief. It’s scary. I feel like I’m becoming myself, though I don’t know what that means.

I've never liked defining myself because I believe the only good this would do is limit the directions of my own growth. But because of this, I also don’t feel like I understand how I’m changing, or what direction, in a sense, my life is leading me. It feels somewhat out of my control. This is why it’s scary. It’s a relief because I have been unsatisfied for a long time, but did not know how to do anything about it. It’s refreshing because it’s given me a new lease on life, a new vision of what life can be…and the knowledge that I will never settle.

What is comforting is that I know I’m grounded by my most cherished values. And I think I will change around these and, hopefully, they will guide the change.

India has also been an exhausting experience, and I think it’s finally catching up to me. The last couple of days we have relaxed and I have finally allowed myself a break. And these past days I've been mentally dead, much more so than Patty. There’s been very little life in me. But I also feel like it was a much needed recharge of my batteries. Today I feel a little more lively.

We checked out of our hotel with no problems and while I was at reception, Patty happened to start talking to a couple and their friend who, it turns out, are from Winnipeg! The couple had their young son with them. He was a real cutie and seemed quite content to be carried this way and that. I can’t imagine Patty and I bringing a young child to India! But it seems to be working for them. The friend was quite a character and seems to have traveled extensively throughout Asia. He owns a construction company and this seems to afford him the luxury of extended travels. Must be nice! (Though I’m not complaining!)

We caught the shuttle with them into Baga and just chatted. I still felt pretty lifeless and was frustrated by my lack of involvement in the conversation, although I piped in here and there. Patty had a nice talk with him though. They were very nice people. Considering how many times we've crossed paths with them at this resort already (we took another shuttle with them and they were the ones yelling at reception the other night) I have a feeling we’ll be seeing them again.

We wandered over to our near hotel, Cavala, and happily checked in. The resort is very nice, and we both were wishing we’d just stayed there the whole time. Sadly, we’d even singled out this place as soon as we reached India, in Delhi. That’s what too much research and second-guessing can do! Oh well, next time… although the likelihood of us returning to Goa at this point seems low. We have been less than impressed. Patty has been comparing it to Mexico the whole time. I bet you can guess which country came out on top.

Check in at Cavala went smoothly and we were given welcome drinks. We chose fresh lime sodas. Unfortunately, these come in either salty or sweet versions and I think some people can’t resist adding salt, even to the sweet ones. This was the case here and Patty couldn't drink hers. I didn't mind so much, so instead of one welcome drink, I had two.

We spent a couple hours working on our blog. Cavala actually has free internet in their restaurant so we had no problems there! Again, what a shame we didn't stay here!

Around 5pm, we went looking for Cavala's pool. It was across the street on another property, but by this time the sun had set and neither of us felt like jumping in a cold pool with no sun to warm us up after. We went back to our rooms and showered.

We decided to have dinner at Cavala tonight, and what a good choice! They were doing a special seafood BBQ tonight and had a special menu for the occasion. We were a little early, so we sat down and decided to just order some drinks before dinner. We looked through the drink list, but everything was quite pricey. We eventually settled on a bottle of port wine, which was $5. Very reasonable! We had never had port wine before, but knew it was sweet. We thought, what the heck!? Turned out to be quite tasty, though sweet.

We were able to order much earlier than they said we could. Patty ordered garlic and butter, grilled shrimp and I ordered garlic and butter, grilled fish. We loved it. Finally, seafood done right! We had been imagining what Goan seafood would taste like for some time, but had been disappointed since we had arrived. This hit the spot!

For dessert we ordered what the menu said was a mango cheesecake, though this wasn't what we got. What we got certainly looked like cheesecake, but we don’t think there was actually any cheese in it. Don’t get me wrong, it was tasty, but not cheesecake. The mango taste was delicious though. We then ordered a forgettable and overpriced milkshake.

I should have mentioned that, since we had arrived, a wonderful three-person band had been playing Western music from the '70s and '80s. At first, we were the only people they were playing for. Patty eventually asked them to play La Bamba, and they did it quite well! By the end of the night, there were some couples dancing. It was a really nice dinner experience. A beautiful way to end our time in Goa. The only thing that would have made it better is if Patty and I had danced to a couple songs. It was while watching one Indian couple dancing that I realized I really wanted to learn how to dance – nothing complex, but something fun.

In case we haven’t mentioned this before, we are strongly considering spending a month in Spain in April to hone our Spanish. This might be the perfect opportunity to also take some dancing lessons! Hopefully it works out!

It was an awesome way to end a mediocre stay in Goa. It left us wondering how much different our time in Goa would have been had we stayed at Cavala. We really need to stop thinking of that!

In other news, on recommendation of our dear friend Colin Ambrose, we have altered our India saying in a slight, but significant, way: “What India giveth, it shall taketh back ten-fold!” Sounds pretty good to me, but suggestions are always welcome!

Post #102 - January 21, 2013 - Baga (Goa), India

What we did: Read by pool, went into Baga town for dinner, watched Sister Act
Budget: 3500R/$70; Spent:4720R/$92

We woke up feeling pretty tired and couldn't seem to shake it off the whole day. This likely had to do with our fasting but also dehydration. So we drank a ton of water. I also still wasn’t feeling that well and am getting really frustrated with my health and am tired of taking medication here in India. We had a nice breakfast buffet again today. The food has been pretty good at our resort. No complaints there.

