The Indian chronicles

Well, I didnt have internet at home.. So couldnt blog sooner. Yeah, India is still in bit of stone age.

Anyhove… We went to srisailam….after me doing lot of negotitations with hesitant people..we start up.

We start at about 4pm wednesday sthg. Takes us good 5 hours to reach there… and boy was it tough driving.. It was raining…roads were horrible(thats an understatement).. and visiblity was zero. I must have throughly fucked up the car.

The drive was terrific once we entered the jungles.. It was eerie and the possibility of tigers or naxals showing up was thrilling. Ofcourse, none showed up… and we were little pissed off when you saw guys riding bicycles. So much for a tiger reserve! It was pitch dark too. Either they were brave or there were no tigers..

Well, if the roads were bad and the whole trip was ptich dark… we had another thing to worry about. There was a point before which the border for the forest would be closed off. and we had to be at the border in about 30-40 mins and we were about an hour drives away. We hit the pedal and made it in time.. and there was a forest patrol guide sitting under a big banner saying.. DONT OFFER BRIBE/TIPS… and he asked us the exactly the same. When you are entering into a pitch dark forest, you better pay up mister. By this time, the weather had eazed up a bit. It was nice, windy and pleasant. The rest of the road was up the mountains and was really cool.  It was all winding and dark. The place so dark and so scary, you wudnt get out to pee.. You wud pee in a bottle in the car!

We reached srisailam at about 9:30-1000pm. Tried to look up for rooms… they were OK.. not that great. We were offered a cottage for the same amount as the room. I was hoping to cottage to be all made up of bamboo and abssolutely classy.. But, it was more like a ghost house. We abandonded it for the normal hotel room.

Day 2:

My cousins got very religious and chose god over me. I ended up waiting and totally pissed off. We did “re-enter” the temple thou… The temple was a huge disappointment for me. It has such a reputation, I am not sure why. Oh by the way, it was Lord shiva’s temple. The main temple had a shiva lingam so small that it was buried under the leaves and flowers… very disappointed.

We hung around in the temple premises.. the weather was terrific.. I guess I was very lucky in that regard. I wouldnt have enjoyed the sun. It was all cloudy and cool. If you travel with me, you better be a planner. I dont plan my trips, I just like to go around.. and my cousins were brilliant too. So , now we didnt know what to do. Midday on day 2 and no clue what to do..

Me dad had already been to this place..so we got a suggestion to go to a place called MahaNandi.. I guess there were waterfalls and stuff there. and the drive was supposed to be beautiful..

Well, off we went!! It was about 200-300 kms from srisailam… and we had other thing in mind.. so we had to check that place out and then go pick up m brother from airport at 900 in the night.

The drive was again pretty amazing. Chcck out few pics:

Yeah right, I am pulling your legs. This was singapore..

Check out this->

and this->

The trip was not without some funny stuff..
We ran out of gas and guess what! The gas station ran out of electricity.. We had to wait for like 30-40 mins   for the electricity to come back and then fight with other cosumers for the gas…and yes, there is no line concept..

The Indian chronicles – Part 2

Restaurants:

The restaurants are damn expensive. And the waiters are untrained. The still use the same hands to serve as to clean, and are over courteous. Atleast the places where I ate. Need to try other places and see the trend.

And, its still bloody hot!

The Indian chronicles

Well, I am back in india. Dude, this is still stone age. and freakin hilarious.

Firstly, got a wireless router and set the internet up.  This setup gave me a unprecedented preview to internet security in india.  I had forgotten my password and had to call 2 numbers. The password reset number kinda took full 10 mins to get through… and then when it did, I was given an another number. Unfortunately, I was disturbing the lady on the other end of the phone. She listened to the ring for 3-4 times and put the receiver down…and I had to call again. and then the response was prompt. But to figure out my password, I had to call 3 numbers and took 2 hours and a drive to the BSNL office… and people say indian security is weak!

Next topic: Traffic.

The traffic rules are like the ‘Pirates code’. They are just guidelines, not rules exactly. I didnt stop at even one right light!

And of the 1 billion americans, 50% are americans, since 50% of the people drive in the opposite direction in the same lane!!