Being Careful in India

31 Jul

Our mantra whenever we get off a bus or a train in India has been,

“Nobody here is trying to help us.  Nobody here is our friend.”

Do I like this mantra?  No, not at all.  Is it true? Yes. Absolutely.

We’ve had to be cautious upon arriving in new cities all around the world, but it’s really been taken to a whole new level in India.  We’ve never been so absolutely inundated by touts and scam artists as we have been here.  From the second we step off the platform, and in some cases even before we’ve done that, we are bombarded with cries of “Where you go?  You have a hotel?  You are going the wrong way! This way sir! Madame! Over here! You need taxi? Come with me! You need rickshaw? Exit this way!”

Rickshaw and taxi drivers will claim your hotel is full, roach-infested or burned down just to get you to go to a place of their choosing.  If you insist on your original destination, they often refuse to take you or double their prices.  On the occasions that we aren’t swarmed by drivers wanting to take us somewhere other than where we intend, we are quoted absurd prices for travel.  We once had a team of men attempting to get us to take a rickshaw to our hotel for 150 rupees.  After a few minutes of searching around, we found a driver willing to take us and use the meter for the rate.  The cost was 21.

At the New Delhi train station, one of India’s major transport hubs that has a fantastic foreign tourist ticketing office, the scams are so thick that the tourist office has signs all over the place warning you to not pay attention to those who attempt to lead you astray.

Scammers will attempt to steer you away from the tourist office and into a travel agency where you will be bamboozled into buying train tickets for far more than the actual ticket cost.  If you are particularly uninformed they may convince you that there is no train to your destination and you might wind up handing over absurd amounts of money for flights, luxury bus services, or totally unnecessary private car transport.  Another common scheme is to try to stop tourists at the security checkpoints and tell them that their train tickets need to be ‘validated’ for a hefty fee or you won’t be allowed to board.  There are dozens more tales of travelers being manipulated as they attempt to board trains – your train has been cancelled, your train is not longer going to this stop, your train is delayed 22 hours…come with me, I can help you make other arrangements!

Recently we had two separate sets of people attempt to tell us we were headed towards the ‘wrong’ exit for the train station upon arriving in Jodhpur, despite the enormous “EXIT” signs we were following, and the fact that literally everyone was headed the same direction.  Justin laughed heartily in the faces of these touts and we kept going our own way.

In another instance, we had gotten off a bus at a fairly large terminal, and I needed to use the bathroom.  As I walked up to the clearly marked women’s restroom, a man ran in front of me carrying a table.  He put it down right in front of me and demanded I pay him to go in.  I refused and walked away.  We’ve had to pay numerous times to use restrooms, but this time just seemed like extortion.  I really did need to go, so I went to the station manager’s office, asked where the bathroom was, and asked if there was a charge.  I was directed back to the bathroom I originally tried to use, and told that no, there was not a charge.  When I went back, the guy was nowhere to be seen so I went in.  As I was closing the stall door the man ran in after me and tried to come into the stall, demanding I pay him.  I yelled “NO! GET OUT!” and pushed back on the door harder than he expected, causing it to slam in his face. Justin came storming in as this was happening and dragged the guy out of there to the station managers office where he confirmed, no, we didn’t have to pay.

*I wrote this post and the next day we went to visit the Amber Fort near Jaipur and the bathroom thing happened AGAIN!  This time though, there was a huge sign right in front that announced it as a free bathroom, and a woman inside still tried to insist I had to pay her to go in.  Unreal. *

This kind of thing is both exhausting, and infuriating.

Hence our mantra.

One way to avoid the hassle of haggling with rickshaw or taxi drivers is to go to the pre-paid stands that are just outside most airports and trains stations.  Even then, you need to stay on your toes as we learned just minutes after arriving in Mumbai.  We had gone to the pre-paid taxi stand at the airport, where we were told it would be 480 Rupees to get where we needed.  It wasn’t until we were out of the terminal and into the taxi that we looked more closely at the receipt and realized it should have been 430.  The woman at the counter had written the ‘3’ so it looked sort of like an 8, and when we added up the charges, sure enough, it was 430.  Lesson learned – pre-paid services can be handy, but check the receipt CAREFULLY before you hand over your cash.

