After a very fun and busy 2 days in Delhi. Danika and I are now safely in Agra, India. Our two days Delhi began at the Colonial inspired Connaught Place, which is at the heart of Delhi proper. It is an extravagant traffic circle, consisting of 7 roads that spoke out from the centre (much like the Arche de Triomphe in Paris). The traffic is absolute madness regardless of the time of day. The building facades are reminiscent of the days of British Colonial rule, as they all have soaring pillars and are all painted a uniform white (now somewhat blackened by all the pollution). It's apparently the "uspscale" area of Delhi, in that all the boutique stores have their flagships here. But of course you still have your basic Indian sewage smell, tonnes of garbage and beggars. The food in Delhi has not disappointed, as Danika and I have fulfilled our desire for biryani, chaat and Mughali curries on a daily basis, I hope all your mouths are watering! We also visited the Palike bazar, an underground shopping area right under the Connaught traffic circle, and visited a unique outdoor observatory, built in the 1600's, and with large concrete and marble instruments that you can climb. Day two in Delhi consisted of visiting the famous Red Fort, it's really cool. And even cooler that we only paid 11 rupees each to get in (compared to the tourist rate of 100 rupees), because we convinced the ticket agent we were Indian, and flashed the "born in Bangalore" portion of our Canadian passports! We also ventured into Chandi Chowk and the spice market, which is a crazy, crowded, dirty, market area. But we quickly ventured out when we realized that there were only men everywhere, and of course that lovely sewage smell. After Chandi Chowk we went to the Jama Masjid, India's largest Mosque, which is gorgeous and very crowded. We weren't allowed to go inside as we arrived just in time for evening prayers, but still managed a few good snaps. And then lastly to the Gandhi Darshan, where India's beloved Mahatma Gandhi was cremated. It's a beautifully maintained garden area, and the place of his cremation is marked with a simple black marble stone. I felt very touched being there, and found myself wondering what the Great man would think of the state of India today. It is interesting that there exists such a pristine tribute to a man, who cared little for personal glory and more for the common people. It would seem the money spent for the perfectly pruned bushes would be better served on the poor and uneducated, as he might have wanted.
Today-- Friday, is Republic Day, and basically all of Delhi was on holiday. Neeks and I spent a relaxing morning waking up late, watching the Republic Day parade on tv, and then going to our Aunt's house for lunch. We caught a 6 pm train to Agra, and arrived safely at our hotel a few short hours ago. Tomorrow morning we see the Taj Mahal at sunrise, which I think I can speak for Danika and I and say is the highlight of our trip. Will definitely be posting pics of that. Only 3 weeks left in India, how time flies!
Friday, January 26, 2007
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Delhi is how far away!!!???
36 hours. Yes folks, you read it correctly. It takes 36 hours by TRAIN to get to Delhi from Bangalore. For you clever people who thoroughly research your travels, you probably already knew that. But Danika and I were under the distinct impression that you could get anywhere in India in like 6 hours. Inspite of knowing this we booked a train to Delhi anyways (we're leaving tomorrow night!) they've promised us an A/C sleeper, but we'll see about the A/C and we'll see about the sleep. I've learned among other things, that things are never quite how they are described by the Indians. "Luxury", "delux" and "fancy" have all taken on completely alternative meanings for me since i've been here. Hence my cynicism about this train ride. In any case, we have decided to visit Delhi, Agra, Darjeeling and Calcutta (I refuse to use the new Indianized names because they just sound bad). And out of the 10 days we will be away from Bangalore, 5 of those days will be spent on trains and buses just getting from one place to another. Flying around India is incredibly expensive, which is both surprising and annoying since the quality of airline service is dismal and the demand is really high. And apparently the rail system in India is one of the best, minus the fact the toilets empty onto the tracks. They also say the mailpost system is top notch, but out of the 10 letters I have mailed to Toronto, only 3 have arrived, and one of them was torn in half and placed in a plastic bag saying "we regret the incovenience", so we'll just have to wait and see. But I will say that the trains are very smooth, and it's a no-brainer compared to taking chartered buses with crazy drivers. It's definitely safer to travel by train.