The plan for the day was again to just relax by the pool and take it easy. Perhaps this decision had something to do with the lethargy we felt most of the day. We spent hours under the shade just reading and bouncing ideas off each other for business prospects. The book Jeff is reading right now called the 4-Hour Work Week has him super inspired. It’s great to see him so enthusiastic about the future. I have really seen him grow during our trip and particularly during our time in India. I have really been enjoying the book I have been reading by Deepak Chopra. He is a brilliant medical doctor that has written countless books. He has offered a very fresh perspective on health. So far he has really shown contrasts between western and eastern medicine. There is a spirituality to him that is very refreshing and eloquently presented. The best part is that it’s coming from a scientific minded person. What I like most about him is that although he has been trained to deal with logic and concrete facts as a doctor, his mind is so open to possibilities. He continuously describes the shortcomings of western medicine in describing our bodily functions. He explains that emotions cannot be summed up by chemical reactions. There is far more going on within us. He asserts that we are souls travelling in physical form through our bodies. He suggests that very often illnesses or disease are our body’s manifestation of an energy imbalance of some kind caused by stress. Anyway that’s a vague synopsis of the first chapter. It has been a fascinating read and I’m really happy I picked it up.

After reading and chatting for a bit we went to grab a bite to eat at the poolside restaurant. We shared a sandwich and fries. The meal hit the spot.

After our snack we were ready to go back to the room and freshen up before dinner. We decided we would go back to Britto's by the beach. After our showers we lazed a bit and watched the first half of Sister Act. We felt energized and finally got ourselves up to go for dinner.

We caught a taxi ride into town for 100 rupees. We got dropped off right at Britto's and we were really happy with the ambiance there. Our table was right on the beach with the sand beneath our feet and under a huge hut where all the tables are. There was candlelight and I sat facing the sunset. They had a live singer and the meal itself was decent. We had some Goan fish dishes that were just okay. The server seemed really excited about my selection so I was surprised it wasn't tastier, considering the look the server made when describing it. Goes to show how our taste preferences differ so much just based on the flavours we’re accustomed to.

After dinner we went in search for a nice dessert. We had our hearts set on the elusive Lila Café, which we had driven by numerous times but not until today did we actually find it. It is recommended in our Lonely Planet book. It’s just a café/bakery that supposedly serves great coffees and freshly baked breads. We walked all the way there from Britto's only to find it closed. We stopped by several other restaurants in an attempt to find dessert but ended up back at our hotel restaurant where we ate banana splits. They were a solid choice. But I was craving baked goods.

It turned out our resort was holding a gala buffet in an area we had never seen before located behind a building by the pool. It would have been nice for them to advertise this better to their guests. We had no idea it was going on.  I saw a small plastic sign earlier in the day simply saying “gala buffet tonight” but figured it was maybe just a fancier more expensive buffet than usual. Little did I know there was live music and dancing in a big unknown area of the hotel.

India is full of surprises.

Post #101 - January 20, 2013 - Baga (Goa), India

What we did: Read by pool, fasted, went to Calangute, watched Back to the Future
Budget: 3500R/$70; Spent:4720R/$92

Today we slowly made our way down to breakfast, still tired and disturbed from the night before.
We decided when we got up that it would be a day of just relaxing and reading by the pool and that we’d only eat breakfast and fast for the rest of the day, which is of course always easier said than done. Jeff has done some reading about the numerous studies that have discovered there are many health benefits to occasionally fasting. So this is something we are going to try and do fairly regularly.

We both had enormous breakfasts that we were hoping would tide us over until tomorrow morning.
After this, we lazed around in our rooms for a bit before bringing our books and water down to the pool side, we grabbed some chairs and spent a very relaxing day chatting and reading by the pool and trying to keep out of the sun, which was scorching.

We ended the day with a brief swim in the pool, it’s quite cool later in the day but nice after an entire day of sweating by the pool.

After showering, Patty thought she was coming down with another bladder infection so we talked to reception and they called in a doctor, he agreed that this was what it was and prescribed some medication for us.

He ended up demanding 2000 rupees from us despite the fact that the hotel had told us it would be 500, we took the matter to reception and the receptionist (an excellent service provider) called the doctor who had sent this kid and demanded we pay the 500 rupees as agreed. Finally, good service!! We ended up paying the 500 rupees.

We then took a taxi to a chemist in Calangute, got the meds, picked up some yogurt (plain, so we’ll see how that goes!), and then headed home.

Once back in our room, we decided to watch Back to the Future, Part 1 and Part 2 to keep our minds off of food. It only barely worked. Patty was not feeling great, this was mostly caused by gas. Hopefully the antibiotics will kick in soon! She was also getting pretty down about getting sick constantly in India. She is quite frustrated with her health.

Watching Back to the Future was fun and helped take our minds off our troubles. Patty actually loved the movies, which she had never seen before. I hadn't watched them for years, and had forgotten that they are pretty fun. We’ll have to finish the trilogy soon!

Post #100 - January 19, 2013 - Baga (Goa), India

What we did: shopped, booked hotel in Goa, beach, Tito’s night club
Budget: 3500R/$70; Spent: 7450R/$149 

It was another expensive day. We got down to breakfast around 10am and decided to do some trip planning. We caught the shuttle to Baga beach at 2pm and we were told where they’d pick us up later.

Patty bought a beach dress and  gave in and finally bought Ali Baba pants from a shop with a nice shopkeeper along the way. We paid $9 for both and were happy with this.

