thank you so much everyone for your loving remarks towards our crazy times. we appreciate your e-mails so so so much even though we don't always have the time to respond. we miss you all!!!
so the last few days we have traveled very far and seen a lot. we both feel older i think. that is how Mumbai makes you feel. this is an experience that can not be described with words but this is all we have so i (marcie) will try very hard for you. if anyone has been to London it is very similar-- except that it looks as if only a few buildings have been kept up over the last few hundred years, so you see a lot of crumbling paint and cracks in walls and
15.10.08
7.10.08
beloved, crazy India (and stupid mistakes!)
So we moved, on from Kochi up north to Kannur. We ended up staying in a government guest house with government officials all staying there (the previous person to stay in our room was the chief of state of Kerala...interesting).
Our room was TOTALLY GORGEOUS. Oh my goodness it was lovely. ten foot ceilings, a huge bathroom, a sunny balcony with a sweeping panoramic view of the ocean-all for about $6.00 a night. The windows were about 6 feet tall and opened to allow the sea breeze to come into our room!
Our room was TOTALLY GORGEOUS. Oh my goodness it was lovely. ten foot ceilings, a huge bathroom, a sunny balcony with a sweeping panoramic view of the ocean-all for about $6.00 a night. The windows were about 6 feet tall and opened to allow the sea breeze to come into our room!
heaven? ahahhahaha
Oh man. The past few days have left us laughing and at times crying! it has been such a ride! Heidi, let me tell you a thing or two about "Heaven" as you say!!!
India is a Man's town. that is, I'm sure the women are around there somewhere but out and about, to see a women is often a rarity- a game we play- "hey look, there's a girl!"
not only that but the gender differentials are striking. most of our dealings with waiters, hotel managers, bus drivers, etc. Never even acknowledge Marcie. It is expected that Carmen will speak for Marcie most of the time. For example, at a restaurant, we sit down. The menu goes to Carmen, Carmen is often expected to order for both of us, the bill goes to Carmen. Marcie is happy for the odd time where this is not the case. Given our personalities, this has been totally interesting and weird for both of us! Another thing, girls do not initiate conversation. We have spoken to many Indian Men but never (that I can remember) an Indian woman
India is a Man's town. that is, I'm sure the women are around there somewhere but out and about, to see a women is often a rarity- a game we play- "hey look, there's a girl!"
not only that but the gender differentials are striking. most of our dealings with waiters, hotel managers, bus drivers, etc. Never even acknowledge Marcie. It is expected that Carmen will speak for Marcie most of the time. For example, at a restaurant, we sit down. The menu goes to Carmen, Carmen is often expected to order for both of us, the bill goes to Carmen. Marcie is happy for the odd time where this is not the case. Given our personalities, this has been totally interesting and weird for both of us! Another thing, girls do not initiate conversation. We have spoken to many Indian Men but never (that I can remember) an Indian woman
3.10.08
the past few days
The last time we wrote we were nestled in the little mountain village of Kodaikanal. Since then we have descended from the glorious respite of cool to the scorching seaside city of Kochi. This means we have left Tamil Nadu and are now in the state of Kerala. Moments after crossing over we noticed a change in scenery- Kerala is India's cleanest state. The night we entered Kerala we were staying in Thrissur, on the night of some famous festival. We were on the 7th floor of a beautiful clean hotel and when night came, so did fireworks!! We ran to the nearest window and craned our necks as we saw them blasting into the air, one after the other for about 30 minutes. They were glorious, beautiful, wonderful. we felt like little kids at christmas. it was awesome staying in that hotel- we always felt like the uninvited guests to some party or another, which always took place in the banquet hall on our floor. everyone was so nice, always asking us where we were from and what we were doing there. they also had some "american" food we had to try after weeks of curry...carmen once got a burger with a cherry on top!
24.9.08
addresses!
family and friends, please send us your addresses so we can record them for future reference!
21.9.08
Hi from the lovely Kodaikanal
here are the events of the last few days:
After Pondicherry, we decided to head down to a city called Tiruchirapalli (Tiruchy for short). We decided to take the train, booking online to save ourselves from having to push through the hectic lines at the train station. We couldn't print off our tickets having no printer, but we had paid already so we didn't think this would be a problem.