What will we do for 36 hours? Well, Danika and I are HUGE fans of playing war (so is Paul, he just doesn't know it yet!). I was also gifted a very apt book called "Chindia", about the growth of the Chinese and Indian economies, from my capitalist-loving boyfriend, (thank you Ray). And if all else fails I have a healthy stash of sleeping pills to snore the time away!
What will we do for 36 hours? Well, Danika and I are HUGE fans of playing war (so is Paul, he just doesn't know it yet!). I was also gifted a very apt book called "Chindia", about the growth of the Chinese and Indian economies, from my capitalist-loving boyfriend, (thank you Ray). And if all else fails I have a healthy stash of sleeping pills to snore the time away!
Friday, January 19, 2007
I'm tired of writing
Okay, that's not true, I'm not tired of writing, I don't think I ever could be. But, I realized that India is better enjoyed with all the senses. And since ya'll can't be here to smell it (not missing much), taste it (too bad!), feel it, or hear it (I hear stray dogs barking right now) I could at least help you see it! Enjoy.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Things you can't get used to...
It has been almost 3 months since I have arrived in Bangalore. I think I have been very good at adapting to the way of life here. But inspite of all things I have gotten used to, there are still some things that I just don't understand.
1. Indian people do not understand the concept of a queue. They see you standing there, they know you were there before they were, but still, it makes sense to stand in front of you and demand they get served first.
2. There are signs everywhere literally begging people not to spit and urinate in public spaces. And onto the sign, they spit and urinate, as if the street is their private bathroom.
3. NO ONE, is EVER on time, NOT EVER. It's playfully been nicknamed IST=Indian Standard Time, but it is so frustrating. When someone invites you over for dinner at 8pm, they only serve you food at 11pm. When they tell you that they'll be serving dinner "early" they mean it will be served at 10:45 instead of 11. I remember one New Year's when they served us dinner after midnight--who does that!??
4. The autorickshaw drivers are like communist dictators. You don't tell them where you want to go, they tell you where they are going. You don't pay them what the meter says, you pay them what they tell you to pay them. In the middle of the day, it is impossible to get a rickshaw anywhere. If only the government had that kind of power, there wouldn't be people spitting and urinating on walls, because they could actually find an autoricksaw to take them to a toilet.
5. All bars and clubs close at 11pm. No joke.
6. As Paul pointed out, no where else in the world can you spend rs-8 on a full breakfast and then turn around and buy a rs-20,000 cellphone on the same day. The discrepancy in what things cost here is bizarre.
7. Where have all the women gone? On any given street, as far as you can see, the ratio of women to men is usually about 1:100. Which I guess has normalized the behaviour of men holding hands as they walk down the street. There are guys holding hands everywhere. If there are three guys walking, two hold hands, and the other holds their shoulders.
8. When you try to jaywalk through traffic you get honked at and berated by the drivers, but when a cow stands in the middle of the road and stops traffic, everyone sits and waits patiently for it to move.
1. Indian people do not understand the concept of a queue. They see you standing there, they know you were there before they were, but still, it makes sense to stand in front of you and demand they get served first.
2. There are signs everywhere literally begging people not to spit and urinate in public spaces. And onto the sign, they spit and urinate, as if the street is their private bathroom.
3. NO ONE, is EVER on time, NOT EVER. It's playfully been nicknamed IST=Indian Standard Time, but it is so frustrating. When someone invites you over for dinner at 8pm, they only serve you food at 11pm. When they tell you that they'll be serving dinner "early" they mean it will be served at 10:45 instead of 11. I remember one New Year's when they served us dinner after midnight--who does that!??
4. The autorickshaw drivers are like communist dictators. You don't tell them where you want to go, they tell you where they are going. You don't pay them what the meter says, you pay them what they tell you to pay them. In the middle of the day, it is impossible to get a rickshaw anywhere. If only the government had that kind of power, there wouldn't be people spitting and urinating on walls, because they could actually find an autoricksaw to take them to a toilet.
5. All bars and clubs close at 11pm. No joke.
6. As Paul pointed out, no where else in the world can you spend rs-8 on a full breakfast and then turn around and buy a rs-20,000 cellphone on the same day. The discrepancy in what things cost here is bizarre.