We then booked a night at a hotel called Cavala Seaside Resort for the extra night we needed in Goa since we couldn't get a good flight out to Kochi until a day later than we had planned. Cavala is where we wished we had booked in the first place! This has taught to us to not overthink things and go with our gut more. From the get go in India we had wanted to stay at Cavala when we made our way to Goa. For whatever reason, we booked Sun Village instead. I guess we thought the more we paid the more value we’d get. We were wrong this time. But at least for the final night in Baga we could spend it at Cavala.

We took a long walk on the beach once we arrived and then ended up at a restaurant on the beach, ordered a beer and chatted for an hour or so, wishing we had instead went back to the restaurant we had been at the day before. We planned on catching the 4:30pm shuttle back to the hotel, but it didn't show up after waiting for it for about half an hour. Granted there was quite a traffic jam in the village but we thought that surely eventually the shuttle would show. We walked back to hotel somewhat angry because we had been told it was coming to pick us up.

Later, when Patty was down in the lobby asking for Internet, she overhead a couple yelling at reception because a shuttle had not picked them up at 6pm, like they had been told it would. They even called the hotel to ask them to pick them up, but the hotel said no; it was wonderful to have people in the same boat as us: hating the hotel.

We decided we would go for dinner then check out Goan nightlife. We went to a restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet called Infantaria located south of Baga in Calangute, a 200 rupee taxi-ride away. We arrived there no problem and decided to go up to their second floor where they had some live music. It was just one Indian guy singing and playing a guitar and it turned out to be one of the best experiences of that kind in India so far. His song selection was unbelievable. He had us singing along to most of them. At the end of our time there, we even got a picture with him.
The food was so-so, drinks were very reasonably priced, and the singing was quite good. We followed our friend Darren’s advice and had shots of rum before dinner in an effort to kill any possible bacteria present in our food. The manager of the restaurant shook his head when he saw our shots before dinner. We had a laugh and then enjoyed our shot together. We were excited to have some fun and go dancing.

After dinner, we started walking in the direction of Baga, where a nightclub we wanted to check out is located. Walking turned out to be not such a good idea since there was tons of traffic and again we were walking in the dark so we caught a cab there for 80 rupees. I have gotten good at setting taxi prices with the drivers in Goa. I gave him the price first and then he had the option of agreeing or not. It’s handy to know what’s reasonable in an area. Our first 2 days in Goa we were constantly being quote 250 rupees for literally a 5 minute drive into town from our hotel. We later learned we should never pay more than 150 rupees for this ride.

The taxi ended up dropping us a little ways from the bar (so I paid him 80 rupees instead of the 100 rupees we had originally agreed to) and walked down the street. The book store we had been looking for yesterday was now open. We spent about 20 minutes looking through books; finally Patty picked one out (I was somewhat considering picking the Lord of the Rings) by Deepak Chopra called Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul. We carried this around for the rest of the night, which was better than it sounds.

There were two night clubs we were considering, Tito’s and Mambo’s. We walked to both and eventually decided on Tito’s. It was 1500 rupee cover for both of us. The price included free drinks, so we thought why not? It was busy and it was something we just wanted to experience once in India.

It turned out to be pretty fun. The place wasn't packed but there were enough people on the dance floor most of the night. The DJ played very Western music much of the time, but most of it was good and we danced the night away until two very creepy guys sort of ruined it for us. They kept hugging us and one guy was grabbing Patty’s face for some reason, almost squishing it. What a weirdo. Then he actually touched her butt so we got the hell out of there at this point. It is unfortunate that we had had such a great time up until this point and then we got taken advantage of for just trying to be friendly.

We are in the process of engineering a saying about India and it goes something like this: “What India giveth, it shall taketh back many times over”. It’s a work in progress, if anyone has some good ideas, feel free to share.

We caught a taxi back to our hotel for 150 rupees and went straight to bed, thinking of how creepy those two guys were. I think Patty was pretty disturbed by it and I can’t blame her.

Post #99 - January 18, 2013 - Baga (Goa), India

What we did: Booked flight to Kochi, Baga beach, Britto’s seafood, gandered through streets
Budget: 3500R/$70; Spent: 5460R/$109

We set our alarm intending to catch the free 9:30am shuttle to Baga beach from our hotel, but decided to sleep in instead.

We got down for be breakfast buffet around 10am. This was included in our stay at the hotel. The buffet was a pretty standard continental breakfast as well as Indian choices, all were pretty tasty.
We caught the 12pm shuttle to the beach after breakfast and resting a little in our room. The shuttle dropped us off about a 5 minute walk through various clothing and food shops from the beach.
We perused through some stores, but more or less went straight to the beach, pretty nice beach, huge, immediately offered chairs on the beach for up to 400 rupees, we declined and kept wandering, the offers got less and less as we continued wandering until someone offered us 100 rupees for the rest of the day. We declined again and dipped our feet into the ocean. Chances are good that the towels offered don’t get washed every day.

We decided we just wanted to sit at a restaurant on the beach and found a nice one with a friendly server named Baba. We sat there for a couple hours drinking beer and people watching. We did a little researching on Lonely Planet and realized we need another book to read – we have one we've been carrying around with us the whole time called The 4-Hour Work Week. We've been waiting for a good place to read, but we both wanted to read it; decided we needed to find a book store.
When we were feeling hungry, we decided to check out a recommended restaurant, called Britto’s, that was steps away from where we were sitting and right on the beach. A minute walk and we were sitting at a table. We ended up ordering a sea food platter and it was quite tasty, we were scared of eating the seafood though! But Lonely Planet called this place a “Baga Institution” and it’s main tip was to stick to the seafood options on the menu so we followed the book’s advice.