We hopped on the train the next morning to find that marcie had booked upper bunks in the sleeper room by accident! We sat up there, crouched with our luggage, looking over everyone's heads and trying to see out the windows from below (oh well, at least we were near the fans).
A few minutes into the 2.5 hour ride, some official comes around asking carmen for his ticket, which, of course we did not have because it was processed on the internet and could not be printed out. We tried to explain that we had already paid and all the man kept on saying was "ticket, ticket ticket!!!" anyways he brought about 4 other officials over and they started to get loud, so now everyone in the boxcar was staring at us. they told us we should always have our ticket and it does not matter that we paid and that our name was on the list and that we had the proper ID we needed...anyways so one of the officials had to escort us off the bus in the town right before our destination...
We got to Tiruchy and stayed for two nights in a dirty, dirty, dirty dark little room that left us saying "eew, eew, eew" for the first hour of being there. By the time we saw all the sights of Tiruchy, however, our room became our safe little haven and we warmed up to it quite nicely.
One time we came out of our room to find a large crowd of people sitting in the common area. We thought they were waiting to eat something but the hotel owner told us that they were there to see the Doctor, who visits once a month and they all meet at the hotel to see him. He uses a spare hotel room to examine his patients. huh.
While in Tiruchy, we went to a few temples, where we had to take off our shoes and climb these huge stone steps that sat in the hot Indian sun all day; by the time we reached the top our bare feet were totally singed, we were almost crying!!! but the view was pretty amazing.
The temples are so hard to describe. To see people worshipping idols is something that we will never forget. It is surreal, actually.
After two nights in Tiruchy, we thought, enough is enough, let's head to the Ghats.
We hopped on a bus that cost us $1.50 each and drove for 6 hours through the mountains of India. For the last hour, we climbed higher and higher (the bus driver put on an Indian horror movie and cranked it literally so loud that when carmen and I put in earplugs it was still too loud, mind you most of the other people on the bus were sleeping), until we reached the lovely town of Kodaikanal, where we are now. It still has the usually hustle and bustle of an Indian town, the difference is that we are literally on top of a mountain, in a cloud. This town has FRESH HANDMADE CHOCOLATE and chai tea on every corner, and the most delicious mountain coffee. Our room has a totally un-obtruded view of this massive valley, with miles and miles of forested mountains, foothills, and plains in the distance. There are huge wildflowers everywhere. It is like a paradise. We are so happy we came here because we were getting overwhelmed and shocked by the craziness of the cities and the heat. So we have a little escape and we are loving it!!!
Feel free to e-mail us, tell us how life is at home!
Love,
Marcie and Carmen
After Pondicherry, we decided to head down to a city called Tiruchirapalli (Tiruchy for short). We decided to take the train, booking online to save ourselves from having to push through the hectic lines at the train station. We couldn't print off our tickets having no printer, but we had paid already so we didn't think this would be a problem.
We hopped on the train the next morning to find that marcie had booked upper bunks in the sleeper room by accident! We sat up there, crouched with our luggage, looking over everyone's heads and trying to see out the windows from below (oh well, at least we were near the fans).
A few minutes into the 2.5 hour ride, some official comes around asking carmen for his ticket, which, of course we did not have because it was processed on the internet and could not be printed out. We tried to explain that we had already paid and all the man kept on saying was "ticket, ticket ticket!!!" anyways he brought about 4 other officials over and they started to get loud, so now everyone in the boxcar was staring at us. they told us we should always have our ticket and it does not matter that we paid and that our name was on the list and that we had the proper ID we needed...anyways so one of the officials had to escort us off the bus in the town right before our destination...
We got to Tiruchy and stayed for two nights in a dirty, dirty, dirty dark little room that left us saying "eew, eew, eew" for the first hour of being there. By the time we saw all the sights of Tiruchy, however, our room became our safe little haven and we warmed up to it quite nicely.
One time we came out of our room to find a large crowd of people sitting in the common area. We thought they were waiting to eat something but the hotel owner told us that they were there to see the Doctor, who visits once a month and they all meet at the hotel to see him. He uses a spare hotel room to examine his patients. huh.
While in Tiruchy, we went to a few temples, where we had to take off our shoes and climb these huge stone steps that sat in the hot Indian sun all day; by the time we reached the top our bare feet were totally singed, we were almost crying!!! but the view was pretty amazing.
The temples are so hard to describe. To see people worshipping idols is something that we will never forget. It is surreal, actually.
