Too Much Red Tape

As some of you might have heard Sara and I have been forced to change our travel plans here in India.  The Indian Government recently changed its laws surrounding Visa regulations for US and UK citizens.  You used to have to leave India every 180 days in order to stay for an extended period of time.  It used to not be a problem as you could leave and come back in the same day if you wanted to.  Sara and I had plans that we would just go to Nepal for a short stay sometime in February or March to satisfy this requirement.  Now the law has been changed so that anyone holding a tourist visa needs to leave the country for a period of two months before being allowed to return.  We’ve been following these changes in the law for a few weeks now and several travelers have had problems because they were not aware of the changes in the laws and have ended up getting stuck in Nepal or Thailand because they weren’t allowed to re-enter India until their two months was up.  The papers say that this law was changed because David Headley, an American-Pakistani  terrorist who helped plan the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, was able to stay in India for an extended period of time by following the old regulations and they want to make it harder for tourists to be able to stay in the country for a long time.  Other sources say that the Indian Government has been meaning to change these regulations for some time now and it has nothing to do with David Headley.

That being said, the rules have changed and so have our plans.  We switched our return tickets so that we’re leaving to go home the 12th of March, two days before our 180 days is up.  Gulf Air thankfully only charges $30 per ticket to switch, we were worried it would be a lot more expensive.  We are only going to be able to work on the farm up north near the Himalayas and are most likely not going to be able to work down south near Bangalore as we had hoped.  Six months is still a long time to spend traveling anywhere and we are glad we have at least that much time.  One added bonus, we might even be able to see some snow this year upon our return.

Matheran Weekend Trip

I’ve wanted to go to Matheran ever since I heard about it. No autos, no motorbikes, no horns, and no bicycles. That means quiet atmosphere, a slower pace, and great places to run. The guidebook says half the fun is getting there, and we should have read between the lines. Getting there entailed catching a train from Pune to Neral then waiting over two hours for the toy train to go from Neral to Matheran. Once we got to Neral we had some time to kill so we wondered the streets which turned out to be a fish, chicken, and veggie market. The smells almost had me, the dead chickens with their throats cut are a sight to be seen!

Above are the sad chickens and the beautiful vegetables, quite the juxtaposition if you ask me.  Below is the road in Neral and the butcher that wanted Mike to take his picture. 

 

Anyways, there were three different times of departure in three different places and it ended up leaving 2 hours after the time on our tickets. With that said, it was quite the experience riding on this toy train for 2 hours up to the hill station of Matheran. It weaved back and forth up the mountain, chugging slowly along. The seating was jammed backed, with four people to each two seats and our knees intertwined with strangers. Most people didn’t seem to mind…people are used to be in close proximity with others, that’s a huge reality in India. They will cram three to one hundred times the amount of people that should be in one place.

Here are some pictures of the toy train and the ride up:

The train had to be re-ordered (the train had to essentially be turned around) and they did one car by hand, with a group of men pushing! 

People hung out of the train the whole time, sometimes for pictures but mostly because it was the cool thing to do. 

Mike got new glasses and he loves them!  We figured it was much cheaper here to get some fun glasses than back home.  He got a free eye exam and everything!

 

After we reached the top (after stopping at a couple of pit stops to let the engine cool and let the passengers stretch and get some food), we were approached by a hotel manager. He offered a good price so we followed him and his helper to a decent lodge. I knew it was the right spot after I opened the door and was face to face with a monkey. I don’t know who was more scared, but my scream and slamming of the door topped his merely scampering away. I didn’t realize how many monkeys were in Matheran, but I got more chill about it after that incident. They were everywhere you turned, in the trees, in the paths, on the railings…it was great.

The one of the railings is at our hotel, the one above is on the edge of a VERY high ravine but he doesn’t seem to mind. 

 

Matheran is mostly trails going out to lookouts in various points around the hill station. I absolutely loved it (as did Mike) and was so thankful for the fresh air and the clean environment. The trails reminded us all of the arboretum but with more red soil. It turned my shoes a pink color that I have yet to get off. We walked to Charlotte Lake, which could have been in Wisconsin, and looked over this beautiful valley and mountains. The land below was a lush green that we haven’t seen much of yet.

 

We continued on and went to Echo point where we watched the sunset. We met a very friendly man from Finland who we swapped travel stories with and then plopped ourselves down away from the crowd and watched the sunset. It was great to sit and chat (while throwing rocks trying to knock away garbage) while watching the red sun set.

We got back to the hotel, ate a communal dinner (sharing all the dishes) at a great restaurant and then walked around a park watching a manual powered ferriswheel. Mike and I bought some local honey that has been great to have around, and then played games in the hotel room. We all slept in a double bed to save money and could barely move. It was quite the experience and not the best night of sleep I’ve ever gotten.

We woke up at 6 the next morning to see the sunrise. A long story, but I ended up running for 9 miles (always knowing where I was and seeing great sights) and loved it. The sunrise was a glowing red ball and absolutely beautiful.

We headed out soon after the sunrise, walking down to the taxi station. We caught a van taxi down to Neral, taking only 20 minutes (the train had taken 2 hours), but that was mostly because we zoomed around the hairpin corners, leaving my heart in my throat most of the trip. The car itself was mostly a frame of a car with most of its interior gone. It was quite the ride of a lifetime. Mike and I were both glad our mothers didn’t have to go through the ride, I’m not sure they would have liked it so much.

Here are a couple of random pictures…

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since there are no motors, Matheran is one of the few places still in the state that have handricksaws.  Three men usually work one, one in the front, two in the back.  Or at least that’s we saw here.  The path is beautiful, lined with monkeys and covered with red soil.  The canopy of trees cooled us off pretty quick too. 

