Brian's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm

Adventures in Asia: Part II - India Cont'd

2010-08-22T12:01:13Z

DSC_3449, originally uploaded by briancolella.

Pictured above is Agra Fort, where we briefly stopped after the Taj Mahal before driving back to Delhi.

The next morning we woke a little later and headed back over to Connaught Place (the 'nice' British-themed are of Delhi) where our tour guide was located, to see about our train tickets to Varanasi. We had to check out of our hotel since our plan was to take the overnight train and thus we had no lodging, so we had all our bags with us. Since Paula had just finished her year in Korea and had to bring all her stuff with her, this was a little more than could be comfortably hauled around while strolling and sightseeing. So, we arrived at our tour guide's office around noon.

]]> He was actually outside when we got there and he saw us and welcomed us in, then informed us that he was worried we were going to be late, and that was "why he was outside," and that because he was worried about that he was getting us tickets on the 8 o'clock train instead of 3 o'clock. It was really no skin off our backs since both trains arrived in Varanasi at roughly the same time, IF we really had those tickets at all. We were hungry for lunch so we left our bags at the travel office and went out into Connaught Place. I imagine at some point during its life Connaught Place was really nice, and probably sometime during its life it will be again, but at this point in time the place was a mess of construction (due to the Commonwealth Games, we later found out).

So, we walked around Connaught Circle until we found a place that looked pretty good, called "Castle 9," and the menu we saw at the entrance looked nice and was not too expensive. We went in and discovered that the restaurant was really nice and clean (a rarity for anything in India) but when we sat down and got our menus it was not the same menu we had seen at the door. Everything was at least 100 rupees more expensive than the menu we'd seen outside and some things quite a bit more. Keep in mind though, a jump from 300 rupees to 500 rupees is a difference between 6 and 10 dollars, not huge. Regardless, the principle of the thing pissed me off and I was just about ready to leave before more reasonable voices reminded me just how little money it actually was, and what did it matter. So I ordered a lamburger which turned out to be delicious and then we headed back outside.

We sort of wanted to explore Delhi a little bit and maybe get over to Old Delhi and check out the sights there, which we were told were interesting, but I was not feeling good about the train tickets and luggage situation. After everything that had happened the previous day with the train station and the car and stuff, I wanted to wait at the tourism office until we had our tickets, which the guy said we'd get around 4, and I was feeling unsure about leaving our bags there and going off. The guy we'd been dealing with had told us before when we left, planning to return around 5ish, that he probably would be gone home by that time but we could pick up our bags and get our tickets from someone else there. At this point, I felt like leaving all our bags in the office was the stupidest thing we could possibly do, even if the guy turned out to be reliable. Paula had basically her whole life in her suitcases (Hilary and I had only clothes - worthless), and to see Delhi and not have any stuff seemed worse than to not see Delhi and have all our stuff. So we went back to the office.

Fortunately, our bags were still there and we decided to just stay there hanging out with our bags until we got our tickets. I think the tour guide was a little disappointed because he honestly wanted us to see Delhi, and he could probably tell we didn't exactly trust him, but after we got ripped off by the police on the first night why would we trust anyone? He did his best to make us comfortable, offering us tea which we steadfastly refused (dangerous water) and showing us photo albums from travels around India. He had first said our tickets would arrive at 4:30 but that time came and went and he could tell we were looking nervous so he called his people and he said there was a little delay and they'd be there after 5. We were feeling a little bit nervous but we had no choice other than to wait it out there. Hilary and Paula went out to buy some stuff and left me in the office with the guy, we had an interesting conversation while they were gone that I won't go into here, and then finally around 6 or so, his dude came in with the tickets.

I checked them out and they looked pretty real but I'd never seen a ticket before so how would I know, and he decided it would be funny to tell Hilary and Paula that there was a problem and we didn't have any tickets. I warned him that it wasn't a great idea since they were kind of on the verge of snapping after everything we'd gone through and Hilary had already cried once in his office and a 2nd time in the car we hired through him. He insisted though, and when they came back I tried to play along but they knew how upset I was about other stuff and it was clear that I was not really upset, whereas if we really didn't have tickets I probably would have been freaking out and crapping in my pants. We had them going for a little bit though but I think he sensed it wasn't really the greatest idea ever and he pulled out the tickets, quenching their fears. He had offered earlier to drive us personally to the train station so since we had the tickets I was ready to get there, so I tried to politely remind him and I think I only half-failed, because he made a joke about "what else can [he] do for [us]?" as if I was giving him orders. It was no problem though and he took us out to his (tiny) car and we packed it full of our stuff, getting in and shutting the doors just as we were approached by a beggar.

However, this was no ordinary beggar. His left arm was the stuff of nightmares. Broken at some point a long time ago and never set properly, he had a small stump sticking out from his shoulder, and then the rest of his arm hung loosely below that, swinging uncontrolled as he moved. In his right hand he held an inhaler with which he banged on our car, and he was saying something about "this is the problem" or something, and we tried our best to ignore him as we waited to join traffic. Our tour guide/driver mentioned something about if you give them money they'll just use it to buy drugs, which was a jarring reminder of America and the real world, after living in Korea where there's almost no beggars and effectively zero drug use besides alcohol. Our dreams haunted forever, we set off to the New Delhi train station for the second time.

Luckily, there was no rain this time and when we got there we were able to see into the building and determine the actual train-station-ness of it, making our way straight to the International Tourism Bureau like Lonely Planet told us we should have done the first time. We ignored all offers for porters or assistance, like Lonely Planet said to do, even though it seemed that some people were actually directing us toward the ITB, though it's unclear why they would do that. Despite the sign that prohibited waiting in the ITB, we plopped ourselves down and waited, eating a cake Paula had bought (it was her birthday). I was a little bit tempted to ask someone about our tickets to try and confirm their authenticity, but Paula and Hilary were not as dubious. In my mind though, I'm picturing us getting on the train only to be confronted by some Indian people claiming the same seats, and then when we show our tickets they laugh and say "oh stupid tourists those aren't real tickets" and then the police arrest us for ticket fraud and we go to jail forever and just watch "Midnight Express" to see what happens next.

