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| Aus Rameshwaram-2012 |
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| Aus Rameshwaram-2012 |
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| Aus Rameshwaram-2012 |
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| Aus Rameshwaram-2012 |
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| Aus Rameshwaram-2012 |
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| Aus Rameshwaram-2012 |
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| Aus Rameshwaram-2012 |
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| Aus Rameshwaram-2012 |
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| Aus Rameshwaram-2012 |
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| Aus Rameshwaram-2012 |
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Rameshwaram - crazy temple place
End of October, I decided together with a friend to make a short trip to Rameshwaram, a place in the south, Tamil Nadu, with an important temple and the closest point to Sri Lanka. It was an great trip with many bizarre experiences and quite different from my previous trips to larger cities, especially concerning the traveling part. Let me describe it more detailed...
We started from Bangalore with a night train to Thoothukudi and wanted to continue the trip with a bus. But after Madurai, the night train became a "slow/passenger" train, which means that it halts in every little station and waits for the "express" trains so that they can pass by. Due to this we left the train somewhere around Madurai, I think Tirupparankundram, and hopped on one of the local buses back to a bus stand close to Madurai.
After a delicious breakfast with "muttai(egg) dosa", we took another Bus to Rameshwaram (170 km distance), and this ride was really fun. We drove through many small villages and great green rice paddies. At one point, the driver took a wrong road and we found our bus on a narrow path with no space left for any other car or even bike.
Rameshwaram lies on an island connected to the main land by the Pamban bridge, and the sight while crossing it was wonderful with the fisher boats in the bay and the palm trees all over the place. we were set into the right mood for a few nice relaxing days.
From Rameshwaram bus stand, there were a couple of city buses to the different important parts of the island. The place is also a pilgrimage destination, which had the nice consequence that you could easily get information where to find the temple and a hotel. We found a nice place to stay at the Tamil Nadu hotel, which was close to the sea, which we could see from our terrace at the top (3rd) floor. It was already late afternoon, but soon enough to visit the Ramanathaswamy Temple. It is one of 12 Jyotirlinga shrines, where Shiva is worshiped in the form of a "pillar of light" (see Wikipedia). The temple was built during the 12th century and is famous for its 24 Teerthams (holy water tanks) and its corridor of 1000 pillars.
For about 2 hours, we wandered through this enormous temple complex and it was great to discover all the parts of different age, to see some very old carvings of gods besides freshly painted ones. Some god statues have become pitch black from the oil with which they have been embalmed for many years. Impressive was also one room where the walls were covered with piled up stone statues of vishnu protected by Shesha in form of a multi-headed cobra. And while we were lonely roaming through a dark part of the corridors, we suddenly stood in front of an elephant who was so kind to give us a blessing! On the way out, I got a bunch of Laddoos (a sweet in form of a ball) for my lab and we have met one of the guys who pull up water from a wholly well to pour it over pilgrims. He was curious from where we were and showed us a place to get good coffee. He earned part of its money as a tourist guide so there was no wonder that we crossed him another three times in the evening, but we had no need of him.
For dinner, we found a non veg restaurant and had very tasty sea food (prawns & fish) and chatted with another tourist guide who claimed to have a sister in Germany. This guide gave us a good advice for our trip the next morning to take a public bus to the beach instead of a private jeep. Happy and well fed, we headed back to the hotel, enjoyed some time sitting on the terrace and listening to the sea, and went to bed.
The next morning, we woke up very early (5.30 am) to have enough time to get to Adam's bridge, the closest point of India to Sri Lanka. It was great to step out on the streets and to see, how active the city already was. For small villages, it is typical that the people are up early to get tings done before the rising sun heats up the air. Our plan to take a bus was not working out, because outside Rameshwaram the road was blocked due to some riots. But we found a Rickshaw who took us to the furthermost village towards Adams bridge. From there, we had to walk along the beach. We were lucky that the sky was cloudy, otherwise the sun would have burned us during the >2 hours walk (about 5km).
On the way was the former village Dhanushkodi, where only some remains of buildings can be seen after a cyclone devastated the flourishing village in 1964. Times on time, we passed some locals who were looking for crab seashells, often accompanied by a dog.
The panorama at the tip of this stretch of land was impressive, the sea from the bay of Bengal and Laccadive Sea join and have different colors. In addition, one can walk on Adam's bridge (a large kind of sand bank) far into the sea without getting deep into water. We shared this morning at the sea with three small groups each with a Hindu priest to conduct poojas (as I heard, most probably to give the ashes of a passed by relative to the sea). This was our luck, because we could drive back in one of the jeeps together with a priest, which first, saved us another long walk back to the city, and second allowed us to experience of driving with a tough 4x4 Mahindra Jeep through sand dunes!
