HAPPY 18th!!!!!!
Dig in -- grillin' it up Sisters style
Couldn't resist throwing this one in, Spotless loves you too!
Relaxing weekend in Hyderabad -- first time not going somewhere on the weekend, so it was sort of nice just to kick back and spend some time at home.
The vast majority of that time was spent in an epic PRISON BREAK viewing marathon. Prison Break is a TV show on FOX, that Selin had brought over from the states. Neither of us had ever watched an episode before, but it lends itself well to the DVD format (no commercials, every episode ends in a cliffhanger, pretty addictive really)...add the fact that it was a pretty rainy weekend...and yeah we watched like 15 hours of Prison Break between Fri Sat and Sun. I am Prison Breaked OUT...at least until we get our hands on the season 2 DVD. That should be pretty soon. :)
The show is entertaining, and well put together. I'm not a big proponent of watching TV shows, but it was fun. Having it on DVD is great -- I've never liked being handcuffed (too much prison talk!) to a TV set at a certain time every week -- but w/ the DVD you watch it whenever you want for as long as you want. Fun stuff.
Joel, you'd break me out of the joint right? C'mon! "Break in. Break out. Save your brother's life."!!! "Escape is just the beginning!"
good night. :)
Just got back from Goa this afternoon...I loaded the pics and gave some more Hampi info just now, but let me tell you my quick thoughts on Goa. It was alright. But I had somewhat mixed feelings about Goa...but it's a definite place I knew I wanted to go to and I'm glad I did. I suppose it's a place that I had heard quite a bit about -- and apparently so had everybody else -- and so there were some things that weren't quite as cool as some of the other places. Kerala I think may be the next beach stop, some people went there this long weekend and said it was awesome. Goa was awesome too, don't get me wrong, it is an extremely beautiful landscape and not at all what I'd imagined India to be like (India has an amazing array of terrain. Goa is like India's Hawaii, it looks a lot like Maui -- green green lush tropical vegitation all over, beaches, ocean, little roads...I really hadn't thought India could look like that but it does. Pretty eye opening getting out there and seeing all these places, lots to see in this world).
But back to Goa -- beautiful -- but at the same time, very run over by tourists. Goa is very well known by Europeans, for it's beaches, sunshine, warm weather, cheap accomodations, cheap living, and also the drug and party scene. Apparently Goa's drug and party scene is a small sliver of what it once was (the 80's and early 90's were the hey-day, I read), but it's still there. Lots of white people in Goa -- hippy-ish euros living the good life on the cheap. Lots of tourism. Lots of cheap places to stay. Also lots of resorts, but we didn't sample any of those -- we tried a couple, just to stay for one night, but they were all booked solid. I do think a lot of the Goa experience depends on where you stay -- if you bounce around like we did looking for available rooms, then you're mixed in w/ the hippy euro tourist element. If you're good at that planning-in-advance stuff, and pre-book an extended stay at a fancy beach resort, you're gonna have it a little easier, things might be a little prettier, cleaner, and more private, and of course more expensive. Which is better, I don't know. I think it's too bad though when people only stay in the fancy resorts -- yeah you're in India, but not really. You're in a fancy resort, in India. Granted when I'm staying in a hotel that has running water, I'm also not really 'in India' either (as many people don't have that luxury), but...you know what I'm saying. I think there's a time for both.
So, we did do some really cool stuff in Goa. Don't read what's above and get me wrong, and think Goa really sucked. It did not suck at all, it was an amazing place and I had a great time there. I'm glad I went.