We decided to walk to try to find a bookstore recommended by Lonely Planet. We walked in the direction and found the street, then wandered around the street for an hour or so looking for the store, finally we asked someone and it turned out the store was closed for some reason; really frustrating.

We stopped by a travel agency on the way back to the hotel to see if we could book a train to the state of Kerala, our next stop, but they only booked flights.  Since taking another bus is no longer an option, we asked about flights, and it was pretty reasonable. We figured we’d get the best deal by booking on our own so even though the man was very kind and helpful, we didn't buy from him.

Accidentally, as we were walking down the street we caught our shuttle back to the hotel. The guy just happened to be driving by.

When we got back we almost immediately just jumped into the pool before we headed to our rooms. It was a little chilly by that time, but it’s a very nice pool.

We bought an hour of internet for $2 to book our flight to Kochi, a town on the coast near the north-south centre of the state. We ended up spending about $150 total on the flight, which is not bad, anything to avoid more overnight buses and trains! Even though they were very cheap, they were definitely wearing on our livelihood.

After booking our flight we decided to head to a restaurant called Le Poison Rouge, a French restaurant that apparently is fantastic at blending different flavour together to create unique dishes, obviously French-inspired cuisine. We ended up making the trek there in the dark walking on the side of the road over many rocks and gravel with a 2-way traffic road next to us. We decided we
wouldn't walk in the dark again.

We stopped at a Mexican and Italian restaurant along the way to check their menus, but decided they were too expensive, although when we got to Le Poisson Rouge, we realized it was just as expensive, perhaps more so, Lonely Planet was wrong again. They’re prices are NEVER right.
Dinner was fantastic though, very nice setting, few tables lit by candlelight in a very quiet location surrounded by palm trees and shrubbery and underneath the stars. It may have very well been the nicest atmosphere we have had on this trip. The food was exceptional also.

We ordered bread with oil, vinegar, and olives in garlic and onion…delicious. Patty ordered a Thai chicken salad and I got a Red Snapper with bok choy. Both were excellent. We also ordered a dessert – French toast with yogurt and fruit sauce – very tasty, though we wished we had ordered the strawberry trifle we had seen several other guests order and got our mouths watering. The restaurant would have been a nice place to really go all out with appetizers and wine but with our budget in mind we had to walk out of there craving more. It was a great meal none the less.

We walked home after eating, stressing a little about how much money we were spending, Goa is an expensive place and we are blowing our budget, hopefully we can turn it around on other days.
We got back to our hotel pretty late and just called it a night. Good first day on the beach!

Post #98 - January 17, 2013 - Baga (Goa), India

What we did: arrived in Baga (Goa), fought with reception, hung out in the hotel
Budget: 3500R/$70; Spent: 5175R/$104 

After a horrible night being tossed around on a bus we were relieved to arrive at our pleasant looking hotel. We had been looking forward to spending 5 days of relaxation at a resort thanks to the generous Christmas gifts we were given by Ivan and Izabela and the Usinowicz's (thank you guys so much again!).

The resort we chose is called Sun Village, it’s supposed to have all the luxuries, hot water, spacious room with balcony and on suite bathroom, complimentary buffet breakfast, rooms get cleaned everyday, swimming pool, several restaurants, free shuttle to beach. All the makings for an awesome stay. Needless to say we were pumped.

We arrived in Goa around 9am and grabbed an auto-rickshaw to the hotel. 15 minutes later we arrived at Sun Village, which looked very nice from the outside.

We checked in with no problems, we were shown to our room. I spent the next 10 minutes crying about how awful our bus experiences have been and vowed to never ever do it again in India. Jeff consoled me and we came to an understanding. Then we received a slight blow to the budget when we received a phone call about booking a single occupancy room. Sadly we knew full well we had paid the price for a single occupancy room on Agoda. Having done this several times before and never having had any troubles made us think there would be no issue this time either. Well we were wrong, but we also figured that the worst case scenario was that we’d end up paying the slightly more expensive price. We were wrong about that.

The front desk receptionist demanded we pay an additional 2100 rupees per night for the extra person!! That is about another $42 per person when we were already extending ourselves with the choice to stay here. So for obvious reasons this was outrageous to us and we went down there to talk to her face to face.

We spent the next hour fighting over the cost.  We decided to check Agoda and there was a $10 difference, or 600 rupees per night, between single and double occupancy. Jeff very eloquently and assertively made our case. It was quite impressive seeing him in action like that. He is certainly growing more confident and sure of himself on our trip and I am so proud of him.

Once we showed this to the receptionist, she backed off and offered that rate.

We were very upset that we had had to fight so hard only to get a price that is fair so we spoke with the manager and asked him to consider providing us with something as compensation for our troubles. He said he’d get back to us.

We went to go grab some lunch from the hotel’s restaurant; had a really nice chicken burger, then grabbed some drinks by the pool.

After this, we went to reception to inquire whether the manager had gotten back to us. The first conversation we had with him over the phone he refused to give us free wifi, which from our extensive experience has ALWAYS been complimentary when available. So this was not acceptable to us and we set up a talk with him half an hour later; we killed some time before our meeting with him and went walking around the hotel. We picked up some water and I bought a jumper for $5 that I could wear over my bathing suit since it’s not common place for women to roam around the beach in just their bathing suits. None of the local women do and the foreigners who do get gawked at, which didn't interest me.