7. Where have all the women gone? On any given street, as far as you can see, the ratio of women to men is usually about 1:100. Which I guess has normalized the behaviour of men holding hands as they walk down the street. There are guys holding hands everywhere. If there are three guys walking, two hold hands, and the other holds their shoulders.
8. When you try to jaywalk through traffic you get honked at and berated by the drivers, but when a cow stands in the middle of the road and stops traffic, everyone sits and waits patiently for it to move.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
It's Better in Goa
I had this t-shirt when I was a child of a neon green, pink and orange sunset of Goa, and the caption was "It's better in Goa". I have always thought of Goa exactly like that t-shirt-- exotic, balmy, a calm paradise destination. Our New Year's trip to Goa was like that nice simple t-shirt spray painted with a tag that said "Daytona is better"! As you near the beach (we went to Baga beach), the traffic becomes menacing, there are no sidwalks for people to walk, it's dirty, there are open sewage drains, and the Goa police just block off random streets as they please. The main attraction of course is the beach, the sand was packed down, there were boats moored about 20 feet from the shore so you had to be careful not to get caught in someone's propeller, and the sand was littered with beer bottles and garbage from tourists and locals. Oh, and the most traumatizing part were the select Indian men who decided that white chuddies would make suitable swimming trunks and would come out of the water dripping wet and stand right infront of your beach chair. It gives a whole new meaning to "beach balls"! Needless to say, the whole experience was very disappointing, especially since it was so perfect in my imagination. But there were some things worth noting. For one, you can get served anything but the kitchen sink while lounging on the beach. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, beer, tattoos, massages, coconuts, sarongs, you can even get your ears cleaned as you lie there soaking up the sun! And the sunset, although marred by dozens of rows of beach chairs and umbrellas, is certainly worth waiting all day for.
Ken liked them so much he kept hoping for two sunsets in one day! Another pleasant memory of Goa is that we got to spend time with Ryan who should be re-named the Australian Party Animal! 
We had the pleasure of meeting all of his cousins and it made our time there so much more fun. The hilight of the trip was New Year's Eve and in Goa you either go hard or go home it seemed. So we started the evening at Ryan's guesthouse, having drinks on the terrace. We laughed so hard we almost peed our pants! We had dinner and then ventured to the beach. I can't even describe how crowded it was. The beach itself was huge, and there were people on every square inch of it! The creepy part was they were mostly men, and the girls had to literally have the guys make a fence around them when we walked just so we wouldn't get groped. (Relevant the end of my last blog). We, in typical Indian Standard Time, only arrived at the beach at like 11:30. So we had to scramble to get drinks and decided to just stay on the beach for New Year's. With so many shacks around, and blasting music, there was no really definitive countdown, so we just created our own. I really believe the only way to spend New Year's is with lots of people in a really loud place, it's the best feeling. All of the beach shacks had fireworks shows, so we watched fireworks for about 20 minutes. After fireworks we had to join the mobs of people that seemed to be just roaming around aimlessly to find some outdoor club that Ryan's cousin had found. We had to pay a whopping Rs-1000 per person, but it was all-you-could-drink-and-eat. Needless to say I didn't really take advantage what with my 3 drink limit. But it was really fun. We all took over the stage and jammed to house music, which I always say you can only tolerate when you've had a few. The deejay was really annoying and wouldn't shut up. It's funny hearing these guys try to sound cool when they speak English with a really thick Indian accent. It would have been better if he just spoke Hindi or something. Kudos to Ken for outlasting us all on New Year's (he didn't get home til 10am). New Year's in Goa was certainly worth the experience. Though I will say the Goa beaches don't even deserve a mention compared to the white sand beaches of Mangalore or Thailand. I guess you could call me a beach snob.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
A Sidrigavi Christmas
I have always thought that I am so lucky to have as much family in Canada as I do in India. This Christmas I escaped to Sidrigavi, to my Uncle Lalu's coffee estate, with 
his family, to spend some quality time in the mountains. The air is fresher, the sky is bluer, the stars are brighter, and I honestly think your food digests faster up there too! I had the wonderfully talented Erica, stuffing me with all kinds of yummy food, every three hours on the hour. So in order to earn these delicious meals, I had to walk and walk and walk just so I wouldn't look as blobbish as I felt! We went out to the forest on the 23rd to cut our own Christmas tree, we ended up chopping off the top of a fir tree, but i'm sure it will grow back by next year! It's amazing to see how the labourers climb trees that are like 50 ft tall with only their bare feet, and chop off limbs while clinging to the trunk! It's like extreme sports Indian style.