We first arrived and took a cab to Palolem Beach. Palolem beach made me decide that those guidebooks like 'the rough guide to India' (well really only that guide book, it was the one we had, but probably also Lonely Planet and others) are no good. Basically, the guidebook said Palolem was a beautiful beach, not as touristy as some of the beaches up north, more relaxed. So we went. It was about an hour cab ride down there, which we shared with Rob and Fiona (our Dublin friends--who continued on from Palolem to a beach a little further south. In all honesty, I woulda just liked to continue on to their beach town, but I decided to let them have their fun in the sun as a couple and get some alone time (Fiona, Rob's GF, is visiting from Dublin for a couple weeks)). Selin, me, and my surfboard got out at Palolem. We didn't have reservation lined up, so we walked around a bit, and found a place to stay on the beach. In retrospect, probably could have looked a little longer, but we were a little frustrated and wanted somewhere to stay and it is SO HOT in India that carrying bags outside in full clothing is never recommended, you will sweat so much that no price is too much to pay for a room and place to set your bags and take a cold shower. So we found a place that was actually pretty nice, and had a ton of character, not sure if it really cost $2500 rupees (about $60) a night or not, but as I said above we were in no position to argue. That is one thing that is annoying though, when you get taken advantage of, but whatever. I liked this place actually quite a bit and $60 for a room on the beach, certainly not going to happen in California. This hotel was called Ciaran's, and it was something that they built themselves, no fancy construction here. It was tied together pieces of bamboo, spackle walls, tile floors, lots of netting, really it was a super cool place, like robinson crusoe just not in a tree. They also had a bar and a place to sit out front, and also a balcony on the roof of our little room. The bed was a big bed with a mosquito net, definitely very necessary as the room was full of holes all over the place, more or less equal to sleeping outside, at least from a bug's perspective. And with Selin's legendary sweet-blood, these mosquitos must have heard all about Selin and knew she was coming weeks before she actually arrived, getting their tastebuds ready for a once in a lifetime delicacy. I don't know what it is (well yeah I do: sweet-blood) but Selin gets bit like crazy by the skeeters. It's crazy, I mean back home I would get bit by mosquitos, it's not like I've never ever been bit, but when I hang out with Selin, she is my bug repellant...those bugs don't even know I'm there. I haven't been bit by a mosquito one time yet in India. I almost feel bad about it, if I could talk to those little buggers I'd tell them to come and get it while the gettin's good and leave that poor girl alone, but I can't talk to mosquitos. Sorry mandu! Back to Ciaran's though, it was a cool place, with a cool atmosphere. So, we were happy just to have a place to stay.We checked out the beach that night, ate some good food at a little restaurant shack on the beach (I had tandoori kingfish, tasty, but not as tasty as my meals at the next hotel we stayed at, I'll have to give more details on that later), went walking around the town, read our books a bit, and went to sleep.
Oh yes another important details about Goa: there wasn't really any surf there. I did manage to get in a few attempts at a surf at our second beach stay (Agonda beach), but it was pretty marginal at best. The sea was pretty calm. All the beaches did have some tiny waves which were fun to play in, but not much to surf. But ya never know, so I really sort of have to take the surfboard with me. Because I know that sometimes there IS surf in Goa, just not when I was there. And without a doubt, the time I don't take the board, there's going to be super-surf the most fun surf ever, and I'll be kicking myself, so I'm really sort of stuck here. Selin is pretty good at understanding that, and yes I do admit travelling w/ the board is a bit of a hassle, but it's sort of necessary. At least I didnt take it to Hampi (Hampi is inland).
The next morning we woke up, I woke up early to see if there was any surf in the AM (there wasn't, see above), and we had breakfast at the hotel, which was included in the $60 (good luck getting that in CA). We ate it out on the porch in front of the bar, relaxed, read our books some more (India has made us both rediscover the joy of reading). Around 10 AM we had to check out so we packed up and hit the road again, wandering, channeling the hippy vibe that was all over this ultra touristy "paradise" (thanks 'rough guide to India') beach.Walking along the beach, we were hassled (hassled for lack of a better word. It's not really hassling so much as it is people offering you stuff, taxi rides, rooms, whatever...wait I guess that is hassling. I could do w/o the hassling I guess, but you quickly get used to it, and people are friendly, you just have to learn how to say no) by a cabbie, who suggested to me that there was surf in Agonda Beach and Patnem Beach. No surf here in Palolem. Since Rob and Fiona were staying at Patnem beach, we decided to go to Agonda. I'm glad we did, Agonda ruled, and we found a great little clean, cheap, family run hotel there that we spent the next two nights at. I'll write all about that later. For now, let me put up some Goa pictures, and then GO TO SLEEP.Happy Diwali everybody! Back to work tomorrow, but it is nice to be back home in HYD. We've got it pretty nice here, that's for sure.
Selin, Rob, Fiona boarding our Air Deccan flight to Goa. Air Deccan is not known to be the best airline in India, but it is the only direct flight from HYD to Goa. So we took it. And we made it, no problems, no delays, no hassles -- Air Deccan, so far so good with me.
The front door of our room at Ciaran's.
Book, Breakfast, and the beach. Pretty tough livin'.
Goa Palm Trees. It's a very lush, tropical environment there, really beautiful. I can see why so many Europeans come over! 
Goans, on the beach.
Local Palolem fishermen, bringing in their catch. Can't really tell that well, but the guy in the boat is holding a big kingfish. I ate a kingfish for dinner that night -- maybe that one!
darn hippies, they're everywhere!