Paula and Hilary, however, convinced me not to ask about the tickets so we sat around and watched other foreigners come in and out, none of whom were Americans, until it was time to check the board and see where our train was going to leave from. I braced myself to head back out into the fray and then luckily discovered that you could see the departure board from the upper level without being harassed by anyone so I checked the board for our train and got our track number and went back to the office to collect the girls and the luggage.

There is a lot to say about the New Delhi train station and just about none of it is good. Probably the only good thing about it is that by going there you can get away from it. Otherwise it is a crowded, dirty place filled with scammers and beggars. It doesn't improve when you enter the track area either, no ticket is required to pass security. Thus, the tracks and the walkways are filled with people. We arrived at our track to find a train waiting there, seemingly the right timing for our scheduled departure, but we discovered it was not the train we wanted, and we soon realized that there's a snowflakes chance in hell that a train in India would've been that timely. So, we had to find a place to wait, and we walked through the crowd, aware that some beggars were eyeing us and possibly following us, and found a nice area amongst some metal bars and stuff where we could be protected from behind and be free to watch our fronts. Then we waited, listening to shrill overhead announcements that almost never stopped, and never (luckily, it turns out) featured our train, except for one right as we were getting there but I couldn't make out what it said.

First, we were followed by one of the disfigured beggars we had passed who crawled/dragged himself along the ground and then parked right in front of us waiting. We avoided eye contact, instead staring back at the other Indian people walking by. Eventually he left, and I don't remember the exact order of the rest of them but there were kids selling playing cards, guys selling chains for your luggage, another disfigured beggar (a kid this time), another beggar kid who tried to pull on my shorts, and more kids selling stuff. It was a pretty unpleasant waiting experience and as it grew later and later and our train was obviously late we got a little anxious. Fortunately, all the announcements overhead about trains being delayed 8 hours were not about our train. Another fun thing in India is that if you have to go to the bathroom, you just do it. I mentioned in the previous day seeing people pooping and peeing on the side of the street while driving to Agra, well here, they jumped down on the tracks to do it. Some people would also squat at the edge of the tracks and pee down, but the preferred method was definitely jump down to the tracks, squat and go, and jump back up. I was beginning to feel quite a bit of dread regarding the coming train ride, and our tour guide had also warned us to be careful on the train, because if not, we'd "go to bed with luggage, and when you wake up... no luggage!" I was getting prepared for everyone there to flood the train in a mad rush when it arrived, and we'd find ourselves in a situation with squatters all over the train sleeping on the floors and stealing everyone's stuff.

Eventually, a bit after scheduled departure time, our train arrived. The lower class cars were towards the front so we began walking towards the back to find our 3rd A/C class car. This train had no first class, so the choices were 2A/C with 4 people in a sleeping compartment and 3A/C with 6, or low class, which we didn't see but from a train we passed it seemed to be just like a boxcar with people hanging out, and the doors wide open. Glad we chose the A/C one. As I'd feared, when we were entering our compartment and putting our bags in, some guy comes up and says that we're in his seats. I was a little nervous and incredibly mistrusting of everyone so I showed him my ticket with the seat numbers and car number and kept a tight grip on it, not letting him hold it. I was afraid if I handed it to him he'd just take it and we'd have no tickets and he'd get us kicked off the train. He looked at it and saw that we were in the correct place for our tickets, and he suggested maybe we'd been upgraded. I said I didn't know about that, but even if we were, he could have our upgrade. I was not about to take some "upgrade" only to find out there was no upgrade and we were out of a seat, kicked off the train. As you can see, I was a little paranoid at this point. Very wary of this "upgrade" and this guy, I steadfastly refused everything and insisted that we were going to sit there where our tickets said. The guy's friend then rechecked their tickets and started laughing at his friend because it turned out their seats were in car B2 not B1 and so we didn't actually have the same tickets. I was quite a bit relieved and the guy apologized and we shook hands and they left. After that, things got quite a bit calmer.

We arranged our luggage and ourselves so that we'd be sleeping on our bags so that no one could take them, and we began to relax a little bit. Sharing the "compartment" with us were 3 Indian men, a young guy, a middle-aged guy, and an old guy. While watching us try to figure out what to do with our bags, they tried to make some suggestions (put it on the floor here, under this bed there) but we weren't having it. They seemed nice, but we were still quite a bit paranoid and Paula had her computers in her luggage so we insisted that we'd just keep them on our beds "to keep them out of everyone's way." The inside of the train was actually pretty nice and the beds were long enough for even me to stretch out, although our compartment was only separated from the aisle by a flimsy curtain that didn't even go all the way to the floor. Along the wall opposite our compartment and all down the train parallel with the aisle were little bays with 2 beds, perpendicular to ours. In the beds across from ours were a really young soldier and a weird guy who never said anything but kinda just stared at us. For a bit there was some confusion amongst the Indians because the weird guy was just sitting in their seat, because he didn't really have a seat (only a bed), and also one of our companions (the young guy) had changed seats with someone else so they could sit together as a family.

Once things settled and the train got going though things started to improve quite a bit. After just watching us for a little bit, the young Indian guy finally talked, and here I will tell you that his name was Bawan (Pawan?) even though we didn't learn that yet, so I can stop referring to him as "the young guy." It turned out he was 19 years old (much younger than I had thought) and he was just starting university. From the quality of his English and his education it was clear he was from a pretty high-middle-class family, and he told us about all the English movies he had seen. He asked us if we liked Harry Potter and we told him yes we did, and asked "are you a fan?" His reply: "You could say that..." with a shrug and a sly smile. He was really cute and earnest and he told us how he had made all sorts of foreigner friends by going up and talking to them when he saw them on the street or at tourist sights. That sort of made us feel bad because it's really hard to know who is a Bawan and who is trying to scam you, so you kind of are gruff to everyone.