We talked to the manager and at first didn't get anywhere with him. Then he finally offered us 25% off the buffet at their restaurant, as well as a late checkout. Unfortunately even this didn't leave on the best of terms, but satisfactory I guess. He was not the most sympathetic of types.
After resting in our room for a bit, we went to the hotel’s dinner buffet; it was decent, with pretty good selection; Jeff enjoyed it more than me.

After dinner, we had a couple drinks at the hotel’s bar; we were the only people in there, but had a good time together just chatting; unfortunately, my pina colada came to $5 (250 rupees), which is outrageous, considering the price of all the other drinks. A 650ml beer for instance cost $2.25.

After this, we headed back to the hotel room, hoping for some much needed sleep!

Post #97 - January 16, 2013 - Mumbai (Bombay), India

What we did: shopping, bus to Goa
Budget: 3500R/$70; Spent: 6129R/$123

This morning we got down for breakfast around 10am, which was pretty late since we had to checkout before noon. After breakfast, Patty wasn't feeling great, so we asked to extend our checkout until 1pm. The hotel agreed to this, so Patty had a chance to sleep for a bit.

We were down in the lobby around 1:15pm and ready to go. We sat in the front lobby for about half an hour, waiting for the staff to figure out how much we still owed. There is only one competent member of the entire staff that we have met, and God bless her. There are three guys often manning the front desk during the day and they are absolutely useless. We have asked them to call a phone number for us on several occasions and it turns out they don’t know how to use the phone. I don’t understand how they have jobs.

Our final bill came to much less than we were expecting. We ended up getting the room for around $15 less per night than we had agreed to. I’m not sure what happened, but we certainly didn't argue. Perhaps the manager did us a favour for having to deal with her useless staff. In any case, this made us very happy!

We were able to store our luggage for the day in the hotel, and then we were off. Patty was determined to buy the shoes she had seen and loved yesterday or the day before, and also to buy a “Western-appropriate” (i.e., something she can wear in Winnipeg) kurta or tunic. So off we went, into the blistering heat that is Mumbai. I can’t imagine what summer feels like. This is their winter!!

We decided to first grab a coffee at Café Coffee Day, attached to our hotel. I got a cold coffee and Patty got a warm one. I think I made the better choice! We chatted there for a while and then were on our way.

Our first stop was back to Fabindia, where Patty inquired whether they sold any clothing. Turns out Fabindia has another outlet nearby that only sells clothing, and they gave us vague directions on how to get there. We decided we’d check out the other Fabindia location on our way home, and continued on to Linking Road, where Patty’s shoes were waiting for her. Truth be told, she picked out some nice looking shoes for excellent prices. They were nicer and cheaper than anything we could find in Winnipeg.

After Patty had satiated her desire for shoes for the day, we decided to satiate our desires for McDonald’s, and went to eat there. Conveniently, it was across the street from the shoe stores. We enjoyed lovely McChicken meals, as well as a six-piece Chicken McNuggets.

After our romantic meal, we decided to try to find the elusive Fabindia outlet. We picked up an auto-rickshaw and told him where we’d like to go. We weren't sure whether he understood us at all, and after stressing out a little thinking he didn't know where he was going, he dropped us off right outside the outlet. We are paranoid of getting screwed! It’s really bad.

Turns out it was a pretty nice store and had many different kinds of kurtas and tunics, but nothing worked for Patty, unfortunately. The search for a tunic continues.

We were a little late leaving for our bus at this point, but wandered somewhat blindly back to the hotel on foot anyway. We didn't feel like trying to communicate where our hotel was to a rickshaw driver.

We grabbed our bags from the hotel and hopped in a taxi just outside. The ride took about 30 minutes and we arrived at the stop in plenty of time. The bus stop was basically like a city bus stop, with no indication that private buses pick up people from here, but there were other travelers also waiting, so that made us feel better.

Around 9pm, the scheduled time of our pickup, a bus pulled up to the curb and a couple young men jumped out and started checking people’s tickets. He checked our ticket and said we needed to come on this bus because it would take us to the next stop where our bus was waiting. This sounded fishy to us, but it was confirmed by others, so we hopped on.

The next 20 minutes or so was pretty stressful. We didn't know where they were taking us, whether they’d made a mistake telling us to get on, or whether we’d make it to the bus before it left. We weren't told any of this by the travel agent…how would we even know to ask whether that would happen!? Plus, the guy probably had no idea this is how it would work anyways. India is starting to kill me a little.

We stopped once to pick up some real passengers and had to vacate where we had been sitting to accommodate them. Apparently we didn't get off at this stop. We waited at this stop for what felt like an eternity, and then finally we got moving. Another five minutes got us to our bus. From the outside it looked like a better bus than we had ridden so far. Thankfully, the inside was also much better. We even discovered that there was a plug-in for electrical devices! Surely, we thought, our luck is changing!

Sadly, this was not to be. After watching an episode and a half of the Daily Show with John Stewart, we started to feel sick and dizzy because of a smell we were sure was gas. It didn't make us feel any better that our windows didn't open and that there was a door separating the driver from the rest of the cabin. Basically, the bus was airtight and we thought gas was leaking into the cabin.

I jumped down from our bed and looked around. Two guys staying in the compartment behind us looked out their door to see what I was up to. I went up to them to ask if they smelled gas. Neither of them spoke more than a word or two of English, but we eventually came to an understanding that the compartment did, in fact, smell like gas. A young man who was sleeping across the aisle from us, who spoke better English, also agreed that there was a gas smell. At this point, I found this quite upsetting, and so did Patty. She was feeling worse than me and I, at least, was having visions of the bus driver pulling into Goa with a busload of dead people behind him.