Back in town, we had lunch, listened some nice percussion music at the temple and rented bicycles to ride to the Pamban bridge. On the way back, we wanted to book a bus back to Bangalore, and were told that there would be no bus service due to some riots. Also some private car companies were not willing to drive us, because they feared to get into trouble when reaching the blocked road.
we headed back to the hotel, wondering what to do, because we did not know how to spend another day on this island...we finally decided to take a passenger train to Madurai and to continue from there with a bus to Bangalore.
for information: passenger train means, that there are no reservations and that the train has many stops -> these are the trains which tend to get very crowded (which became true). thus, I had a real Indian travel experience! Another great feature of our decision was that we rode on the train part of the Pamban bridge, which consists of a rails on pillars, nothing left and right! It was an amazing ride while the sun was setting down.
In Madurai, there were also no state buses due to the riots (had to be something really serious, a police officer was killed...), but we got a private bus and had a surprisingly comfortable trip back to Bangalore, where we were welcomed by rain in the morning.
This was a quite short trip with a big amount of travel time, but very exciting and full of new experiences! I will have more of this in the close future...
Monday, October 15, 2012
Slowly from SF over Europe to Bangalore...
After my return from the east coast to San Francisco, I had about three weeks left, and these were filled with a lot of experiences, science related and not. There was e.g. a street food festival, which went along Valencia for about 15 blocks and was packed with mouthwatering specialties from all over the world. The music was great and the weather good. An exposition of JP Gaultier's creations was at the deYoung museum, which was beautiful.
On my last sunday, a friend and me rented a car, and we drove to Tahoe lake, a huge lake in the mountains not too far from Yosemite park. The landscape was beautiful and we hiked to one smaller lake which had such a clean water that we could taste from it, it was delicious.
Then came the day of good bye from the lab, and I was very much moved at the 'pot' after my summary presentation. We had a lovely chat and shared a really good moment. I am wondering whether and when I will see those lovely folks again. Sigh...
The flight back to Berlin was ok, but unfortunately with United Airlines (i.e. extra luggage was more expensive, and one had to pay for alcoholic beverages...buh!). Arriving in Berlin, I was so happy to see my parents again, but I did not have a lot of time. The following day, I was already in a train to the north of Germany (Plön, close to Kiel) to join the wedding celebrations of a very good friend. And it was worth it, I passed an awesome weekend which did not give me any chance to think about the jet lag that one should normally have coming from the US to Europe.
Anyhow, on Sunday evening, I took a regional train to arrive in Hamburg, where I visited a friend from high school and a Chinese riend who worked also at NCBS before. Besides seeing mz friends, I had some time to enjoy German's port to the world, a nice place.
In the following days, I could finally enjoy to be for a few days together with my parents. And even so, I did not plan it in advance, I managed t see a good amount of friends. I went for one day to Leipzig,
Traveling continued with a trip to Paris fr four days. Many of my friends where about to finish their PhD, so that I used a long weekend to visit all of them before they spread out to work in different places all over the world. As expected, Paris did not change over the last years, but nevertheless, it was great to walk around and refresh my memories . And not everything was unchanged, a large amount of Metro stations were renovated and were not anymore filthy and stinky. My first day in Paris was a friday, and after visiting Curie Institute, I went over to the Pasteur institute, to enjoy their beer hour which we continued in a close by bar. As a nice end for that day, I went to a birthday party of another friend. At the end of the day, I was happy about all the positive feelings of the day.
The next station of my trip was Göttingen, where I was supposed to visit the laboratory of Prof. C. Schmidt. I got there with the night train from Paris. On this train, it happened that I shared the sleeping cabinet with another German physicist, and he was also on a "home trip" combined with a visit of conferences, because he as a permanent position in an institute in Brazil! What a coincidence! We had a great discussion about the "pro an con" of choosing to leave the first world and to continue with its research career in a BRIC state. The train arrived very early in Göttingen, which gave me the opportunity to explore the city while it was waking up. The visit of the lab was great, and I could also meet a very good friend who did his PhD in Göttingen.