The 5 days I spent there just flew by. I went on hikes with my cousins Aaron and
Lauren almost every day. I also went coffee picking with Lauren and the coolie children (picked a wopping 9 kgs!), and hunting with Aaron and Lalu. In total we only shot one green pigeon and it was too cute to eat, so I didn't. I returned to Bangalore on the 27th of December. And at midnight Paul, Ken and Danika landed with their gigantic haul of luggage and I know Danika will hate me for mentioning this, but she cried like a little baby when she saw me! I think this is the longest we've ever been apart (2 months) without seeing each other.
It's funny, but as much as I am warming up to the way of life here, I am beginning to miss home just as much. There are so many things that we don't realize about our own lives until we are submerged into another culture or lifestyle. I am sure anyone who comes here will marvel at the richness of the culture and the vitality of the people here. But regardless of how many times I have visited India, the poverty, the inequalities, the apparent lack of any kind of modernization persists visit after visit. And if there is one thing I have learnt from my 2 short months here, it is that we are lucky to be women living in a country like Canada. There are inequalities everywhere I know, but the ones here you can see every single day, with your own eyes, and they are egregiously destructive to any woman's freedom.
his family, to spend some quality time in the mountains. The air is fresher, the sky is bluer, the stars are brighter, and I honestly think your food digests faster up there too! I had the wonderfully talented Erica, stuffing me with all kinds of yummy food, every three hours on the hour. So in order to earn these delicious meals, I had to walk and walk and walk just so I wouldn't look as blobbish as I felt! We went out to the forest on the 23rd to cut our own Christmas tree, we ended up chopping off the top of a fir tree, but i'm sure it will grow back by next year! It's amazing to see how the labourers climb trees that are like 50 ft tall with only their bare feet, and chop off limbs while clinging to the trunk! It's like extreme sports Indian style.The 5 days I spent there just flew by. I went on hikes with my cousins Aaron and
Lauren almost every day. I also went coffee picking with Lauren and the coolie children (picked a wopping 9 kgs!), and hunting with Aaron and Lalu. In total we only shot one green pigeon and it was too cute to eat, so I didn't. I returned to Bangalore on the 27th of December. And at midnight Paul, Ken and Danika landed with their gigantic haul of luggage and I know Danika will hate me for mentioning this, but she cried like a little baby when she saw me! I think this is the longest we've ever been apart (2 months) without seeing each other.
It's funny, but as much as I am warming up to the way of life here, I am beginning to miss home just as much. There are so many things that we don't realize about our own lives until we are submerged into another culture or lifestyle. I am sure anyone who comes here will marvel at the richness of the culture and the vitality of the people here. But regardless of how many times I have visited India, the poverty, the inequalities, the apparent lack of any kind of modernization persists visit after visit. And if there is one thing I have learnt from my 2 short months here, it is that we are lucky to be women living in a country like Canada. There are inequalities everywhere I know, but the ones here you can see every single day, with your own eyes, and they are egregiously destructive to any woman's freedom.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Hong Kong & Shanghai
I am guilty of neglecting this blog over the past few weeks, so to all those who actually read it faithfully (Linds!) I am sorry.