By this point, Patty was firmly set on getting off the bus at the most convenient drop off point. She was feeling very ill and was panicking a little bit. I went to go speak to the driver’s assistant and told him there was a gas smell. Immediately, he was furious that I had had the audacity to open the door into the front. I tried to communicate to him that there was a gas smell, but he wouldn't even entertain the thought. He pretty much pushed me back into the compartment and closed the door. This little dance continued for at least two more times until, finally, Patty and I decided to just jump into the front with the driver and his assistant. If we had to sit up there with them the whole ride, that was fine. We’d rather be alive.

We slipped into the compartment quickly enough so the assistant guy couldn't stop us. We sat down next to the driver on a ledge and explained over and over how there was an awful smell in the compartment and that everyone could smell it. Finally, after endless bickering, the assistant guy went into the compartment and came back with some gunky white stuff. He showed it to us and made us smell it. Apparently, from what Patty understood, they use this stuff as an air freshener. An air freshener!!

I guess they put this stuff under the mattresses, so he removed the stuff under ours. When we went back to our bed, the smell was mostly gone, and we were very much relieved. We watched a couple more episodes of the Daily Show before we realized that it was making us feel car sick. We took a couple pills for nausea and then closed our eyes and tried to get some sleep.

Once again, like pinballs, we bounced around in the cabin all night long. I’m thinking this is the last sleeper bus we’ll ever take in India.

Post #96 - January 15, 2013 - Mumbai (Bombay), India

What we did:  Linking Road shopping 
Budget: 3500R/$70; Spent: 10648R/$213

It was the best start to the day we have had in a long time! I was feeling about 80% of my best, but that was a huge improvement and definitely the best I have felt in a long time. Our breakfast of Mortadella and toast, and vanilla yogurt with muesli cereal, and banana and peanut butter almost made us feel at home and boosted our spirits, I think. We were hopeful that things were looking up for us. But as Jeff has been saying, what India gives, it will almost always take back in some form and then take some more. But maybe things would be different this time. We were hopeful.

There were some stores we wanted to visit today and they were all fortunately in walking distance of our hotel. The first store we went to is a large retailer with locations all throughout India called Fabindia. The location near our hotel only sold homeware and décor type stuff. It was a nice branded store with good quality stuff and reasonable prices. Of course all items had fixed prices. We spent some time looking through their Ayurvedic products, which are basically homeopathic/organic medicines. Many medicines made claims about helping with all kinds of things ranging from stress and anxiety, to diet pills, to pain and arthritis, to the most tempting of them all for us - digestion. India is very well known for their Ayurvedic medicines. Our book has many recommended places all throughout India that provide Ayurvedic services. This was our first time seeing anything Ayurvedic-related close up, so we were kind of intrigued, but our skepticism kept us from buying anything. We did however walk out with conditioner and face wash. Always good to have those!

We continued on down the street. We came across a couple more stores Lonely Planet recommended, but found nothing of interest. I was hoping to find a tunic that was fashionable enough to wear at home, but we weren't having much luck. A tunic is similar to a kurta, but a little shorter, ending about mid-thigh. Most of the tunics I've seen so far have been a little too “Indian”, if you get my meaning…they just don’t look right on me! We turned the corner and began walking down the popular Linking Rd. There are tons of higher end shops all down the long street, including Guess and Calvin Klein, both of which we skipped. I found a couple pairs of shoes I loved, but I held out hoping for something better.

Then it was like déjà vu. Jeff got stopped by a little boy offering shoe shining services. This time I wanted nothing to do with his decision, since the last time we were in this predicament in Vietnam we ended up fighting for several hours when the kid turned his perfectly fine Nikes into what are now affectionately known as his “Frankenshoes”. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing when Jeff told the kid he could shine his Frankenshoes. I think I heard his shoes even yell, “but why?! Don’t you remember what happened the last time?!” Jeff ignored them (and me, for that matter) and let the kid proceed with his service.

The boy opened up a can of a brown mucus-y substance that he said was “organic polish”. It could have very well been simply cow dung. Who knows? The boy promised it wouldn't make Jeff’s shoes brown. Jeff didn’t look concerned at all though. I was totally confused by the whole thing. The boy then proceeded to tell Jeff his life story and about how his mother and sister are beggars, but that he prefers to work rather than beg. He then said he was working in Mumbai because he owed his father money. He said he was hoping to save up to buy a real shoe cleaning box so that the authorities would allow him to work at the train station where he could make more money. Two minutes later, after completing his less than mediocre shoe shine of Jeff’s runners, Jeff gave him 100 rupees out of the kindness of his heart. The boy originally asked for 5 rupees. But the boy was not satisfied with 100 rupees. He began begging Jeff to buy the shoe polish box for him for 350 rupees. Jeff was adamant that 100 rupees was more than generous and that his shoe box was out of the question. The kid followed us for a minute or two, begging for a shoebox until we walked into Theobroma, which is where we had decided to eat lunch. There are so many beggars in the Bandra area. They flock there because Linking Rd and Bandra is one of the most upscale areas in Mumbai.

In Theobroma we shared a Mediterranean omelette and Jeff had a latte and a lime soda. For dessert we shared their delicious blueberry cheesecake. It was so creamy and tasty. Jeff preferred its texture to the usual cheesecake at home, though I like my rich, thick, and cheesy cheesecake better. It was still really good. During lunch we laughed about Jeff’s runners and the fact that they were so disgraceful. We came to the conclusion it was time to put them to rest for good and find Jeff new shoes to wear for the rest of the trip. Jeff was on to new and better shoes! We almost couldn't believe it.