At this point, we try to always have a plan for where we are going before we even begin the journey to our next stop.  We contact local hotels and ask what we should be paying in a taxi or rickshaw to get to them.  When we’re in doubt or need help the ONLY place we go is to the police or the tourist office.  If someone tries to check our tickets, or charge an entrance fee for something, we only allow them to do so if they are in uniform, in an official booth, or if the guidebook says there is a fee.  If those things aren’t in place, we ask a security guard, police officer, or station manager if we should be paying extra.

It can be extremely aggravating, but by following these steps we think we’ve managed to avoid the worst of the scams, at least so far.

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Photo Friday – Feeling Blue In Jodhpur, India

27 Jul

We’ve spent the last few days wandering around Jodhpur, India, which is often referred to as the “Blue City” because so many of the buildings in the area around the old fort have been painted blue.  The most common reason people give as to why this particular color was chosen is that it keeps the bugs away.  Whatever the reason, it’s very cool to walk around in a blue neighborhood, and even better to get an expansive view like the one from the top of the fort.

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Photo Friday – Ajanta Caves in India

20 Jul

The Ajanta Caves, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, are located about 100 kilometers outside of Aurrangabad, India (it takes about 7 hours on a train to get to Aurrangabad from Mumbai) and while the oldest of the caves date back to the 2nd century BCE, they weren’t widely known until 1819 when a British tiger hunting party stumbled across them.  The caves are a series of 30 rock-cut caves that depict Buddhist religious art.   They range from small and very simple to multi-storied ornate spaces.  They’ve been fairly well-preserved, with some of the interior cave paintings still in decent condition.

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The Turkey Roundup

18 Jul

The Statistics

Number of days spent in country –  25

Cities/towns visited – Istanbul, Goreme, Kahta, Sanliurfa, Harran, Olympos, Selcuk, Kusadasi, Pammukale

Number of different lodgings – 9

Flights – 1

Bus journeys – 11

Boat rides – 3

Combi/collective/taxi  journeys – 13

Budget

Total US dollar amount spent – $2,445

Average cost per day, per person -$49

Average lodging cost per night, per person – $14.63 – We generally stayed in private rooms, often with our own bathroom, but in simple guesthouses.  In Istanbul we stayed in dorms because of the high lodging cost.

Most expensive lodging – Shoestring Cave House in Goreme for $22.50 per person.  This was our splurge because we wanted to stay in a cave hotel, of which there are zillions to choose from.  You can do this much cheaper if you want to stay in a dorm.  We ended up being upgraded for free to the penthouse room with our own balcony that looked out over the town and surrounding countryside.  There was a good breakfast included, wifi, and a pool.

Least expensive lodging –  Dorm bed at Red River Hostel for $11.00 per person.  This was a good little hostel, brand new, near the Galata Tower in Istanbul.  It’s a bit off the main roads, so it’s nice and quiet, but still right in the area you want to be in.  Breakfast was included, and there was wifi.

Average food/drink cost per day, per person – $13.50 – Breakfast was included everywhere we stayed, but we ate out for pretty much all dinners and most lunches.  The food was such an interesting change from S. America that we couldn’t help ourselves!  You could probably cut this number in half if you stuck to kebabs or wraps, self catered some lunches, and ate at really basic places for dinner.

Best

The beach at Olympos

Olympos – The tiny village of Olympos is on the southern coast, near Antalya.  The thing that makes it so great is that it combines two of our favorite things – Ancient historic ruins, and awesome beaches.  At the end of the main road, which is really just a string of lodgings on a dirt path, is the ancient ruined city of Olympos, which dates back to, well, a very very long time ago.  You can wander around in the ruins for a small entrance fee and at the end is a gorgeous stretch of beach on the Mediterranean.

If you’re there for a few days, buy the 10 entrance pass, it’ll save you a bundle since you have to pay to enter the ruins even if you are really just headed to the beach.  Many accommodations include breakfast and dinner.  We were there at the very beginning of June, just before the peak season hit, and had perfect weather, and a fairly peaceful stay.  We hear it gets slammed in the summer, so if you are looking for a more laid-back time you should stick to the shoulder seasons.

Muze Pass in Istanbul – This was the best deal we’ve gotten on sightseeing in ages.  The Muze Pass gets you into a heap of different attractions in Istanbul and is valid for 72 hours.  If you get to 5 places, you’ll get your money’s worth, and if you hit up at least 6, you’ll be saving yourself some cash.  You can buy it at any one of the attractions, and having it lets you skip the sometimes obscenely long ticket lines.