HONG KONG:
To recap my trip to Hong Kong, all I can say is holy overcrowded! I try to think of the places I have visited, and what struck me the most about them. And for Hong Kong the most prominent thing is the sheer number of people that live there. I should also mention that when I first left the aiport on their fabulous express train into the city I was struck by the beautiful mountains that stand in the backdrop to the soaring cityscape. I was also struck by the many islands that surround Hong Kong's main island. I have always thought that it was just one big island, but the majority of Hong Kong proper lies outside the main island where the financial district is. I was very lucky in Hong Kong to have my old teacher Chris Coates and my Auntie Colleen to show me around. I also took one of those one day city tours that takes you to all the most popular tourist haunts. On the tour we visted the Man Mo Temple which is a very old Taoist Temple found in the antique district of Hong Kong and also near the spot where the British first put down the Union Jack and took possession of Hong Kong. "Man" means literature or words and "Mo" means war or weapons, so it is the temple of literature and war. The temple is a beautiful old building, hidden in a bustling commercial area of town. When you walk in, there is a huge ornamental door that is only opened on very special occasions. It is said that it is opened for all the bad spirits to leave. The temple houses the statues of both the Gods of Man and Mo, and in the middle is a huge section where you burn offerings to the heavens. The offerings are these huge coiled incense cages, you write down your prayers and intentions and tie them underneath the cage and then you light it and it burns for a whole month. As the smoke rises it carries your prayers to the heavens and to the Gods.
After the Man Mo temple we visited the famous Victoria Peak. We got to take the tram, which sits on a 45 degree slope and carries you up from the base of the hill to the top which is 1800 ft. above sea level. Unfortunately, the air pollution over Hong Kong is really bad and so you cannot see very well past the harbour. But from the pictures taken in the past, it's supposed to have an amazing view.
After the Peak, we drove to Aberdeen Harbour which used to be home to a huge fishing village. It has since been reduced to only about 100 families and has been been pushed further offshore into a large canal. This is due to the fact that waterfront real estate demands have made it much more profitable to have the Royal Yacht Club there instead. In Aberdeen Harbour is also the famous floating restaurant which I think has been in some Jackie Chan movie or something. We took a ride on a fishing boat through the floating village, which has larger sea bound ships and then smaller ones where the fishing families live. There is a floating community centre and a shower/bathroom area, it is really interesting to see a lifestyle like that being sustained in this day. It seems that most of the families dont' make a living from fishing, but rather the tourists that come to see them, go figure.
From Aberdeen Harbour, we drove through Repulse Bay which is a popular beach for swimming in the summertime. The tour guide told us an interesting fact, that they used to have a problem with shark attacks about 10 years ago and so the government was forced to install these giant shark nets to protect the local swimmers at the beach.
Our last stop was to Stanley Market which was a nice shopping area on Hong Kong's North side. None of their prices could even compare to the stuff you get in Thailand and India, but lo and behold, I bought a pair of shoes anyways!
On the last night I was in Hong Kong, I went out with Chris and his friends to the trendy Lan Kwai Fong area of town. This place puts all the other partying towns i've seen to shame. On Fridays and Saturdays (I went on a Saturday) the street is blocked off for pedestrian traffic only. In Hong Kong, 2 very cool things are allowed to happen: 1) You can buy a drink from a 7 Eleven or any bar and take it with you on the street or into another bar and 2) The bars are opened all night! So between walking around with your drinks and having no last call, it gets pretty wild in Lan Kwai Fong. It's also one of the few places in the city where you find the local Hong Kong Chinese and the "Gwai Los" (foreigners) mixing together. It's pretty amazing to see the number of ex-pats that live in Hong Kong, and I think it really tells you something about the cosmopolitan and liberal atmosphere of the place. After Lan Kwai Fong we headed over to Wan Chai which is also knows the Red Light District. It's not as bad as you might think, but walk into any bar and you automatically know who the working girls are. To put it truthfully, these places exhibit a certain bit of hedonism, and you can see that in the way some of the men who live here get caught up in the culture. One good feature about all these places is that they all have live bands that play all the latest music.
SHANGHAI:
Shanghai was really amazing because it was completely unlike anything I expected. I have always tended to think of China in much the same way I see India, heavily populated, very rich or very poor, modern, but still behind the times and it was NONE of these things! Shangai is really something to see. The roads are clean, and well organized. There are lots of new cars, lots of new shopping malls, beautiful skyscrapers, and wherever there is greenspace in the city, it is well manicured and always clean. It was also very, very cold, and I think colder climates tends to make a culture more subdued. Ray was saying that in Toronto when it's cold, the whole place looks dead, and people just run from their heated cars to their heated offices to their heated houses. And in China its somewhat like this, there aren't as many people on the streets, as you would find in Bangalore or Bangkok.