The train was good and we had a good time, Bawan acted as interpreter for all the people around us who wanted to talk to us but couldn't speak English, and in the morning after Bawan had departed our company, we were joined by another guy aspiring to work in IT in America. Everyone on the train seemed really nice which was a great counterpoint to our bad experience in Delhi, and they gave us lots of advice about travelling and warned us about Varanasi, saying it is about 50/50 good and bad people. Eventually we arrived in Varanasi and exited the station, quickly being harassed by people offering us taxis and cars, but we were sort of hoping we'd have a pick-up arranged by the hotel. They'd offered and we requested it via email the day before, but never had a chance to check for a reply so we didn't know. We blew off all advances and made our way towards the exit and finally one guy who had been following us since the beginning busted out a cell phone and asked if we were Paula. Of course, Paula was so we thought the guy had been sent from the hotel but we were still doubtful. Paula had said the name of the hotel before the guy could so she got on the phone and asked them to tell her her full name, at which point we were pretty satisfied and so we followed the guy to what turned out to be an autorickshaw, not even a car.

We were worried but quickly discovered that yes, you can fit 2 suitcases and 2 backpacks and 3 passengers in an autorickshaw, and on top of that, 2 Indian guys jumped on the front riding to the side of the driver, bringing our total load to 6 people. Incredible. We weren't so sure about the hangers-on but there wasn't much we could do, so we stuck with it. The drive to Varanasi was incredible, even dirtier than Delhi and very sad. At one point we passed a truck parking area where the ground and puddles of water and pigs and people were all solid black from coal, it seemed, and the side of the road the entire way was not just littered with garbage but the garbage seemed to have become part of the very ground itself. It's hard to remember and describe everything we saw, and I wish I could've got more pictures but I was hanging practically halfway out of the rickshaw and I didn't want to be flashing my camera around.

Arriving in Varanasi was a little shocking as well, there are few roads that can really be called roads and it was packed with people walking, probably to the river. Varanasi is a holy city because of it's location on the Ganges river and many people make a sort of pilgrimage there to bathe in the river's holy water. More on that later, but the streets were packed. As I sensed us getting nearer our destination I was getting more and more concerned about what we were getting into. Our driver finally stopped at a small pathway where our autorickshaw could evidently go no futher, and demanded 350 rupees payment. We were a bit shocked by the high price and so we challenged him but he stood pretty firm and we settled on 300 but he was not happy about it. A couple of guys from the hotel met us at the bottom of the path to help port our bags, and we started up the side alleys. At one point, after stepping over piles of feces and through swarms of flies and around cows eating trash, I was despondent about our chances to survive a night there, but when we finally reached our hotel on the bank of the river all worries evaporated. It was nice. Really nice, and the hotel people were super friendly, and we had a spectacular spot right on the river.

I'll continue Varanasi in the next post (with photos), but I'd just like to mention now that we checked our email later and Paula saw a reply from the hotel saying they'd send an autorickshaw to pick us up and the cost would be 300 rupees, so we were glad we didn't acquiesce to the driver's demand for 350.

Adventures in Asia: Part I - India via Hong Kong

2010-08-21T13:21:07Z

DSC_2987, originally uploaded by briancolella.

Hong Kong! On the way to India, we had a long layover in Hong Kong and we took advantage of it to get out and walk around the city a little bit. It was me, Hilary, and Paula, and we had a great time. The weather was super hot and we were sweating like crazy but we went on the longest outdoor escalator in the world (allegedly) and stopped in a Mexican place for margaritas. We also went to the zoological garden and saw monkeys hanging about (literally). We also stopped into a Hong Kong diner to get some food - real Chinese food! And dropped by the waterfront to see some amazing views.

Beautiful Hong Kong!

Read on for the real adventure - India

]]>
The plane that would take us out of Paradise

Hong Kong was the most amazing 3 hours and gave us totally unrealistic expectations for international travel, also our flight was unbelievably luxurious and amazing. These things combined made arriving in Delhi a stunning shock. First, we had to wait a long time to collect our bags and then a long time in line at the currency exchange place only to find out they don't exchange Korean Won. The guy was also incredibly unhelpful and when I asked if there was another place that maybe did Korean Won he just pointed down the way to the other currency exchange place. We walked down there and all we got from them was "no." I saw a sign that said something about cash advances against international credit cards so I asked about that and they said no. There was zero desire from anyone to help us solve our issues, so there we are with piles of Korean cash and nothing to do with it. I remember being really pissed and something about standing next to a baggage claim carousel dumping out bags from a direct flight from Seoul while being told they don't exchange Korean money did not help at all.

So we went to an ATM. Foolishly I hadn't brought my ATM card, and Hilary's was Mastercard and the only ATM in the so-called "international" airport only took VISA. Paula, fortunately, had a Visa ATM card and she was able to get out 6000 rupees, about 130 USD. Pissed off and tired and with little money, we went outside to get a taxi to our hotel. Mistake. Once outside we found out we had to go back inside to get a prepaid ticket for a taxi, but found our way blocked by security, and we were permitted to send 1 person in with no bags. We chose Paula because she had the hotel information and the only money. Another mistake - we probably should've sent me because I'm a man. While Hilary and I waited outside we spotted a Korean family and asked them about the money issues, but the guy just said "sorry I live here" and left.

When Paula came out, she had the taxi slip but she was pissed off. Inside, she'd gone to the Delhi Police Prepaid Taxi stand where she was informed that the taxi would cost 410 rupees. With a purse full of fresh 500 rupee bills from the ATM (and only 500 rupee bills), she quite obviously chose to give the guy a 500 rupee bill. After glancing down at her purse and then back up, the guy plopped up a 100 rupee bill and said "it's 410." She fought him and insisted that she had given him 500 (especially since it was literally impossible for her to have given him anything else except Korean Wons) but in the end she had to give him another 500. All in all, things were off to a great start.