As we walked out of the restaurant we were naturally greeted by the shoe shiner kid who proceeded to follow us to the next store begging. He kept telling Jeff he didn’t care about the money, so Jeff turned around and asked the kid for the 100 rupees back, more to see how he would react that actually wanting it back. The boy basically just ignored him, though, and repeated how it was not about the money and asked for a shoe box. He was persistent that’s for sure, although he did eventually give up.

We walked into several nice shoe stores, still not totally sure what kind of shoes to buy Jeff. It soon became clear we needed something very practical and versatile so we decided to go with another pair of runners. One of the last stores on the Linking strip was Nike and it was there we found Jeff’s glorious new shoes. Although they weren’t that comfy at first, Jeff threw the insoles of his old shoes (which we had bought separately from his old shoes, but at the same time) into the new shoes and that worked perfectly.

Now, we thought, what to do about Jeff’s old shoes? At first we told the people at Nike they could just throw them out, but then we decided we’d rather just give them to someone on the street, so we asked for them back. Jeff walked our wearing his new runners. He seemed like a new man… he walked out with his head held high…. No longer would he have to hide his feet from the world.

It was getting dark so we headed back to the hotel. We didn't find anyone to give the shoes to so we just left them on the sidewalk in the open shoe box for someone to pick up.

We decided that night we wanted to experience some of the nightlife in Mumbai. Lonely Planet recommended a place called “Olive” for drinks and entertainment, so we headed there. It was very close to the beach and our hotel. We took a quick trip in an auto-rickshaw to the coast and decided to walk the rest of the way to the restaurant. About 30 minutes later, and after some bad advice from one local and some good advice from another, we found it. Turns out we had actually walked right by it. The sign was tiny and placed behind some tree branches…smart advertising.
The place was indeed a bit snooty and the host at the front definitely checked us both out from head to toe before he allowed us in. As he led us to our seats, he looked disappointed with himself for deciding to let us in. We had a good laugh about that. The service from there on was decent though - very professional. We enjoyed a glass of wine each and shared one of the nicest meals we have had in a long, long time. We debated whether it was the best meal of our entire trip. It was definitely among the top 3!

Unfortunately though, the entertainment and nightlife we were hoping to see was non-existent. It was a pretty relaxed place but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves anyway even though it cost us an arm and a leg to eat there.

We took a taxi ride home and arrived full, tired, and happy.

Post #95 - January 14, 2013 - Mumbai (Bombay), India

What we did:  Bus ticket to Goa, shopped
Budget: 3500R/$70; Spent: 4648R/$93

We had our usual breakfast this morning – curds (yogurt), bananas, toast, peanut butter, and coffee. I was feeling much better this morning so we were looking forward to getting out on the town and seeing more of the Bandra area of Mumbai. We rested in the room for a bit and then we set out for the day.

First on the agenda was booking transportation to Goa. We went to a travel agency just across the street from our hotel and were told they only booked flights to Goa. It crossed our minds that after so much hassle with the buses in India that maybe we should treat ourselves. But our frugal minds got the best of us so we went in search of a travel agency that would book a bus for us. Our taxi driver from several days earlier in Mumbai (the one we despised) also recommended the bus to Goa and said it was very comfortable and that he often made the trip to Goa by bus with his family. So that sealed the deal for us.

Our hotel gave us the directions to a reputable travel agency but unfortunately we weren’t able to find it. There was one that was pretty busy and located near where the other one should have been so after more than 45 minutes of looking for the one our hotel told us about, we gave up and just ended up booking with a random agency. We asked for the fanciest bus they had and we paid twice as much as previous long distance bus trips, so we were hopeful for a better experience.
After this, we came across a store that I have really come to like called Cotton World. I ended up buying a cute beach t-shirt that ties in the front for about $15. After all this it was around dinner time. We found ourselves quite near a restaurant we had previously enjoyed in Mumbai called Lemon Grass. We laughed and recalled how many times our silly taxi driver called it hotel Lemon Grass. It was a great meal. The restaurant serves Southeast Asian dishes from all over. I was still pretty concerned about what my stomach could handle so all I ended up ordering was the Hong Kong chicken soup. It was tasty. I mixed in some plain whole wheat rice and that was my unexciting meal.  Jeff had the much better tasting choice of Pad Thai. It was just as good as the last time he ordered it.

After dinner we went back to this fancy looking supermarket we had passed by several times that day. It was selling all our branded favourites from home like Cadbury, Kraft, etc. We ended up buying Mortadella for our breakfast the next day. Something I was thrilled about!! More so than Jeff I think. We also bought a muesli cereal. Man, are we missing food from home! Not just food from home though, but food we can trust won’t make us sick.

We went in search for a taxi to take us home. When we found one we realized we weren’t totally sure how to get back to our hotel in the dark. Mumbai looks a bit different in the dark. We drove around for 5 minutes desperate to find a familiar landmark but we gave up and just asked the taxi guy to find Linking Road, which we had gotten to know very well. It’s also just off of our hotel’s road. We found it and then directed the taxi driver to our hotel.

We dropped off the meat in our fridge and then decided to head back to Theobroma, a super delicious café recommended by Lonely Planet that it describes as serving food of the gods. Indeed, their desserts are quite something, at least from their appearance, and they are also very affordable. So we stopped in for their Oreo cookie brownie. I think we could have done better with our selection, but it was yummy, nonetheless. For some reason, Jeff was miserable the whole time. I guess he doesn’t like eating delicious desserts. Or maybe he was just tired.