Vardar Pension in Selcuk – Most places we stayed in Turkey were pretty good, but we liked Vardar Pension in particular.  Breakfast was served on the roof terrace, which had a great view of the countryside.  They provided nice fluffy towels, each room had a little balcony space with ample laundry lines, and the mattresses were temperpedic-like and super comfortable.  Finally, the bathrooms were IMMACULATE.  That rarely happens, and I really appreciate having a bathroom where I don’t feel like I have to wear my flip-flops to shower.  It was also very well located, right down the block from where the bus drops off, a half-block to the local markets, and walkable distance to all the ancient sites in town. The family who runs it is kind and accommodating, which is just a bonus at this point.

Tomatoes and cherries – Literally the best tomatoes and cherries we’ve ever had.  We bought them all the time from the fruit and veg stands.  We were there starting from mid-May, so perhaps it was the right season, but still….amazing. You can get more than 2 pounds of cherries for about $1.50!!!!

Justin totally made friends with the fruit stand guys

Pictures are just so much easier…

Ozturk Restaurant in Istanbul – Galipdede Cad #72, near the Galata Tower – This is really a pretty standard type of place, but it has consistently good food (we ate there three times…) and won’t break your budget.  We were drawn to it initially because the menus are actual photos of the food.  Normally this would make me avoid a place, but when you can’t figure out what anything on the menu is, it’s a lifesaver.  The mincemeat pide is particularly good.

Getting scrubbed at the Hamam – Hamams are old-school bathhouses that are found all over Turkey.  They come in every variation imaginable, from the super basic local operations to uber-expensive spas that cater to wealthy tourists.  The gist of it is that you go in, get mostly naked (they give you a little modesty towel for walking around in), get a mud mask, relax in a sauna for a bit, lay down on a marble slab, get covered in bubbles, and get the top 14 layers of your skin scrubbed off by a burly Turkish woman (or if you are a man, you get a male attendant) who may or may not shake a mitt full of your dead skin in your face and chastise you for being so filthy. Afterwards you can usually go for a swim or another round in the sauna.  I know, it sounds odd, but I swear, it was fantastic.  You can also get massages and facial treatments at most places.

Triple scoop dipped in pistachio. Justin is in heaven

Mado Ice Cream – I am fairly certain their secret ingredient is crack.  Justin and I both agree that this is hands down, the best ice cream we’ve ever had.  That’s right, ever.  It’s a traditional ice cream made with goat’s milk, kept in a big metal bin, and dished out on a huge stick by a guy who seemed to hate his job.  There are LOADS of imposter ice creams that are served in the same fashion all over Turkey, but the original, and clearly the best (we know, we sampled…a lot) is Mado.  On our Mount Nemrut tour it was actually a specific stop in the little town it originated in to taste it at the source.  We weren’t supposed to stop there again on the way home, but we all begged the guide and driver and they finally relented.

Worst

We don’t have much to say here about places or activities in specific.  There were things that were just ‘meh’, like the tour we took to Mount Nemrut…and really that’s just because we had a lapse in judgment and forgot how much we dislike being with tour groups…but otherwise, nothing stood out as really terrible.

Perhaps the thing that annoyed us the most was how despite the fact that most of the tourist parts of Turkey are pretty well organized, there is still a huge issue with littering, especially on the beach.  People just leave garbage ALL OVER the beach.  It’s awful.  Beaches where you pay to have a chair have guys that pick up everyone’s trash, but we watched numerous sets of people just leave all their garbage behind on the free beaches (including newspapers, food scraps, soda cans, etc) when they left.  We picked up after a bunch of people, but it really pissed me off that we were at this amazing place and there was such a lack of give-a-shit about leaving your trash everywhere.

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Blogging Awards!

16 Jul

A few weeks back I was somehow nominated for not one, but TWO blogging awards!

Crazy Train to Tinky Town (she’s hilarious, an English girl who packed it all in and moved to Turkey) nominated me for the One Lovely Blog award, and Turkish Musings (whose site is inexplicably dismantled, but keep checking back, perhaps it’s just an update thing?) nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award.

Thanks!

As part of the nominations, there are some rules, which are as follows:

* Thank the person who nominated you and link back to them in your post

* Share 7 things about yourself

* Nominate 15 or so bloggers you admire

* Contact your chosen bloggers to let them know (If you find that I’ve linked to you below before I’ve notified you, sorry! We have junky internet right now so it’s taking a while to get all the messages out.)