We got in the taxi, an old-school affair resembling a VW Vanagon but quite a bit smaller, and without any A/C, and headed off towards who knows where (hopefully our hotel). One of the first things you notice in India is the smell. The air is just thick and heavy and very very smelly. The next thing you notice (if you're in a car on the street) is the absolute lawlessness of the roads. I thought Koreans were bad with their red-light running and making turns from the wrong lanes and scooters going the wrong way but Oh. My. God. India takes it to a whole new level. Many cars are lacking functioning brakelights and most don't have - or use - turn signals. We had arrived late at night and cruising down the "freeway" with us at about 1am were a bunch of kids sitting halfway out the windows of their cars, high-fiving and waving their arms to music, and touching their friend's car, all while their drivers weaved and swerved with zero regard for the lines on the concrete. I don't think Indian people even know that you're supposed to stay in the lines.

Then there's the things you see on the sides of the roads, which our first night was mostly people sleeping. People sleeping on the dirt roadside, people sleeping in the luggage rack on their taxi, people sleeping in their rickshaws, and people even sleeping in/on the divider in the middle of the freeway. It was dark and there are minimal street lights so we didn't see much but we could tell from the rough dirt roads that Delhi was gonna be a shock. We finally got to our hotel and before going to bed we tried to ask the hotel manager about taking the train to Agra the next day to see the Taj Mahal, but all we could get from him was that his driver would be there in the morning and we could hire him to drive us there, which we didn't want to do. Eventually we made it to sleep at around 3am-ish.

Delhi, the capital of India.

In the morning we looked out the window to see the stunning sight pictured above. Delhi. Not exactly encouraging on our first day after the previous night's experience, but we had to head out and try to catch the train. We had some information from Lonely Planet and stuff about the possible trains to Agra, but we'd had to sleep past the fast train (2 hours) because we got in so late the night before. We had a time though, so we headed off the train station, ignoring our hotel manager's suggestion that we hire his driver for 5,000 rupees. We also missed a crucial piece of information in Lonely Planet's entry about Delhi and the train station.

We only had to walk a couple blocks but the experience of being out on that street makes any short walk quite the experience. Not only that but it started to rain hard as we approached the station. Exhausted and dripping wet we approached across the taxi parking lot and saw a giant building, open with no clear "main" entrance, and filled with people. I'm pretty sure that all the taxi drivers and everyone had gone inside because of the rain and so there was a giant wall of people facing us, pretty terrifying to enter. They all pointed us down further so for some reason we kept going, following their pointing. We found a ticket-buying area, where we were quickly intercepted by an official looking guy who asked us where we were going, and we told him. Mistake. He led us away from the ticket office back into the rain and started telling us a bunch of stuff and confusing us and something about construction and that the train we wanted we had to buy tickets somewhere else and then go to Old Delhi station (we were at New Delhi station) and so we foolishly listened to him, foolishly got into an auto-rickshaw, and found ourselves at the West Indian Tourism Development Company(?), talking with a tour guide about our options for going to Agra.

We went through a lot of stuff about trains and possible classes and waiting lists and all this stuff and also hiring a car and we could see other stuff in addition to the Taj Mahal, but we really just wanted to see the Taj Mahal. Uncertain of what we were doing and really exhausted, we (I) made the (wrong) choice to take the car for over 7,000 rupees, which I paid with my credit card, because at this point everything had sucked and I wasn't interested in messing with the trains and just wanted something to be easy and good (fat chance). We also talked to him about our possibilities for booking an overnight train to Varanasi from Delhi the next day, and eventually he guaranteed us tickets on a 3 o'clock train getting to Varanasi at like 6:30 am and we left, planning to go back to the office to pick up the tickets around noon the next day.

We got in the car with our driver and started the loooong journey to Agra.

This is what it looks like when you drive in India

I don't know if it's the existence of Bollywood or what made me think India was modern but I had no idea just how undeveloped it really is. If you're interested, read some of the info on Wikipedia, starting with Poverty. You hear about cows causing traffic jams in India but until you're actually there you don't realize that that's not a rare occurrence at all. It's hard to describe everything you see on the side of the road driving through India but there's a ton of cows, a ton of people just standing around, a ton of people doing manual labor, people pooping, people peeing, people everywhere, biking or walking along the street. Generally, unless disrupted by a cow as in the above photograph, car & truck traffic sticks to the right lane(s) and the left lane is populated by all other traffic - pedestrians, cyclists, rickshaws, autorickshaws, slightly-less-adventurous cows, goats, pigs, etc. One of the cooler things about traffic in India is the trucks and buses, which are colorfully decorated with handpainted logos and graphics, usually instructing you to "Blow Horn" when passing, or to "Use Dipper at Night" i.e. flash your lights instead of blowing your horn. Everyone is always honking in India, except at the cows, and I think it's because side-mirrors seem to be considered an unnecessary addition to the width of your vehicle which should be folded in (if possible) or sheared off ASAP. So, when you pass someone, you have to honk the whole time so they know you're there and don't try to change lanes. Also, it seems that they just change lanes without reason, without signal, and without looking, so if no one is honking then you're free to assume that the lane is open and they just go. Suffice it to say, it is an unbelievable experience to ride in a car in India.

Along the way to Agra, we left Delhi (it is its own state) and entered Uttar Pradesh, at which point we had to stop and pay some tax. Conveniently located at the place where we stopped our car were a bunch of guys with monkeys on leashes. While our driver was out paying the tax, the guys surrounded our car, putting the monkeys up on our windows and holding up crap for us to buy. Not interested in buying anything, we were interested in taking a picture of the monkeys, which Paula did. Mistake. The guys started asking for money. "Picture money! Picture money!" and we were still in our low-cash situation and really weren't that desperate for a crappy picture through a car window, so Paula deleted the photo. She tried to explain to the guy and show him that she had no picture on her camera, but he was not satiated and continued to yell "Picture money!" and get really aggressive. Fortunately we'd had the foresight to lock the doors so when he pulled on the door handle we were safe inside. At this point we were a little bit scared of the monkey guys and our driver finally came back from wherever the tax office was. W told him that we didn't have a picture, and he said "no problem" and we drove away. It was our first really bad experience with trying to take pictures, and this would have a large impact on the rest of the trip.