We were both pretty exhausted when we arrived home, so we pretty much went straight to bed.

Post #94 - January 13, 2013 - Mumbai (Bombay), India

What we did: researched Goa hotels, ate at Theobroma, watched movie
Budget: 3500R/$70; Spent: 3902R/$78

Today, finally, Patty woke up feeling a little better. So much so that we were able to go down to have a somewhat normal breakfast! It was at this point that we decided to book one more night at the hotel and leave for Goa on January 16. It's always interesting asking for things at this hotel, and, really, in India, in general. We had already extended our stay by two nights and with our stay breakfasts were included. However, there seems to be no actual record of breakfast being included, so when we went to book the night of January 15, I had to basically arm wrestle the guy into agreeing that we would get breakfast included.

Service in India is absolutely shocking. People will say anything just to make you feel better, even if it means that they are completely lying. Like today, we had been told our breakfast would be included in our stay, but when we went to leave, there was a bill waiting for us. When I went to talk to the person at the front desk, all he could tell me was that it was "one of the kids" (i.e., younger workers) that must have told me this, implying, without actually telling me, that they were just wrong. Of course, nothing is ever anyone's fault in India, except for the customer's, that is. I argued with the guy for about five minutes before I just gave up. The last thing he said to me was "I will talk to the boys about this." My response: "Well that doesn't really help me, does it?" There is only one competent worker at this place, and she is it's saving grace. Everyone else is a complete moron.

We spent some time today researching where we'd like to stay in Goa. Goa is a state just south of Mumbai and is known for its beaches. We had wanted this to be our break from India so are planning to stay in a resort that is a nicer than our usual hotels. Ivan and Izabela and Izabela's parents, Grazyna and Tomek, have given us the glorious Christmas gift of money to spend on treating ourselves to a nice hotel. We hadn't had a chance to put that money to good use until now, and we really can't thank them enough for their generosity and thoughtfulness!

Although we didn't book anything in Goa, we did some good research and narrowed down our options. At this point, Patty was feeling good enough to venture out into the world. We decided to find a place recommended by Lonely Planet, called Theobroma, which specializes in baked goods.

We weren't sure how far it was, but it was in the direction of the KFC we had eaten at so we jumped in a taxi and directed him that way. We decided to just jump out at the KFC because we weren't exactly sure where Theobroma was located. As we were crossing the street, a number of small kids swarmed us asking for food or money and as one kid tapped my arm I felt his other hand reach into my pocket. I smacked his hand away and got the hell out of there. It's frustrating because these kids seem so poor and their lives consist of begging on the streets, but at the same time they are taught to steal and probably give everything they receive back to either their parents or some handler that sends them out to beg in the first place. It's heart-wrenching to see these kids, and it's a real moral conundrum as to how to treat them. We had decided to give kids that approach us small packages of crackers, although this doesn't really placate them and they typically demand more. This time we didn't give the kids anything. I didn't particularly enjoy nearly being robbed.

Anyway, our decision to jump out at the KFC turned out to be a lucky choice. We talked to a security guard and he pointed us to Theobroma, which was literally two stores away!

The menu was thankfully a little more diverse than just baked goods and we ended up ordering an omelette and a fritatta. Both dishes were excellent and we decided we'd have to come back to try their baked goods on another day. We didn't want to push it today, since this was the first substantial meal either of us had eaten in days.

We wandered through a small mall after eating looking for an HDMI cable that we could use to connect our computer to our TV. We found a short one for about $8 and probably just should have bought it, but we're really cheap these days. The mall was small and there was not that much interesting there, so we didn't stay long.

We walked back to our hotel, which took about 30 minutes and Patty took note of a bunch of stores she would like to come back to. Once we got back to our hotel we watched the movie This is 40, which is a comedy about a couple that is turning 40 and their messed up lives. It was pretty funny, but not a lot of substance.

And that was it for the day. Tomorrow hopefully we'll be able to do some shopping if we're feeling up to it. 

Post #93 - January 12, 2013 - Mumbai (Bombay), India

What we did: went to doctor, rested, watched movies, went to grocery store
Budget: 3500R/$70; Spent: 4199R/$84

Patty woke up this morning feeling very sick. She was having bouts of extreme stomach pain, so we decided to see the doctor again. We ordered a light breakfast and then went to the doctor. He prescribed Patty some more medication, but told her that the symptoms would last at least a couple more days.

We went to go pick up her medication and then just went back to the hotel. We spent the afternoon resting, working on the blog, and surfing the internet. In the late afternoon, we watched The Impossible, a movie about the tsunami that hit Thailand a couple years ago. It's apparently based on a true story. It's a remarkable story if that's true.

Later in the night, Patty was feeling a little better so we decided to go to the grocery store to stock up on some food and, in particular, buy a bag of Doritos we had seen the previous day. The bag of Doritos was priced, unbelievably, at $7.50!! Though it didn't really matter, because we bought it anyway.

Unfortunately, we wandered down the street to another grocery store because we had noticed they had cheaper almonds and we found the same bag of Doritos for a couple dollars less. Seems like we got ripped off. At least we got cheaper almonds!

After this, we went back to the hotel and watched Argo, the new Ben Affleck movie based on true events. It was pretty good, although we were disappointed to learn that apparently they had downplayed the importance of the Canadians in the plot.

It may not seem like it was an exciting day, and that's true...but it's unbelievably nice to just be able to relax, especially in this hotel room!