These were some chairs outside of a hotel called Hope Hall Hotel and I really liked them.  The second picture is of the main drag of Matheran.  It was not too busy but usually covered with horses (the way a lot of people got to the lookouts).  The horses were everywhere! 

It has been a long post with lots of pictures, but hopefully you can tell how wonderful and peaceful the weekend trip was for us!  It is the most beautiful hill station in Maharashtra (the state we live in). 

WWOOF

WWOOF.  No, we are not adopting a dog.  It stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms.  As some of you know, we will be relocating ourselves up north to volunteer (for room and board) at a farm in the foothills of the Himalayas.  Our plan as of now will be going to the north from February 4 until mid-March.  Then we’ll be going south to Bangalore to work at a different farm until we leave in mid-April.

A bit about WWOOF.  This is an organization that operates in a number of countries across the world and the goal of it is to connect volunteers with farms they can work on.  The benefit of the farm is that they receive free labor and the opportunity to pass along their knowledge of organic farming.  The volunteers, in turn, receive free room and board in exchange for work on the farm.

There are about 75 different farms across India that take part in WWOOF and we narrowed our search down to about 10 based on location and farming practices.  The two that we chose are two of the ones that we were most excited about.  The farm in the Himalayas, while already possessing the awesome quality of being in the mountains, also tends a lot of fruit trees and beyond that we don’t know much about it, but the communication with the owners has been very positive and we’re both very excited for this change of pace.

Wisdom Teeth

As some of you know I (Mike) was able to get my wisdom teeth taken out on Monday morning.  I have been hoping to do it in the states but just had not got around to it.  Then after the decision was made to go to India I thought it would be a great time to do it because we thought it would be cheaper.  And was it ever, only $260!

The whole operation took about two hours and went by very smoothly.  The oral surgeon was very encouraging and talked me through the whole thing.  They only use local anesthetic here if the operation is done outside of a hospital, otherwise they will put you under for the operation.  He told me that many westerners that have this type of operation done here tend to ask for stronger anesthesia then Indians.  When I told him that everyone in my family that had had this done was put under for it he told me that I am starting a legacy…not quite, but I’ll take it.  And yes, like the other westerners, I did ask for more anesthesia once he got started.

I have very strict instructions for my diet for the next 24 hours, and no spitting or gargling!  Other than that, the recovery is going fine and thanks to Katie, who sent us a great package last week, I have plenty of Jello and pudding.  This has also given me a good chance to catch up on some Cosby episodes that my sister sent not too long ago.

These two pictures are me using my “icepack” which is a beer bottle that our roommate left in the freezer.  The beautiful pudding dish is what Sara had made for me from the pudding packet Katie sent, look at that mint garnish!

Parcels of Love

Snail mail is one of my favorite things in the whole world. It is one of the best parts of being abroad: getting letters and packages from people we love. One of my favorite places in a new country are post offices, where I meet very friendly folk and see beautiful new stamps. It’s all a blast for me and that is why my face looks so thrilled in all these pictures (above is me eating pepperkauker, one of my favorite cookies my grandma makes along with the delicious package Grandma and Grandpa sent me):

Above is Amy’s package. I have to say Mike (almost solely) finished the Skippy peanut butter in a little over a week. It seemed like every time I turned around he had it on something. The Cosby Show episodes proved priceless when Mike was sick last weekend and watched a whole slew of them.

Below is my classic excited face over my parent’s package and Mike’s glee over his Nutrageous bar. We’ve been playing Five Crowns a ton and even discovered a new solitaire game in it! Even though my name was clearly written on the peanut butter M & M’s , Mike thought marriage means equal sharing. I guess it was fair since he shared the Nutrageous clearly marked “Mike”.

One side note and more on it later, but Mike and I are relocating to a different part of India in the beginning February. We are doing a big trip up in the north with Andrew, Anne, and Annie before they head back to the states starting in mid-January. With that said, if you want to send us anything (letters or otherwise) you should not send anything later than the middle of December (aka pretty soon). We’ll give you our new address in the north when we get it. We will be working on a farm in the Himalayas starting in February (details to come).

Shindyanchi Chhatri

The beautiful buildings here are sometimes in the most random places.  Mike and I decided to explore and find the Shindyanchi Chhatri building that was mentioned in a Pune guide we have.  We took a ricksaw to the edge of town, in a modge podge neighborhood and saw this great architecture.  The Shindyanchi Chhatri is a memorial to a rich man.  We are unsure of the meaning of the memorial, but there were many signs that told us in honor of him we could not open umbrellas in the building.  So we kept all our umbrellas down and snapped a few shots.

Here are some pictures of the outside: 

 

The inside had multiple elegant pillars in the main room with a balcony circling all around the top of it.  The frames around the window were beautiful, with so much fine detail. 

The caretaker of the building kept trying to bring us back into the shrine area made for the man who the building was made for.  We’re never sure of where we’re allowed and where we’re not, but we followed and saw a gorgeous dome ceiling painted beautifully.  I can’t imagine how long it took to do.  There was also a shrine to the man, where people could come and offer blessings or sacrifices of sorts.  It still strikes as odd how many shrines there are, and to a lot of different people or gods.  Coconuts are sold everywhere for offerings, as well as incense. 

This building was one of the last that was on our “to do list” for Pune.  We’ve finished looking at all the recommended Lonely Planet suggestions and most of the ones on our Pune guide.  It makes us realize how long we’ve been here and how long we will be here.  We’re almost done with our stay in Pune.  Time is flying by, as I only have about two weeks left to teach my students!