A while after that our driver decided, despite our objections, to stop at some touristy restaurant for lunch. We weren't very hungry and just wanted to get to the Taj Mahal, but we took the opportunity to go the bathroom, where I accidentally used the offered tissue to dry my hands and then didn't have any money to give the guy, and then we found ourselves waiting around for our driver. Our best guess is that he has some agreement with these people where he brings tourists there to eat and buy crap and they give him food for free, probably one of the rare chances for him to get a meal, judging by how skinny he was. It's sad, but it kinda sucked because we were ready to get out of there and we had to wait around a while doing nothing.

Finally, after about 5 hours or so of driving, we arrived in Agra. At one point, we caught a glimpse of the Taj Mahal in the distance and started to get excited, but in typical India fashion our excitement was soon crushed when our driver drove past the entrance and we found ourselves parked on some other street waiting for his "friend" who was a "guide" who we "couldn't" get into the Taj Mahal without, and of course would require an extra fee. At this point, Hilary started crying (the 2nd time, she cried earlier in the tour guide's office) and we told the guy to just take us to the Taj Mahal. Lonely Planet had said nothing about a guide and no one had said anything before but our driver insisted that we "had" to have a guide to get in. Also, Agra and the whole area around the Taj Mahal is no cleaner or nicer than anywhere else in India, which is a bit shocking compared to the Taj itself, and dampened our excitement a little bit as well.

As soon as we parked and exited the vehicle we were beset by some guy who flashed some credentials and started talking, and we soon figured out that he and the other two guys crowding around us were "official guides" who would be our Taj Mahal guide for about 500 rupees or something like that. We weren't exactly sure what was going on at this point but the guys swarming around us like bees were pissing us off, so we just started walking into the entranceway hoping we could find some other foreigners or something. The guides followed us/led us in by just walking the same direction as us, and the one guy seemed to be under the impression that we had hired him. We finally found some other foreigners (not Americans) but they were on their way out so we asked them if they had a guide and they said no, they'd shown up early and waited in line for about 30 minutes and gone in, no guide no problem. So we walked on. Then some random other Indian guy started asking us if we had hired the guides and we said no and he started yelling at them in Hindi. While they argued we decided to slip off to the side so we could have a moment to think. By this time the guides had admitted that we didn't need them to enter the Taj Mahal BUT they could slip us in past the queue (now probably an hour and a half wait) for a fee of 300 rupees per person (like 6 USD).

We decided to hire the guide to skip us past the queue, and so after he had argued with the random guy he came back over to us and we told him we'd hire him to get us past the line but not to go inside. They led us to the ticket office where we got our tickets and shoe covers (to be used on the white marble) and complimentary bottles of water. The line skipping turned out to be a slight rip-off since the line for ladies was basically empty and Hilary and Paula just waltzed right in, and I actually had to wait in line for 5-10 mins because as it turns out the process is totally unofficial and illegal, and they don't really get you PAST the queue they just slip you in near the front. I was feeling a little awkward about it as I stood out like a 6 foot 3 white man in India, I didn't know if we'd get away with it. Quite obviously though, the guides have some sort of arrangement with the security as they were able to just walk in with me without showing a ticket or being wanded and patted down, but their agreement is not quite good enough I guess, because our guy started walking away from us, instructing us to follow close behind and put the money in his hand, but he wouldn't look at us and when he got the money he slipped away and went back out. It was worth it though, for about 6 bucks each.

We were in.

You are not supposed to play in this water.

One of the first things you notice about the Taj Mahal is the quantity of people, and the lack of foreigners. Considering the Taj Mahal's status in the world you would have thought there'd be more foreigners there, there's a few, but not as many as you'd expect. Also, the Indian people all stared at us. Like, hardcore staring. And taking pictures of us, right in our faces. It's weird, but you can sorta tell when someone is taking a picture of you and not just a picture that has you in it. There's also a large amount of clearly off-limits gardens and reflecting pools that the Indian people didn't seem to have any qualms about going into to take a picture, or just sit and hang out, or play like the kids in the picture above. They all got yelled at for it, but they kept doing it. Like everywhere else in India, there's also a large contingent of people trying to sell stuff, namely photographers, but also guys who would just tell you where to take photos (which is annoying when you're already taking those pictures).

Classic Taj Mahal with reflection

I think just about everyone and their brother knows that you are supposed to take pictures of the Taj Mahal with its reflection in the REFLECTING POOLS. I mean, could it be more obvious? But no, this guy followed me around telling me where to take photos, photos I was already planning to take, and then expected money from me. He probably didn't want very much, but I wasn't exactly psyched about the "service" he'd provided, and I had 0 rupees, so he got nothing. The photo above is one he "suggested". It's amazing how the experience of seeing one of the most amazing artifacts in the world can be totally squashed and dampened by people trying to sell you stuff or get money or stare at you. It was really hard, in the moment, given everything that had happened to us, to appreciate the experience. Looking back it was worth it but at the time it was just so frustrating.

A river of trash floats calmly by.

We made our way around and checked out the whole thing, putting on our little shoe covers to go in. Inside the Taj Mahal is actually a little disappointing, it was a bit crowded and you couldn't see the coffins very well, and you weren't allowed to take pictures which of course means I didn't like it by default. Tell me I'm not allowed to take pictures and my interest level drops about 30%. I just love taking pictures. We also had an interesting experience with some middle-age guys who I'm pretty sure took a picture of Hilary and Paula, and then kinda followed us around the outer inner rooms of the Taj. On the way out, the sun started to come out from behind the clouds so I got some more good pics of the Taj in sunlight, so be sure to check out my photos on Flickr. Also, I made this cool Panorama of the Taj and one of the side buildings.