I visited the famous Bund River, which has the Pearl Tower and a lot of pretty skyscrapers along it's shores.
If there is one thing that struck me about Shanghai it's the bad drivers. In India, the roads are completely chaotic, there are no lanes, often you can't tell where the road ends and the sidewalk begins. But in China there are very clean lines, and traffic signals, and yet people do not observe any right of way, sometimes they ignore the lights, and I swear on the drive from the airport to my Aunt's house I saw 4 accidents alone. I guess some stereotypes do exist for a reason!!
I also visited a small canal town, called Zhujiajiao, just outside of metropolitan Shanghai It had cobblestone streets running next to small canals, both of which are used to get around the city. There were tonnes of antique and curiousity shops, and often you could bargain them down to one tenth of their asking price. But still, the prices weren't as good as in Thailand or India. Besides the cold weather, Shanghai was full of pleasant surprises. My Aunt took me for many delicious meals, and I was pleased to see that a lot of the food that the locals ate is available in Toronto, and is almost as good.
On the last night we were there my aunt took me to a cute area of town which also had cobblestone streets, a starbucks, jazzbars and lots trendy stores. I was shocked to see a place like this in the heart of Shanghai, it looked like a scene out of trendy Manhattan or something.
At the end of the 7 days, I was exhausted, and a little glad to be returning to Bangalore. I realized with each new place that I visited that there may be different cultures and languages, but in the end we are all people who are trying to survive. And I think the best sights in all the places were the local people, the way they exuded the life of the place more than any of the sites or cliches that we have come to recognize as outsiders.
HONG KONG:
To recap my trip to Hong Kong, all I can say is holy overcrowded! I try to think of the places I have visited, and what struck me the most about them. And for Hong Kong the most prominent thing is the sheer number of people that live there. I should also mention that when I first left the aiport on their fabulous express train into the city I was struck by the beautiful mountains that stand in the backdrop to the soaring cityscape. I was also struck by the many islands that surround Hong Kong's main island. I have always thought that it was just one big island, but the majority of Hong Kong proper lies outside the main island where the financial district is. I was very lucky in Hong Kong to have my old teacher Chris Coates and my Auntie Colleen to show me around. I also took one of those one day city tours that takes you to all the most popular tourist haunts. On the tour we visted the Man Mo Temple which is a very old Taoist Temple found in the antique district of Hong Kong and also near the spot where the British first put down the Union Jack and took possession of Hong Kong. "Man" means literature or words and "Mo" means war or weapons, so it is the temple of literature and war. The temple is a beautiful old building, hidden in a bustling commercial area of town. When you walk in, there is a huge ornamental door that is only opened on very special occasions. It is said that it is opened for all the bad spirits to leave. The temple houses the statues of both the Gods of Man and Mo, and in the middle is a huge section where you burn offerings to the heavens. The offerings are these huge coiled incense cages, you write down your prayers and intentions and tie them underneath the cage and then you light it and it burns for a whole month. As the smoke rises it carries your prayers to the heavens and to the Gods.
After the Man Mo temple we visited the famous Victoria Peak. We got to take the tram, which sits on a 45 degree slope and carries you up from the base of the hill to the top which is 1800 ft. above sea level. Unfortunately, the air pollution over Hong Kong is really bad and so you cannot see very well past the harbour. But from the pictures taken in the past, it's supposed to have an amazing view.
After the Peak, we drove to Aberdeen Harbour which used to be home to a huge fishing village. It has since been reduced to only about 100 families and has been been pushed further offshore into a large canal. This is due to the fact that waterfront real estate demands have made it much more profitable to have the Royal Yacht Club there instead. In Aberdeen Harbour is also the famous floating restaurant which I think has been in some Jackie Chan movie or something. We took a ride on a fishing boat through the floating village, which has larger sea bound ships and then smaller ones where the fishing families live. There is a floating community centre and a shower/bathroom area, it is really interesting to see a lifestyle like that being sustained in this day. It seems that most of the families dont' make a living from fishing, but rather the tourists that come to see them, go figure.