Here are my 7 things:

1) I have never broken a bone.  That’s right, never.  Watch, I’m going to trip over my own flip-flop and break both arms tomorrow…

2) I have a secret love of Spaghetti-O’s.  They are so good.  I know they are horrible for you and made of fake toxic chemicals so I don’t allow myself to eat them as a ‘responsible’ adult (unless I’m hungover, then all bets are off)…but still, I love them.

3) I am allergic to cashews and pistachios.  The best nuts I hear.  This made it quite problematic to enjoy delicious things in Turkey and Israel, as there are pistachios on everything!

4) My right foot is nearly a full shoe size bigger than my left foot.  This is why I love flip-flops so much.

5) I can barely ever remember people’s names the first few times we meet.  It’s like I get introduced to someone and instantly their name flies out of my head.  It can be embarrassing.

6) I have a childish and pathological fear of ‘under the bed’.  No kidding, even in my own house I often leap onto the bed from as far away as possible to avoid getting snatched under by whatever monster lives under there with all my old sweaters.  Don’t judge me. Please.

7) Even after all this time, I still get nervous heading out to a new country.  You’d think I’d be over it by now, but I’m not.

And now, the 15 blogs

Travel blogs

Happy To Be Homeless – Another American couple who packed it all in for a big adventure.  We met them on our cruise to Antarctica, and managed to meet up again months later to travel together through northern Argentina and Bolivia.  They have an ambitious route planned in the next year and half, so you’ll have lots of time to get to know them!

Ric and Roll – A friend of ours from New York who decided it was time for a break and set off nearly 6 months ago for his own trip around the world.  He’s currently living it up in Buenos Aires.

Positive World Travel – A couple who has recently returned to Australia after some serious extended travel.  They post a lot of videos, which we love!

One Giant Step – Gillian and Jason took off for their own RTW trip in 2009.  Even though they are back to ‘real life’, they continue to travel regularly and post great a variety of great articles.

Fluent in Frolicking – A Hawaiian girl who frolics around the world, and shares the best of her tales with the rest of us.  I particularly live her drool-worthy ‘travel porn’ photos.

So Many Places – Another couple from the US (yeah, as a couple we do tend to read about other couples…) who just started their wanderings, beginning at home with a trip around the USA to different national parks.  Stay tuned, their adventures are going to be HUGE.

The Cantaloupe Tales – a student blogger who has spent a semester studying in Morocco.  She’s hysterical!

Global From Home – A blog that sets out to prove you don’t actually have to leave home to be global.  She does weekly interviews with travel bloggers, or people who blog from abroad (we did a virtual interview with her earlier this month!) but she also incorporates food and other international tidbits into her posts.

Where’s My Toothbrush? – An adventurous girl who spends her time working in Asia and writing about her travels and day-to-day adventures.  She’s witty and honest and often makes me laugh.

Teacher Blogs – As a former teacher, I do still appreciate reading anecdotes from the classroom.  These are some of my favorites:

The Present Perfect – A former NYC teacher who hit the road to teach in Beirut, Lebanon.  Three years later and she’s still going strong!  She’s also an incredible photographer.

Bluebird’s Classroom – A middle-school science teacher who has been blogging regularly since before I started teaching, and who was a great source of inspiration to me when I was in the classroom.

Line 46 – A high school English teacher who writes about her observations, rants, raves, and the general nonsense that happens in the ed system.

Teenagers Are Ridiculous – The title says it all.  She posts anecdotes that are so hilarious that I laugh out loud regularly.  If you are not a teacher in real life you might think she;s making some of this stuff up, but I assure you, she’s not.

Other blogs – my favorite non-travel or teacher related ramblings:

Eggton – A perfect mix of funny anecdotes, fantastic food recipes (with photos) and adorable puppy photos.

Looky Here – My aunt – a professional stylist, shopper, and procurer of all things awesome – has created this fantastic blog that showcases great gift ideas. Seriously, it’s a lifesaver!  I regularly find things on here that I want for myself, and she does such a great job at posting a range of gifts that you’re sure to find something for that person in your life who is ‘impossible’ to shop for.

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Photo Friday – Delicious India

13 Jul

We’ve only been in India for a week, but already it feels like we’ve had a million food adventures!  Coming from New York, you’d think we would have more experience with this cuisine, but the truth is we really know almost nothing about Indian food.  As such, we’ve been ordering at random every time we need to eat, and we haven’t been disappointed yet!  This week’s photo is thali, which is like a sampler with all kinds of different flavors.  They have been our favorite because you get to taste a bunch of different things and they usually include something sweet like the honey soaked ball of bread or dough or something you see in this one.  Delicious!