The side of the Taj facing us and the front of the side building are parallel.

We hadn't really made a plan for meeting back up with our driver so we were worried but when we got back out to the parking area, he was there just hanging out in the car. His English was not so good, so we had some communication difficulties, which really manifested themselves in our attempt to go to dinner. We tried to tell him that we wanted to go back to the place where he had stopped for lunch, the lunch we didn't eat, because it was in the middle of nowhere and we were ready to get away from people, and he said "Oh, quality restaurant!" and we thought "Oh, that's good, let's go!" HA! He quickly drove in the wrong direction back onto the road where Hilary had cried and took us to Quality Restaurant, where we could get dinner. I guess he had friends there too or something. The food was actually pretty decent and the price wasn't bad but there weren't any other people there which I think maybe should have been a red flag for us to not eat there, given future events and hindsight.

It was starting to get late and we needed to get back to Delhi so we made a quick stop at the Red Fort just to take pictures at the entrance and then we got back in the car and started the adventurous drive back.

In addition to all the same things we saw on the way there, driving through India at night is doubly as harrowing as driving during the day. First, our driver waited a loooong time to turn on his headlights, and would frequently leave them off for a minute or two after flashing them when passing a car. Second, there were NO streetlights, None. Zero. Not a single one until we got back into Delhi. Third, most cars and trucks and all rickshaws and auto-rickshaws and bike-rickshaws and cyclists do not have brake lights. Most of those vehicles also don't have headlights, and of course there's no reflectors. Although, some motorcycles would have a CD tied to the back as a reflector, and I also saw trucks with hubcaps hanging from the back that maybe acted as a reflector, but seemed pretty dull.

As scary as it was to rocket up behind a guy on a bike-rickshaw only to discover at the last possible moment that he has a big bundle of metal pipes sticking out behind him and realize that you just narrowly avoided being impaled, it was a bit more troubling that our driver seemed to be falling asleep at the wheel. I wasn't as worried as Hilary and Paula but they could see his eyes in the rearview mirror and said it didn't look good. After a few hours we actually stopped so he could have some tea and we let him take a nap, waking him up after about 20 mins to start driving again. We encouraged him to put on music and turn up the volume, he had one song he really liked that we heard about 70 times going there and back. Hilary and Paula tried to get a party atmosphere going in the car but I don't know how well it was working. Eventually we hit some serious traffic when we got closer to Delhi and then there wasn't any problem since the stop-and-go nature of the traffic kept him on his toes.

Upon return to our hotel, he wanted a tip (ugh, we'd already paid over 7000 rupees to hire him, but that was through the tour guide so we don't know how much money they'd give him), and we gave him 100 but he wasn't happy and wanted 200. We laughed, told him that he fell asleep, and went inside leaving him standing there with his 2 dollars, looking unhappy.

That was our first full day in India, we'd seen the Taj Mahal, and yet we were not exactly excited given the things we'd been through, and we were feeling a little nervous about the Varanasi train situation (we didn't have tickets yet) and we had to be in Varanasi by the next day so we could stay in the hotel we'd already booked and make the flight we'd booked the next day. We'd also just read the paragraph in Lonely Planet about how we should just go straight to the Delhi train station International Tourism Bureau and ignore everyone and everything they say to you, which is basically the opposite of what we did, because they will try to redirect us to overpriced and unreliable tourism offices, which is exactly what happened to us. So we went to bed unsure of whether our tour guide's "guarantee" would come through with our train tickets.

At this point, I was wishing we were still in Hong Kong.

Teacher Weekend 2010: Epic Win

2010-07-18T01:24:40Z

East Sea / Sea of Japan 2, originally uploaded by briancolella.

The spring semester just ended which means that it was time for my school to go all out and bus somewhere for some sightseeing and getting drunk and doing noraebang (karaoke). It was awesome. I suppose I'll have a write-up and explanation of things later but for now check out my pictures by clicking on the panorama up there or on the link down here.

Samyang Ranch Panorama

2010-07-16T17:37:09Z

Samyang Ranch, originally uploaded by briancolella.

This was the first sight-seeing stop with the school on our end of semester outing. My first panorama of many.

Maseok Panorama

2010-07-14T15:20:43Z

Maseok Panorama, originally uploaded by briancolella.

Thought I'd blog this since I just finished creating it. A big panorama of Maseok. I like it.

1 Year, Pinishee

2010-07-14T04:17:14Z

Arrival, originally uploaded by briancolella.

That photo is the first one I took in Korea, at the airport just before getting in the car to drive to my apartment. If you click on it, you'll be taken to my Flickr photo set for my first year in Korea, with this obviously being the first picture. Watch the slideshow or scroll through them or whatever, but have a look.

It's been quite the interesting experience living and working in Korea, a few of the highlights have been the food, Koreans who speak English really well, friends who are not Americans, students who care about school, cheap and efficient public transportation, cheap baseball games and lots of free time.

Supersonic, stationary

2010-07-13T14:48:00Z

Supersonic, stationary, originally uploaded by briancolella.

One of my favorite Korea photos of one of my favorite baseball players, Lee Dae-hyeong of the LG Twins, (out)standing in his field.

Sorry!

2010-06-02T13:27:09Z

IMG_4007, originally uploaded by briancolella.

Temporally Closed Door. Taken in Gangam, Seoul, South Korea, at Butterfinger Pancakes.

Wade in the Water

2010-05-24T15:15:35Z

IMG_3930, originally uploaded by briancolella.