From Aberdeen Harbour, we drove through Repulse Bay which is a popular beach for swimming in the summertime. The tour guide told us an interesting fact, that they used to have a problem with shark attacks about 10 years ago and so the government was forced to install these giant shark nets to protect the local swimmers at the beach.
Our last stop was to Stanley Market which was a nice shopping area on Hong Kong's North side. None of their prices could even compare to the stuff you get in Thailand and India, but lo and behold, I bought a pair of shoes anyways!
On the last night I was in Hong Kong, I went out with Chris and his friends to the trendy Lan Kwai Fong area of town. This place puts all the other partying towns i've seen to shame. On Fridays and Saturdays (I went on a Saturday) the street is blocked off for pedestrian traffic only. In Hong Kong, 2 very cool things are allowed to happen: 1) You can buy a drink from a 7 Eleven or any bar and take it with you on the street or into another bar and 2) The bars are opened all night! So between walking around with your drinks and having no last call, it gets pretty wild in Lan Kwai Fong. It's also one of the few places in the city where you find the local Hong Kong Chinese and the "Gwai Los" (foreigners) mixing together. It's pretty amazing to see the number of ex-pats that live in Hong Kong, and I think it really tells you something about the cosmopolitan and liberal atmosphere of the place. After Lan Kwai Fong we headed over to Wan Chai which is also knows the Red Light District. It's not as bad as you might think, but walk into any bar and you automatically know who the working girls are. To put it truthfully, these places exhibit a certain bit of hedonism, and you can see that in the way some of the men who live here get caught up in the culture. One good feature about all these places is that they all have live bands that play all the latest music.
SHANGHAI:
Shanghai was really amazing because it was completely unlike anything I expected. I have always tended to think of China in much the same way I see India, heavily populated, very rich or very poor, modern, but still behind the times and it was NONE of these things! Shangai is really something to see. The roads are clean, and well organized. There are lots of new cars, lots of new shopping malls, beautiful skyscrapers, and wherever there is greenspace in the city, it is well manicured and always clean. It was also very, very cold, and I think colder climates tends to make a culture more subdued. Ray was saying that in Toronto when it's cold, the whole place looks dead, and people just run from their heated cars to their heated offices to their heated houses. And in China its somewhat like this, there aren't as many people on the streets, as you would find in Bangalore or Bangkok.
I visited the famous Bund River, which has the Pearl Tower and a lot of pretty skyscrapers along it's shores.
If there is one thing that struck me about Shanghai it's the bad drivers. In India, the roads are completely chaotic, there are no lanes, often you can't tell where the road ends and the sidewalk begins. But in China there are very clean lines, and traffic signals, and yet people do not observe any right of way, sometimes they ignore the lights, and I swear on the drive from the airport to my Aunt's house I saw 4 accidents alone. I guess some stereotypes do exist for a reason!!
I also visited a small canal town, called Zhujiajiao, just outside of metropolitan Shanghai It had cobblestone streets running next to small canals, both of which are used to get around the city. There were tonnes of antique and curiousity shops, and often you could bargain them down to one tenth of their asking price. But still, the prices weren't as good as in Thailand or India. Besides the cold weather, Shanghai was full of pleasant surprises. My Aunt took me for many delicious meals, and I was pleased to see that a lot of the food that the locals ate is available in Toronto, and is almost as good.
On the last night we were there my aunt took me to a cute area of town which also had cobblestone streets, a starbucks, jazzbars and lots trendy stores. I was shocked to see a place like this in the heart of Shanghai, it looked like a scene out of trendy Manhattan or something.
At the end of the 7 days, I was exhausted, and a little glad to be returning to Bangalore. I realized with each new place that I visited that there may be different cultures and languages, but in the end we are all people who are trying to survive. And I think the best sights in all the places were the local people, the way they exuded the life of the place more than any of the sites or cliches that we have come to recognize as outsiders.
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