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People Say…

11 Jul

“Yes please! No calories!”  – A Turkish storekeeper who was attempting to lure us into his baklava shop.

“Careful! Our stop lights are decorative.” – A Turkish citizen saving us from certain death while attempting to cross the street in Istanbul.

“Don’t worry, I’m an artist, not a terrorist.” – A lovely young woman from Iran who was staying in a hostel dorm with us.  This made me really sad, and I kept trying to explain to her that not ALL Americans think that ALL people from Iran are terrorists.

“What? You are 34? You don’t have children?  What is wrong with you?  You don’t like children?” – Man on a bus beside me as we traveled to see the Elora caves in India.  Next time I  get asked if I have children I am going to say I have 4 children and have left them at home with their grandparents while we vacation.

“Where from? You welcome.”  – This is the Jordanian way of saying “Welcome to Jordan.”

“Next bus is in two hours.” – In this case, it meant ‘I’m going to try to see if I can get you to pay 10 times the bus fare to take a taxi with my friend.  When that won’t work, I’m going to see if I can get you to pay 4 times the regular bus fare on the bus that in fact leaves in 20 minutes.  If that won’t work I am going to pretend like I’m getting you a great deal by letting you pay the regular bus price and I’m going to try to make you believe that you are riding a private bus even though it’s clear that it’s the regular public bus.’

Photo Friday – Tribal Face Paint in Ecuador

6 Jul

During our Ecuador jungle trek we had part of a morning to visit the local shaman.  While we were waiting for him to arrive, our guide took the opportunity to have a little fun with a local plant that has been traditionally for face painting.  When ripe, the seeds inside of the flower pod are an amazingly bright red.  Some local tribes use the coloring as face paint, others use it to color their hair.  Justin was a good sport and agreed to have his face painted, and luckily he had no trouble washing it off at the end of the day.

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Fireworks in the Monsoon

4 Jul

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If you are joining us for the first time from Global From Home, welcome!  If you didn’t come from there you should pop on over and check her out, we did a virtual interview with her as part of her Abroad Blog of the Week series and it’s up on her site today.

We hope you hang around and check out some of our archives, there’s a list of topics in the sidebar, or you can start out with the following:

About – You know, all the who, what, where, when and why of it all.

Photo Fridays – As implied, this is a collection of photos posted weekly on, you guessed it, Fridays!

Roundups – Interested in what it costs to travel around the world?  Check out our country specific roundups for details of what we have spent so far in each country we’ve visited

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I’ve spent a few 4th of July holidays outside of the States, and I have to say, it’s always a little odd to wake up and think, “Oh, hm.  Today is the 4th of July?”  It certainly snuck up on us this year and we only realized the holiday had rolled around again when we were invited to prance about in the street with sparklers and crazy spinning firecrackers with some people we met at our hotel.  It was great fun, especially considering that it’s been pouring all day, but the skies cleared for just long enough to make everyone on the block think we are insane!

For me, the 4th of July is about more than just celebrating our freedom and independence.  It’s also about celebrating my personal independence from tobacco, because 8 years ago today on another 4th of July abroad in a rainy place -Oxford, England, I had my last cigarette!  I mention this because in the last 8 years, I have saved at least $30,000 (based on the very high cost of cigarettes in NY, which is well over $10/pack at this point) because I quit.

$30,000

That’s a whole lot of travel.  Or a small down payment on a home.  Or a car.

My intent is not to preach at you about quitting smoking, I’m just saying, sometimes our habits cost us way more than we think they do and if you are trying to trim the fat, this is a really good place to start.

Happy 4th of July!

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Photo Friday – Oh (not so) Little Town of Bethlehem

29 Jun

While we were in Jerusalem, we thought we’d take a little dip into the Palestinian Territories to visit Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity.  We took a local bus, which dropped us off just outside the center of what is now quite a bustling little city.  As we made our way through the markets and down to Manger Square, we came across this lovely little road.  Contrary to what the news might have you believe, there are at least parts of the Palestinian Territories that are perfectly lovely, and this is one of them.  The town’s building are made almost exclusively with the same beautiful white rock as in Jerusalem.  The streets are clean, and the people were very kind.  We had no trouble finding our way to the church and even stopped to have a beer at a little cafe on the way back to the bus.  The day definitely helped to remind us that while things make the news for a reason, a place can’t be defined only by what you see on the television.

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