Groove on the Rubble

Susie and I arrived safely in Bangkok last week and were treated (by Susie’s parents) to two nights at the lovely Plaza Athenee. Massages there were the perfect way to recover from our jet lag.

The next day we set out to explore the city a bit. We were just a few steps from the BTS SkyTrain, so we gladly hopped on and rode it down to the river to catch a ferry to see some sights. The river is muddy and wide like the mighty Mississippi, so it might be confused if it weren’t for the pagoda style buildings and high-rising temples along its shores.

We made landfall with three missions: check out the Royal Palace, get some food, and find a hand-made bowl traditional bowl that monks use for making daily offerings.

Mission 1: Accomplished.

The Royal Palace is quite a complex to behold. It used to be the residence of the king, but now it is only used for tourists and the occasional ceremonial event. It houses several temples–including Wat Phra Keo, the home of the Emerald Buddha. The architecture, reliefs, statues and accouterments all make the place worth checking out (tho’ admittedly it is a little pricey to enter). You’ll see what I mean when I post some photos. That’ll have to wait until I have access to some bandwidth.

Mission 2: Accomplished.

We ate at a Lonely Planet-recommended restaurant called Hemlock. Good Thai in an intimate, family-feeling place. Good prices. Lots of white people. I guess you can always count on that when LP makes the reservations.

Mission 3: Accomplished.

We had set out to find a tourist-supported place where locals practice a traditional art of hand crafting steel bowls that monks use for daily offerings. It’s no longer operating. But, we did manage to find the monk supply super center in a little back street. It was a total score.

We finished the night with a local whiskey that was not so good and set off frighteningly early the next morning for Siem Reap in Cambodia.

This is awesome.

If it wouldn’t look so out of context in the U.S. and I could actually tie one, a turban would be my tied accessory of choice. As it stands, I’ll stick with the incumbent: a bow tie. I’m confident it’ll only take me 100 more attempts to get good at tying one.More turbans available in the Delhi set on Flickr.

You’re right, I haven’t tried every brownie in Bombay, but given the gooey, chocolately deliciousness of the brownie at Candie’s in Bandra I can say with confidence that it is the best. Tho’ Roshan has proposed a brownie-off and will be importing some of his aunt’s brownies from Goa–convinced that they far exceed anything I’ve ever tried. I welcome the challenge.Candie’s is a great little cafe tucked away on a quiet, tree-lined street in Bandra. It’s near two colleges, so there is lots of activity with lots of youngsters. Good energy. Good people watching.There is a huge variety of desserts, patries, sandwiches, tasty Indian dishes (chicken tikka wrap!) and specialty beverages–like the peach iced tea they were kind enough to make for me with mineral water. Everything is made fresh daily and presented beautifully. If you come after 8:00 you’ll get a 25% discount on everything, tho’ I’ve got it from good sources that “everything” won’t include much.Yum.

I traveled to Goa for some rest and relaxation. Lucky for me, my friend and colleague Ajai and his family were also making a trip there so we got to spend some quality time together.

I arrived in the bustling capital city of Panjim (also known as Panaji) and spent a couple of days there at the quaint Hotel Mandovi. I was there mostly for the food. Goan food is renowned for its tastiness–and meatiness. It’s a former Portuguese colony so there’s lots of meat (and lots of Catholic churches) there. The food is quite different. And our host, the Panjim branch manager for Investsmart, was good enough to take us to the hot spots for local cuisine.

I’m bringing home some delicious ready-made masalas to try my hand at cooking them. Namely cafreal, xacuti and recheado. They also have some local specialty sweets. My favorite is bebinca. I got a 1 kg slab and nearly finished the whole thing when I got back to Bombay.

After a nice stay in Panjim, Ajai, his family and I hired a car to drive us the couple hours south to Palolem Beach. That’s where most of my Goa photos were taken. The drive there was an adventure. We nearly had a head-on collision…maybe more than once. People in Goa seem to pass when the urge strikes even when that urge finds us on a blind corner.