After two nights in Tiruchy, we thought, enough is enough, let's head to the Ghats.
We hopped on a bus that cost us $1.50 each and drove for 6 hours through the mountains of India. For the last hour, we climbed higher and higher (the bus driver put on an Indian horror movie and cranked it literally so loud that when carmen and I put in earplugs it was still too loud, mind you most of the other people on the bus were sleeping), until we reached the lovely town of Kodaikanal, where we are now. It still has the usually hustle and bustle of an Indian town, the difference is that we are literally on top of a mountain, in a cloud. This town has FRESH HANDMADE CHOCOLATE and chai tea on every corner, and the most delicious mountain coffee. Our room has a totally un-obtruded view of this massive valley, with miles and miles of forested mountains, foothills, and plains in the distance. There are huge wildflowers everywhere. It is like a paradise. We are so happy we came here because we were getting overwhelmed and shocked by the craziness of the cities and the heat. So we have a little escape and we are loving it!!!
Feel free to e-mail us, tell us how life is at home!
Love,
Marcie and Carmen
Happy Birthday Carmen!!!
Hi,
today it's carmen's birthday. we have totally done hardly anything since we got here. we are going towards madurai on thursday and have a few days left to hide in our thatch hut and read books under our fan. it's really the nicest thing ever.
we've ventured out into pondicherry once. we were very happy not have gotten hit by any cars, busses, motos; we did not fall into man holes or pot holes, and we did not get "hounded" by any dogs or monkeys. (we have soon realized that these are things you constantly have to watch for in the mayhem)
we wanted to go to the pondicherry zoo for carmen's birthday today. we kept on asking everyone, taxi drivers, waiters etc where the zoo was. everyone was like "yes yes, zoo, very nice" then some one said "yes we have a zoo it is very nice it is a very nice museum with lots of statues" and we asked if there are animals and he looked so confused. so to our dismay we have realized that there is no zoo in pondicherry (for all you life of pi readers, sorry to burst your bubble), and that people here think a zoo and a museum are by and large the same thing.
so we will head out to explore the town of aureville today, then retire to our thatch hut when the sun begins to set.
love you all.
(marcie)
today it's carmen's birthday. we have totally done hardly anything since we got here. we are going towards madurai on thursday and have a few days left to hide in our thatch hut and read books under our fan. it's really the nicest thing ever.
we've ventured out into pondicherry once. we were very happy not have gotten hit by any cars, busses, motos; we did not fall into man holes or pot holes, and we did not get "hounded" by any dogs or monkeys. (we have soon realized that these are things you constantly have to watch for in the mayhem)
we wanted to go to the pondicherry zoo for carmen's birthday today. we kept on asking everyone, taxi drivers, waiters etc where the zoo was. everyone was like "yes yes, zoo, very nice" then some one said "yes we have a zoo it is very nice it is a very nice museum with lots of statues" and we asked if there are animals and he looked so confused. so to our dismay we have realized that there is no zoo in pondicherry (for all you life of pi readers, sorry to burst your bubble), and that people here think a zoo and a museum are by and large the same thing.
so we will head out to explore the town of aureville today, then retire to our thatch hut when the sun begins to set.
love you all.
(marcie)
We're here (From Sept 13th)
so, we're here and loving it. we arrived yesterday afternoon unscathed, except for our first initiation to india which involved marcie cutting her knee on the taxi cab door. it was a lovely sight complete with blood, car grease and rust. today it looks fine. carmen was totally shell shocked by the hustle and bustle of chennai. sorry no pictures because carmen was too shocked to figure out how to turn on the camera. we escaped the havoc of the city and drove a few hours, now we are just north of pondicherry (look on google maps!) we love this place! a little thatch hut; the perfect combination between indoors and outdoors...there are little 1 cm. gaps in all the wood slats which allow the breeze to come through. it comes complete with our own hammock and bicycles. breakfast is free and the most delicious we've ever tasted. we wish we were cows with seven stomachs to enjoy it all. the people are beautiful and wonderful and so accommodating. we are getting used to being called mam and sir. it is so hot here we are getting used to being wet all the time but the sun is so lovely and we have the occasional ocean breeze drift over our way. sorry we will send more personal e-mails sometime when we can get to a keyboard that is a little more obliging than this one (ha! that will be the day) love you all lots.
marcie + carmen
marcie + carmen