A few more Hampi highlights worth mentioning:
*Monkeys!* We hiked up this hillside to check out a temple (formally called Hanuman Temple, but primarily known as Monkey Temple to us tourists). It was a beatiful walk up the hill, with amazing views of all the landscape around us and the big river running through the middle of it, w/ all the rocks and ruins and amazing greenery. On the way up, we made quite a hulabaloo when we saw a couple monkeys in the bushes and on the trail near us...we should have saved our energy because that was just the beginning. Once we got to the top, there were probably 50 more of their friends up there just hanging out. They were pretty domesticated monkeys, in that they weren't shy to come up to us looking for food. Selin and I not being all too accustomed to monkeys were a little cautious, but some of the other folks had monkeys standing on them...I got brave and fed one a banana, that he snatched out of my hand so quickly even my professional photographer Selin wasn't able to catch it. ~.8 seconds earlier, there was a monkey and a banana in this picture 
Nice view.
*Coracles!* For those not in the know, a coracle (no, not the same as Oracle) is a little thatch boat thing -- apparently theyve been around for years and years and years. I'd never seen one before...let alone ridden across a river in one...with 4 or 5 other people, a moped, and a motorcycle!! Another first. We loaded up onto this coracle boat and got paddled across the river, for about 20 rupees I think it was. It was fun, and amazing that motorcycles and mopeds go on these things. Interesting coracle side note--actually right in front of the coracle crossing, there is an about 50% constructed bridge crossing the river. Apparently, a bridge was being built here by the gov't, but then the people put a stop to it, because they liked their historical coracles...well, that and the ferry business they've established! additional coracle note: it wasn't just tourists on these coracles -- in fact Selin and I were the only ones -- this is the mode of transportation the locals use too.
Coracle, Moped, Coracle Paddlers, Me
*Mopeds!* As you know for 150 rupees a day (about $3.50) we rented a moped to cruise around on. Pretty good bargain, even though the thing was a pain in the butt to get started up after a long rest. We rode that moped all over the place. Which brings us to...
*Moped crashes!* Yes mom and dad, another thing for you to worry about. If it's not the kidnappers, the "sharks" (dad, no I don't think there are sharks here, not positive though...pretty sure if there are they are not of the great white variety, and if you hang around the SF bay area ocean long enough those become the only ones you're afraid of), or the malaria...you can now stay awake at night worrying about moped crashes!! It goes without saying that I am a very distinguished and expert moped driver...but Selin? Not so much. But being the brave traveller she is, she took a turn behind the wheel of the beast. We trekked off to a deserted side road, far away from the Hampi "traffic" (there were as many cows on the roads as cars), and she took off. She did great. But then I got tired of walking, and wanted a ride too, so I hopped on the back...and it's a little harder to ride a scooter with 200 pound club of dead weight on the back seat. Anyway we hit a muddy patch, bogged down, lost control and took a tumble. I went flying over the top and so did Selin...end of story, Selin is lying on the ground, with some good cuts and scratches. I was pretty terrified for a second, but we weren't going that fast (selin, I could have ridden a bicycle faster than you drove that moped), so there was nothing serious, but still -- would NOT want to be making any visits to any Indian hospitals. (I hear some are good, but probably not the ones in Hampi I'm guessing). Oh and also I managed to escape with no injuries, just a slightly scratched palm. I'm quick and nimble. And also I sort of fell on top of Selin a little bit. Sorry sweetie!!! Haha suffice it to say I'll probably be doing most of the moped driving from here on out. And Selin I'm glad you're OK. Oh yeah the Moped, it was also OK too. Just a little muddy.
*Friends!* On the train, we met a nice older Indian couple, Jagan and his wife. Jagan is an editor for the biggest Telagu (it's one of the native languages of Hyderabad) newspaper in HYD, and a nice guy. He's also a big traveler, so was excited to tell us about his visits to California and other places. Anyway, we exchanged email and he's invited us over for dinner sometime, which we'll have to do when there's time.
*Temples!* There were tons of temples in Hampi. I didn't really mention any of them specifically, but they're all cool to see. And you can definitely see them, you can touch them, climb on them, walk in them, do whatever you want pretty much as there are no ropes or restrictions. But if you want details on all the history and who and what each temple was for, you'll have to ask somebody else. Jagan probably knows.
Plenty more where this came from.
*Festivals!* There was some festival going on (again, details and that stuff, I don't know -- this was 4 weeks ago!!), which we had Monday off work for, but on Monday night before catching our night train back to Hyd, there was a big party in Hampi. A bunch of people cruised down the main bazaar street, playing drums and other instruments, dancing, occasionally stopping and forming an organized dance circle where someone would step in the middle and start waving a sword around and doing stunts, all in front of the village elephant who was walking along also. It was pretty cool to see. Here's a pic of me inviting myself in to the festivities, actually carrying (well, more posing than carrying) the god on my shoulders. Jagan says "According to the Hindu philosophy this act of human beings is a great honor to one self." Sweet!