The plan in Palolem was to find me a place to stay for a few days, play on the beach all day and then Ajai, Komal and Anushka would head back to Panjim. Mission accomplished. I found a little shack on the beach for 600 Rs. (or about $13) per night. Nothing fancy. Just a bed, a mosquito net, a toilet and a shower head…and the beach. Right in front of my simple little shack on stilts.

Palolem is a lovely, peaceful beach. I could describe it, but I’d have to say things like “gently lapping waves” and “rustling of palm fronds” and “sunkissed” and that just sounds corny. The few pictures I posted do the trick and save me from having to cheese it up with romance novel beach talk.

I didn’t do much while I was there…and that was precisely the plan. Breakfast, then beach to read, listen to music and swim. Lunch of paratha, curd, beer, then back to the beach. Dinner on the beach then a walk on the beach. One morning I did go for a boat ride to tour the area and see some dolphins. It was really cool to see a bunch of dolphins doing their Flipper thing. Outside of Sea World, I’ve never seen it before. These ones didn’t play with rings or balls or “talk,” which I complained about, but wasn’t able to get my money back.

Ok, I fibbed a little. The beach I went to was probably 99% Europeans and one night there was a big dance party at a pub on the beach. And there were DJs, but it definitely wasn’t a rave.

I’ve posted photos from Agra. While there, I visited the Taj Mahal (shoeless) and Agra Fort. Both notable monumentsof the Moghul Empire who ruled in India on and off for a hundred years or so. They weren’t messing around with their architecture.

The Taj Mahal is an amazing site to see. Oh sure, we’ve all seen photos o’ plenty of it’s shining marble domes, but to enter the massive gate, walk across its sprawling garden and stand beneath its marbledness is quite impressive. It’s an awe that just isn’t captured in photos–tho’ admittedly I tried my best.

I get a little intimidated by designing and building a sandcastle, so I had a hard time imagining taking the Taj Mahal from big concept (a marble, double-domed mega mausoleum) all the way down to the itty bitty details (a floral inlay here, a marbled archway there). Thinking about it gives me a headache and leaves no doubt that it was a labor of love–or lost love for Shah Jahan. And he did it all while playing Mr. Mom to his 14 kids. It’s well documented that he was the kind of dad who tossed around the pigskin with his little shavers in the garden. Seriously. Look it up.

The Agra Fort is similarly impressive. It’s HUGE. It was built by the Lodis and then taken by the Moghuls. Of course, they totally pimped it out. It’s mostly red sandstone, but has lots of added marble which makes for a neat stark contrast.
There are several other sites worth seeing in Agra, but I spent lots of time at the two I visited (as evidenced by my 300+ photos). It got late and my over-burdened photo finger got tired. I prefer to really get into the nooks and crannies of a place as opposed to breezing thru to say that I’ve done it. If you’re going to do the others, probably best to book a room and make it a two-day adventure.

Of course no big tourist attraction is complete without aggressive hawkers. No exceptions in Agra. Most of the things being sold were sensible: postcards, tiny Taj Mahal models (or Taj Mahodels), film and more postcards. In stark contrast to sensible, were the seemingly misplaced things being sold. Nothing says “I saw Taj Mahal” like a rubber band that shoots a helicopter thingy into the air. I guess people buy these things else they wouldn’t be selling them. But who?

And this was the scene. Wild party, man.

While I’ve been here I’ve been watching and asking…and learning. Here are a few things I’ve learned:

• One can do amazing things with nut paste, graham flour and ghee. Delicious sweets abound

• In Hindi culture, there is a saying that “guests are gods” and people live it. I’ve never felt more accepted and cared for

• Typically Indian bathrooms don’t have paper towels or hand dryers. I carry a handkerchief now like my male counterparts. It feels so old school

• Everyone seems to use “boss” like I use “dude”

• Mom jokes never work and sarcasm only works in certain circles. For instance, a group of colleagues was educating me about the Parsi culture, to which I responded “I heard Parsis eat babies” (completely joking, of course). Instead of chuckles I got strange looks. Live and learn

• If you see someone render their name like “M.V. Ranade” and everyone calls him Ranade, he’s probably from South India. That’s how they roll

• One lakh is 100,000 and one crore is 10,000,000

• Auto rickshaw meters always start with 1. You should subract that from your fare

More to come…