It's like wading through water
Except,
The water is made of children
Little Korean children
And the surface
Of the water
Is a collide-o-scope
Of multicolored umbrellas
And sometimes (always)
It pokes you
But sometimes
It's nice
Head above water
Where no one can see
And no one can stare
Because they're drowning
In umbrellas

Teacher, Help Us

2010-05-24T13:59:11Z

IMG_3876, originally uploaded by briancolella.

I think I'm going to sacrifice chronologicality for the most part since I've been doing such a bad job of making timely updates, and try to stick with more interesting anecdotal non-time-specific posts. Hopefully it turns out well.

Today at school 2 girls came up to me and communicated to me (poorly) that they wanted me to help them with some interview thing after school. I agreed, because, why not, and I like when the students realize that I can help them with their homework assignments because I'm good at English. So, after school rolled around and at 4-ish they came to the office to get me.

]]>

They've got their script pre-written and I notice some problems in the English so while the girl is trying to recover I ask if I can see their paper. At first glance, the whole thing is written in Korean and my first thought was "how are they gonna read the Korean and translate it in their heads and talk at the same time?"

Silly me.

I start reading it and I realize they've written the entire thing in Hangeul but it's just a "phonetic" writing of the English words. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, because that's how they learn English here. Not as English, but as English spelled out in Korean. This leads to some problems and much is lost in translation.

For example, the letter C in Korean is pronounced 'she' because any S+i(e) sound becomes an SH (this is also a problem with the word 'sit', which in Korean becomes 'shit'). Other problem letters are F, L, Q, R, V, W, Z to name a few, and letter pairs like D/T, B/P, K/G which Korean speakers have difficulty differentiating when they hear an English speaker say.

So these girls have a sheet of improper English written in Korean characters and I'm correcting it all for them. I know that my Korean coteachers don't want me to correct things like that but I figure the more important part of the assignment is the actual speaking, so I helped them out. For example, they had written "Do you want Sikhye eating?" instead of "Do you want to drink sikhye?"

I tried to get the girl to write my corrections in English but she insisted on doing it in Hangeul, except for a couple words. I guess that's a victory. They "introduced" Sikhye to me (I've drank it many times before) and managed to record the 2nd take with only minor incidents, the one girl started to read the uncorrected line, and they giggled about that, and also when the girl opened the can of Sikhye for me to taste they all giggled for some reason.

They thanked me, and I thanked them for the free drink and went back to my office.

Busan Night Cityscape

2010-05-15T17:30:11Z

Busan, originally uploaded by briancolella.

In Busan, one of Samuel's former students led us to the top of a mountain where we could see about 70% of Busan he said. I snapped this photo of the Gwanganli bridge on our way down.

Springtime in Korea

2010-05-01T08:44:17Z

DSC_8624, originally uploaded by briancolella.

So, since I haven't written anything in a long time I guess this post will be a summary of January, February, March and April. I did Winter English Camp for the first couple weeks in January, it was good and since I had the experience from Summer Camp last year I was able to do it much better this time. I had a class of 6th graders from local elementary schools, only about 2 kids came every day so we were able to do a lot of fun stuff and it was a good time. I also had a class of 1st graders from my school and they were cool but a little bit more rowdy. Overall the camp experience this time around was much better the students were all happy with no complaints, probably because I played a lot of games with them. I had planned a 2-week course of lessons with comprehension tests every now and then but based on the students' reactions to the first week, which was not bad but they just didn't quite have the attention span, I trashed the 2nd week and replaced it with Jeopardy games and other fun stuff.

After Winter Camp came a few weeks of vacation during which time I did almost nothing, just hanging out with Hilary when she was here, and being lonely when she went to Japan and America. Thus January and February passed being pretty uneventful with no school and no travelling for me or anything exciting to speak of, except the Hwaseong fortress in February, but that already got it's own post. I did read a bunch of books in February thanks to the epic amount of free time I had and days where I had to go to school but there was no class (about 2 weeks worth I think). It was good times. Also at some point around there I met some new teachers from Simseok Elementary School and I was in touch with another person named Samuel via e-mail, who'd just moved to Maseok.

]]>
.Oksu Station, taken Feb 4th, 2010.

Finally in March school started again, although we did have like 2 days of school in February when the 3rd graders graduated, but the new school-year actually started in March. Gang So-won, my coteacher who just had a baby, came back briefly from her 3 months of maternity leave but then left again for a 6-month hiatus, so the substitute who took her spot is here to stay for at least that much time, and now she's earned the respect of the students so things are better in her classes. Also, on the first day of school, we were supposed to get another new English teacher but she got in a car accident and her mother was seriously injured, so she decided just to quit and take care of her, which meant we were without the extra teacher for a while. This was important because the 2nd grade classes were set to be leveled into high, intermediate, and low level classes but without her we couldn't do it, so the school had to hunt frantically for a replacement. We got a man, the only male English teacher at the school now, and he is not bad, but there's always hiccups when you throw a new person into a system. He also speaks Spanish which is interesting, he told me he went to a foreign language high school and studied Spanish, but that was a long time ago.

Once again, I was scheduled to teach 3rd grade and half of 2nd grade, and Nouth would teach the rest of 2nd and all of 1st. One problem was that Nouth's contract ended at the end of March and she hadn't told the school whether she was staying or going.

The epic snow behind my apartment building, taken March 10th, 2010.

Finally, towards the end of March, Nouth told our school that she had decided to go back to the US. I think this kinda freaked them out. They must've thought she would definitely stay because they hadn't really been bugging her about it, and then when she told them her decision she said some people started to act differently toward her, being passive aggressive about things, and they tried really hard to convince her to stay. Partially, they also knew that since it was so late in the process it would take a while to get a replacement and we'd be left without a 2nd teacher for a while. She told the school that the reason she was leaving was her husband really wanted to go, but in truth she had also made up her mind she wanted to move on to bigger and better things. Well, the school tried hard to satisfy her husband, finding him a job at a different school (he didn't like his) but it didn't matter since that wasn't *really* the problem. So finally, after that little bit of drama, Nouth left.

