¡Estamos de obras! Pronto tendremos un nuevo diseño.... We're under construction! We'll have a new layout soon...

Saturday 30 April 2011

Arrived in Alleppey

I arrived this morning and so far it' not that spectacular here :( guesthouse are really basic (maybe I'm spoiled from the hotel in Bangalore) and some of them really stinky (humidity is huge here and you can smell it in the rooms). I'm going for breakfast now and I'll have a shower, maybe afterwards I see things different :) 

Thursday 28 April 2011

"Going Indian" ;)


I think "going Indian"doesn't exists yet, so I'm going to create it :) Going Indian means take a train and bring with you food for two days packaged in Tupperware. Once in the train, make yourself comfortable and put the Tupperware everywhere, so the rest of the people cannot move J
Well tomorrow I’m leaving for Alleppey, Kerala. It’s a 12 hour train journey, from 17 until 05:30, and therefore I’ll need to take my dinner with me. The food in the train is not good, I’ve already tasted it. I’ve spent a couple of hours cooking my tortilla. Indeed I have cooked two big ones, I’ll take few pieces in the train and the rest is for our colleagues in the office.

With this mad traffic it had to happen:

my cab had a small collision with a truck. It wasn't that bad because we're driving very slowly (you're not able to drive fast with the non-end traffic jump). It happened while turning to the right, a truck hit my cab in the back side.
I also took a video of the men arguing with each other, I'll load it as soon as I have time.

Wednesday 27 April 2011

I got a tatkal ticket to Alleppey

Friday I'm leaving for a week of holidays in India. I wanted to see the backwaters, but the trains were already fully booked and the idea of spending 12-15 hours in a bus wasn't good either. I asked my Indian colleagues and they told me there will be extra tickets on sale two days before departure. These are the ones from the "tatkal quota". In India all trains have different quotas: general, ladies, foreign tourist, defense, ... and tatkal.

Tatkal is meant for a emergency and therefore is sold two days before departure only and it has an additional fee. Even with additional fee, all tickets are sold out within an hour!! The sale starts at 8:00 am and the system is so slow (because of the people booking) that it's difficult to get through. Indeed I wasn't able to book the ticket myself, I had to ask Suresh to do it for me and he spent around 30min.Well, this time I got the "right" class 3rd AC. for other trains I don't mind the sleeper class, but this time will be a journey of 12hours from 17:00 to 5:00, so AC is better :)    

Tuesday 26 April 2011

Hampi: temple marathon

Hampi is a Unesco worl heritage site on the south bank of the Tungabhadra river, Hampi boasts the evocative ruins of Vijayanagar or the "City of Victory". The capital of three generations of Hindu rulers for more than 200 years, Hampi reached its zenith under Krishnadeva Raya (r.1510-29) and Achyuta Raya (r.1529 - 42). The site comprises the Sacred and Royal center and hosts 83 temples/sights!!

Although Hampi is quite small, it takes at least three days to see everything. I thought three days would be more than enough, but I couldn't be more wrong. I covered the mayor temples and left many things behind. I mean it's possible to see everything in three days, but it's just not enjoyable. The other atraction of Hampi is the tranquility. Unlike in other Indian places, there's no rush here, no trafic, the times goes slow and there're many places to chilled-out. 

I'll continue tomorrow, but here are some pictures: Hampi. Enjoy!

Monday 25 April 2011

Back in Bangalore

I just arrived in the hotel and after a shower and breakfast, I'll go to the office. The weekend was awesome and I have a lot of pictures. But they will have to wait until tonight (my laptop is in the office)