Me
Town Elephant
Well that is probably enough about Hampi! I have a feeling I may never write this much about a trip again...but this was my first one in India, and it was a good one, so there ya go.
Hey guys, Happy Diwali! You folks over there in the
states are really missin' the boat on this one: huge celebration, tons of firecrackers (at all hours of the night too -- honestly could probably do w/o those), but it is the festival of light so I guess they have significance, as well as the slaying of a Demon (Selin is telling me this as I type, I've got a lot to learn about Diwali)...but the best part of it all is...3 days off work! I just got back from a long trip to the beach, and have a lot of updating to do...we'll see what I can get done in the next couple hours. Hope you're all doing well in whatever it is you're doing.
Thought I'd mention this as well, my fantasy football teams went 3-0 this weekend! suckas!
Hampi! Let me tell you a little bit about this magical place. It is somewhere everyone should
visit while in India (look at me, I've been here 3 weeks and I'm already telling everyone what to do). But really, Hampi was pretty cool, I'm not lying. Go there. The entire place looks like that picture there on the right. It is pretty stunning landscape.
So I arrived in HYD on Wed night, and that very first weekend, headed off for a long voyage to Hampi. Selin had gotten us train tickets on the overnight train, departing from Hyd train station around 10 PM I think. Note: this was a while ago, and I'm just recanting the experience now, so details are going to be a bit hazy. So we finished a long Friday at work (know how in Mt. View, everybody stops working on Friday at 4 PM? Not the case in HYD. They work a lot of hours in HYD. I'm getting used to it, but it's a long workday. There was a TGIF though, so that was cool), headed home and got packed, and then our buddy Jaffer drove us to the train station. Big thank you to Jaffer as he didn't just drive us to the train station and take off, he parked, got out with us, and helped us out...much appreciated as we had no idea what we were doing, and the train station was a pretty confusing place. With Jaffer's help we got it worked out, our train pulled up (very slowly -- the train ALWAYS moved very slowly), and we got on board.
Our tickets were firstclass sleeper tickets, meaning we had beds to sleep in...sort of. But it's India, and things are different here. And it's a train! It's not a luxury hotel. (Side note about India: 'Clean' and 'cleanliness' have a whole different meaning here. You either learn to just adjust and deal with it, or you can spend the whole time being grossed out about everything. I think you can guess what I've decided to do). Anyways, the train accomodations were far from luxury, and Selin said she saw a cockroach crawling next to my head while I was sleeping (she was on the top bunk, I was bottom), and we had to share a compartment with 2 other people who had the beds next to ours, but it was fine. We got a little bit of sleep, and in the end we got where we were going. Well it did take a LONG time to get where we were going, like 14 hours or something, the trains are SLOW, but we made i
t.
That's a rickshaw there on the right. The driver was taking a nap.
Once we got off the train, we caught a rickshaw for the 20 minute or so ride to the little town of Hampi. This was my first rickshaw ride in India, and it was pretty cool. Rickshaws (technically, auto rickshaws) are these little 3 wheel contraptions that are all over the place here in India. You can read about them on that Wikipedia link, but they really are everywhere, and I have seen some pretty crazy rickshaw transport setups -- it's no joke you will sometimes see 8 people in a rickshaw. How that rickshaw manages to move with 8 people piled into it I do not know, but apparently there is more power in that little lawnmower engine than one would think. So we cruised in the rickshaw to Hampi. It cost us I don't remember how many rupees, but I think we paid more than we had to, but it's still only like $5.
Wow, I've been rambling on for paragraphs here and I haven't even GOTTEN us to Hampi yet. Somebody stop me! Fast typing, no editing, and my very own blog -- this is what you get. I didn't intend to write this much because I also want to write some more about Mamallapuram, but maybe I'll just include pictures of that or something, you already heard about the surf there. Back to Hampi!
We had arranged beforehand our lodging in a tiny little guesthouse called Rama guest house which is in the tiny little town, by the river. Guess how much this guest house costs? $15? That'd be pretty cheap, right, but that'd be wrong because it only cost 200 rupees per night, which is a little more than $4. That is total, not per person. Craziness. I mean for $4 !!! jeez. That is hard to fathom that $4 gets you a room to sleep in. Apparently $4 does not include clean sheets, which we found out, and that was not ideal, but again it was $4? are you serious? $4? No hot water either for $4. But it was a room with a lock and a toilet and a shower and it cost $4. In the end, we actually wound up spending the night on the other side of the river as we were over there and found a nicer place to lay our heads for about $20 with clean sheets and everything, but we kept our $4 room anyways and used it as a storage locker/emergency bathroom/emergency first aid station/emergency shower...and it was perfect for that. A great little place.
