Bangkok

It's only two hours flight from Kolkata to Bangkok, but the difference is huge, it looks like another planet. Shit, I thought Kolkata was a modern city! Guess 8 months in India got me completely out of proportions. I forgot completely about girls in mini-skirts, clean streets (no cows, now they're in the menu), skyscrapers, girls in mini-skirts, new age electronics, supermarkets and shopping malls... Did I mention the girls in mini-skirts? Damnt, they're beautiful! Although some of these dolls hang hand by hand with ugly looking Westerners, I guess not for the purpose of discussing quantum physics... Well, what to do, all this city is one huge shopping centre, everything's for sale. So I found myself in a state of some shock, which was much more overwhelming than after landing in India. I can manage it though :) Bangkok is nice, in a modern city's fashion. I really enjoyed the Sky train. It goes above the city's pagodas, palaces, monuments, parks and bridges; the stations and the cars are spotless. If there was one like this in TA, then it would be almost like here. There's already lots of Thai people in TA. The people are smiling and nice, willing to help although their English pronunciation is hard to understand. It was surprising to see lots of obese people on the streets. In India it's a rare sight, most of the people are slim and a belly is often a sign of a comfortable job with steady baksheesh incoming (police & government). Here I guess it's a sad result of Coca Cola world domination program. Food stalls are everywhere, cooking all kinds of meat, vegetables and noodles. Although they're Buddhist, the Thais are definitely not vegetarian... Of course, sight seeing is a must, all these pagodas and palaces. The train connects with a river, which has boat service, with piers close by to the important sights. The first place I went to was Wat Pho, it was really the only place I knew about in the city, except Kao San road. 1 hour of Thai massage fixed me the sens that got messed up in a sleeper coach from Varanasi to Kolkata, where I had to share a bed with 3 Indian soldiers (nevermind). It's good to feel a neck again. After 2 days I moved to Kao San, the backpackers' area. Lots of jewellery, piercing & tattoos, music, clothes and etc. Now I'm just hanging around, waiting for visas for Laos and Cambodia to arrive. When I'm done with that, I'm outta here! Shopping's not for me.
Sabai dee :)

Varanasi again

From Goa to Kolkata... I made the way through Mumbai, just for half a day, but it brought back the good memories of the first day. 15 km of slums from the train station to the center, and then, art galleries, cinemas and fancy shops in beatiful colonial buildings. Surprises never stop, that I already learned, and everything is possible in India. You can get your ears cleaned by a guy walking on the street with huge roll of cotton (didn't try this one). It's really nice, Bombay. Next, I went to Khajuraho, the country side of Madhya Pradesh, where I have good friends. Coming this place 3rd time this trip, guess it is special for me. The people are kind and beatiful, and the scenery is amazing. Abandoned palaces and temples, lakes with crystal water lost in the thick jungle, which was a setting for Mowgli's story.

Just take a motorbike and ride for 50 kms and find yourself in amazing places that are in no guide book. The weather was quite hot, and although the monsoon hit pretty hard the rest of India this year, it didn't come to these parts. The farmings suffer badly, and some weird diceases erupt. It also cause an invasion of small stinking black bugs, that are affectionnately named "Gandhi" by the locals, probably because their unagressive, but sticking character. I escaped the heat by swimming in the lakes, rivers and a dam, just few kms away from the village.

Good time, and really good memories, I'll really miss these places and these people and sure hope I'll see them again...
Kolkata is the next destination, but train tickets are impossible to book now from countryside. All trains are full for the next 2 weeks because of Diwali festival, which is coming tomorrow, and hundreds of millions of people apparently shift themselves all over the country. Luckily I had a connection in Varanasi, the guy succeeded in booking me a train ticket for the same day, which proves again that everything is possible, with some baksheesh. So after a night bus I got to the Ganga just in time for sunrise.

Happy Diwali!

Palolem beach, Goa

Here I am, in Goa, on a beach where a sunset looks like a postcard. I'm very busy: I do yoga at morning and then sit most of the day on the sand and think until my brains melt on the sun. Then I get in the water and swim, get out and sit on the beach again - and the process goes on. The beach looks like if a tsunami recenly passed over it: apparently, the municipality came with buldosers and destroyed illegal buildings, which used to be restaurants. I suppose it's more quiet now this way, and the season hasn't started yet although there's lots of people. Vendors of fruits and coconuts wander along the beach, so are icecream and massage wallas. It's hard to stay an hour without hearing one of them, so it's not really quiet. But there are more deserted beaches in a walking distance, it's pretty easy to escape.