Most of the English teachers and a couple bonus teachers after Nouth's farewell dinner, taken March 25, 2010.

Also during February/March, I had a slight mold problem on the wall in my bedroom, and by slight I mean massively huge.

Try not to puke, taken Feb 8th, 2010.

It was really bad, so I set about to cleaning it as best I could.

The cleaned wall, taken Feb 8th, 2010.

This was the best I could do, after a little bit the wallpaper started to come off too and then I stopped, hoping that the landlord would do something about it.

My alternative bed, taken Feb 10th, 2010.

Even though I cleaned the mold off the wall, I still was a little worried about the health risks so for a while I slept on the floor in my living room, which actually was not so bad. Eventually the landlord sent in a mold specialist who looked at the mold and then left, and then the landlord sent in somebody to wallpaper over it, and that's where I stand now, which a wallpapered-over patch of mold on my wall.

Maseok foreigners, taken Mar 29th, 2010.

I mentioned before that I met some new teachers from Simseok Elementary, and I also met Samuel and Taewoo, a really cool couple who have become sort of like uncles to us. Taewoo is Korean and Samuel has been in Korea for 5 years, so they are very knowledgeable and willing to help us with stuff. Taewoo especially, since he is currently doing a TEFL Master's program online and therefore stays at home a lot. Also, he has made a semi-part-time hobby of helping foreigners do stuff like plan trips and buy tickets and that sort of stuff, he's almost like a travel agent. Samuel found me via this blog and then emailed me, and we finally met up for dinner, but it was just me and them and they didn't meet Hilary until the event pictured above. As soon as I met them though, I knew she would love them.

The Simseok Elementary teachers I saw on the street one day, and I figured rather than be epically awkward about the group of 4 foreigners standing on my corner I ought to say hi. I gave my information to one of them, Katrina, but I didn't see her again until after the dinner pictured above. This dinner was planned as a means for the old Maseokers to meet the new ones, but since I was only in touch with Katrina and she was sick the only Simseok teacher who came was Justin, the bald guy on the right, and his Korean coworker. Samuel and Taewoo also came but aside from them nobody else was new. We finally met Katrina again at Samuel and TW's apartment when they had us over for dinner, which we were happy about because we'd Facebook stalked Katrina and decided that she was pretty cool. Since then we've hung out with all of them a lot more and it's been good times.

Debate club, taken Apr 3rd, 2010.

So now we're up to April. I apologize for the somewhat disjointed and non-chronological narrative style of this post but that's just the way it is. My school offered to me the opportunity to teach a debate club once a month on Saturday for 3 hours, for a rate of 25,000W an hour (like 20USD). I of course accepted because it's money and it's 1 time every month, but then I was hit with some bad news. Most of the kids in the class aren't very good at English. Sooo, we don't really have to do "debate" per se because most of the kids can't. Honestly, I'm not sure they even could debate in Korean the way they are trained in these schools. When I showed my students a clip from "Freaks and Geeks" and asked what they saw that was different from Korean schools, one student said "students opinions," meaning the teacher asked the student their opinion about something. In the clip from the show, Kim Kelly is asked to discuss "On the Road" by Kerouac and explain what she thinks the theme is. I guess in Korea they only do lectures and students don't really talk at all.

Anyways, it's sort of a problem when you want to have a debate club. Luckily, one of the students (the one I'm talking to in the above photo) has lived in Kent, Washington, and speaks really good English so at least 1 person in the class is capable of debate. Sadly, he was absent from class the 2nd time around, but he said he'll be there next time.

Cake, taken Apr 6th, 2010.

Also in April, Hilary and I celebrated our 3-year anniversary with this cake from Paris Baguette that looks really delicious and was a little bit delicious but wasn't as delicious as it looked.

Flower festival, taken Apr 17th, 2010.

On April 17th, with Paula and Stuart and some other folks we went to the Flower Festival in Yeouido, Seoul. It was basically a street lined with cherry blossoms and filled with a billion people. It was sort of cool I guess, despite the huge crowd, there were art pieces along the sidewalks and various street performers here and there. Some of the art pieces were a little lame, like 2 that featured just pictures of Kim Yuna, the Korean figure skater. We walked the street but there were less flowers than I'd expected, but we got to see the Korean National Assembly which is a pretty cool building. Afterward we went into Itaewon to La Tavola for some amazing Italian food.

Clare's first Korean meal, taken April 23, 2010.

I think I'll end this post here, with the arrival of Clare, the new teacher at my school. She's from the UK originally but most recently she lived for about 10 years in Canada. She's got ESL teaching experience and she's very outgoing/outspoken so the students should like her. She was supposed to get here on a Monday but she got delayed leaving England because of the volcanic ash, so she got here on Friday the 23rd, and Hilary and I met up with her at school with Anna, our coteacher, and we went out to a kimbap joint for dinner. Clare's lucky because not many people get the kind of reception that we gave her. Usually you hear from teachers in Korea they spent their first week/month alone with no friends and not knowing anybody.

So after about a month without a second native teacher, we're back to full strength.

Snowing

2010-03-26T06:31:43Z

snowing, originally uploaded by briancolella.

Heavy snowfall. January 4th, 2010.

Keep the yesterday, open the tomorrow

2010-03-05T03:55:43Z

IMG_1780, originally uploaded by briancolella.

A sign on the wall around a construction site near my apartment. Taken December 29, 2009.

Punishment

2010-03-04T03:38:20Z

punishment, originally uploaded by briancolella.

My school regularly doles out physical punishment to students for bad behavior. Besides hitting, typical punishments include push-ups, and holding your arms overhead for extended periods of time. I don't know what these kids did this time but the teacher sitting in the left side of the photo was punishing them for something.

The girl on the right had been in a couple weeks earlier, coming in every break between classes to kneel and hold her arms up. I talked to her that time and she said it was because she overslept and was late once. Taken December 23, 2009.