After checking into our $4 room, we set out to explore. We had the whole day ahead of us pretty much, which was excellent, as the train ride had taken all night. First thing on the agenda: get a scooter. Our 3 housemates here in HYD (all blokes from the Dublin office, Paul (Scottish I think), Rob (Irish), and Stefan (English)) had been to Hampi the weekend before (they actually discovered the $4 Rama Guest House) and said they hired a scooter for really cheap. 
Me and Selin, riding our scooter. Extreme nose shot close up. This picture always makes me laugh. Selin looks like she's having a good ol' time back there...what a cutie.
As I love riding around on scooters (Joel can attest to that, remember our scooter in Italy? And of course your red rocket in Honolulu too, haha good times on scooters) I was very much looking forward to that. Also, driving in Hampi was way different than HYD, it's a little tiny town so it's much easier and less scary -- everything is slow and there's not cars and traffic EVERYWHERE going in every direction. All that...and the fact that the scooter cost 150 rupees for the entire day (and all night!). Yes that is even less than the $4 hotel room, that's about $3.50. So we walked up to a scooter place, told the guy my name, I don't think he even asked for any ID or anything, gave him 150 rupees plus another 60 for a liter of petrol (he probably made out like a bandit on the petrol, but whatever, who cares?) and we were off on our way. I was driver, Selin navigating from behind.
We set off to get some food at another recommended place, the Mango Tree restaurant, which
was fantastic (and also cheap). It is this little place just outside of town where u sit outside underneath this huge Mango tree and it overlooks the river that flows thru Hampi. It has a fabulous ambiance. And also really really good mango porridge. We filled our bellies and headed to cruise the wide open streets and some ruins...of which there is no shortage. We didn't really have a set agenda for the day, which was nice, so we just sort of cruised, we knew we had all day tomorrow to see the main spots we wanted to be sure to see, so we had plenty of time.
I won't bother with trying to give you the names or details on all the ruins we saw, because I don't remember the names, but I remember the experience. It was awesome. The ruins are cool, and you can go wherever you want -- they recognize the ruins are cool because they charge us foreigners $5 USD to see certain ones of em, but they haven't started preserving them like you and I are used to. Roped off areas don't exist. You go wherever you please, touch whatever you want. Which makes it all pretty cool. And in addition to the ruins, just the landscape of Hampi is pretty incredible in and of itself. There are rocks everywhere you look for as far as your eye can see. It is a hilly, green, tropical almost looking landscape just covered in these great big boulders, everywhere. It's pretty stunning, and was fun just driving through that landscape. You'll have to see all the pictures to really get a better idea of it.
It's almost bedtime, so I'm going to have to give the truncated version of the rest of our Hampi adventure...but you should get the picture by now. It's a small little place, amazing things to see, nice getaway from the bustling cities, a really enjoyable and memorable trip.
The rest of the trip will be conveyed in pictures...but it was awesome. A good time, a great weekend, an excellent introduction to India for my first weekend here. Who needs sleep when you've got ruins to explore? (and scooters to ride!).
After touring the rest of the ruins, hanging out, doing some bargain shopping, eating a DELICIOUS pizza on Sunday night (food is hit or miss here. Unless you order something Indian, it's a crapshoot what you're going to actually end up with -- I had a pizza before that one that was unlike any pizza I've ever seen before...), we took another rickshaw to the train station, boarded our sleeper train, and settled in for the 14 hour trek back to HYD, and back to the office -- we went straight to work from the train station Monday morning.
King of Hampi
Mattar paneer dish
In case you were wondering, why is this blog called 'Paneer Belly', let me explain.
Paneer is a very common dish here in India. As the wikipedia link will tell you, it is the is the most common Indian form of CHEESE. in fact it is the only kind of cheese indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. It's good. I like it. At the same time, while I do like me my Paneer, my belly likes it too, and it likes to tell me it likes it by growing to extreme states of roundness!!!! (No exercise helps there as well...but it's primarily the paneer). Anyways, hence the name paneer belly. I figured it was more interesting than 'NicInIndia' or 'IndiaNic' or 'doingadoingadoingadoingadoing'or any derivation of such. Now you know.
Me ready to head to the office
Further reading: Here's an article (by someone who dislikes Americans)...looks like we're not stopping at jobs, but are also outsourcing obesity and litigation to India as well...
(Mom, I better not let this guy know I'm American, he'll kidnap me for sure!!!)