The next morning I took the train to Regensburg, where I attended a research conference for three days. Fortunately, the schedule gave the opportunity to make some walks to explore the city center of this cute medieval town. Another nice surprise was, that I met many known faces at the conference, ad that we had a great closing evening with a dancing crowd until 3 AM! As a result of that, I missed my reserved train in the early morning back to Berlin, but it was fortunately no problem transfer the tickets to a later train, so that I had a very relaxed train trip back. After my arrival in Berlin, I had another two days to get ready for India, and they were two very nice and intense days with my parents. The time passed by much too fast, and hops, I sad suddenly in a plane heading for Bangalore, my new and not so new hometown...to be continued
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| JP-Gaultier @DeYoung Museum, San Francisco |
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| Ploen und Hamburg- 2012 |
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| Paris-September 2012 |
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| Goettingen and Regensburg - September 2012 |
Friday, August 3, 2012
East Coast Trip
For a change from the laid back San Francisco live, I flew end of June to the US east coast, more precisely to Boston. Before I could start a week-long trip from Boston over New York to Washington DC, I have spent 18 days at a little village called Woods Hole to work as a teaching assistant for my professor S. Mayor in the Physiology course at the Marine Biology Laboratory (MBL). The work was a great experience on a personal as well as a scientific level. It was the first time to fully advised a group of experienced researchers doing experiments, and met also a bunch of amazing and inspiring people. The physiology course has a great history, exists since 120 years, and is internationally renown. You can find an interesting article about the course here
The little free time we had was used as much as possible to explore the place and to swim in the sea (something impossible at San Francisco). The tiny village was dominated by the MBL buildings, but had also two nice cafes (Pie in the Sky and Coffee Obsession), which were our refuge and essential for our survival (the only places with real espresso!). Besides that, there place was full of nice little houses and beautiful nature! Many times, I used the bike path towards Falmoth to have a run or walk along the coastline. One day, two friends and me took the ferry to the island Martha's Vineyard and did a bike tour there.
A pretty warm place for some relaxed summer holidays, but I felt pity for the "students", who have to stay seven weeks at this place.
After very exhaustive, sleepless, but very productive and festive two weeks, I was sad to leave the place, but was also happy to start my east coast trip! First stop was Boston and Cambridge, two little, but old nice and important places. Boston was one of the central places of the US revolution against the British Kingdom. It was easy to see most of those site wandering along the Freedom trail.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/GUuo8CK_xQvfz9VlhDr-GUfaOrC8gA25HgcdfisvuiQ?feat=directlink
In the evening, I crossed the river to get to Cambridge, where I have met a friend from the Institut Curie who works now at the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). I liked the Harvard square with many bars and cafes, but also the garden of the MIT and University Cambridge are beautiful in their English style and artwork.
My next stop was a 4 hours bus trip away and was a calm and quiet city called...New York City. Ok, forget this about calm and quiet- I was happy to be in a really busy place again after the previous weeks! This time, I stayed the first two days close to the Rockefeller University, then I moved to the east village close to the New York University (it is great to have friends!!!). The two neighborhoods are quite different and I used the four days to walk around a lot to get a better feeling of the city and it's dynamics. Especially the hipster Grenwich and the High Line were interesting. The latter is a former metro rail track which was recently transformed into a green path above the streets (like the art viaduct in Paris next to the Bastille). Also the transformed Chelsea station was a nice passage with fancy alternative food places.
Unfortunately, my plan to explore Brooklyn with a bicycle had to be canceled due to a whole day of rain :-(. But my other planned and unplanned activities were all great, I visited the MoMA, and the modern museum, and I listened to some beautiful Jazz on two evenings. One night, I was with my friend from Paris, Georgia, on a rooftop cocktail bar, followed by a late night Jazz concert at the Jazz at Lincoln Centre, which is at the 5th floor, gives a nice view over Central Park, and has some very good cocktails on the menu (like the New Orleans Sazerac)!
Another night, I was with my friend from Bangalore, Varuni, in a little bar in Brooklyn called Barbes (like the Metro station in Paris) with a French touch.
After the concert, we planned to go to an art performance called "The Clock" which was running for 24 hours over the weekend, but the line at 11pm and 1am was too long. I finally went the next morning at 6am and could enter without waiting ;-)
And before leaving New York, just a mention about style...I get depressed in the US, it is sooo hard to find nice, colorful clothes for men apart from front-printed T-Shirts! I lost totally my believe to find something when I entered in a Dona Karan shop at Madison Ave., and found in the men's part not more than lumberjack shirts! It seems that these shirts have become a new uniform for American men, when not wearing a suit for work. that's so sad. Anyhow, I also had a nice surprise, while walking through the busy streets of Manhattan, I crossed a young lady who had exactly the same funky jacket from a Berlin artist/designer than me! That saved my day...
After these amazing days in New York, I could rest a bit during my bus trip to the last destination of my east coast trip: Washington DC. Without any planning, it happened that another German friend, who is currently doing his PhD in the same group at Institut Curie as I did, was also visiting our host Gil at the US capital. Matthias picked me up at the bus station and we went together checking out the city.
The center of Washington is dominated by a great variety of museums whose majority offers its expositions to the public for free (the Smithsonian and National museums)! But most of the museums close at 5pm, so that the only open place we could find after my arrival, was the aerospace and flight museum. This is an astonishing place starting with the brother's Wright flight machine up to actual aerospace vehicles.
In the evening, we discovered the close by China town, where I tasted some see snails in a Chinese restaurant- the waitress even asked me again: "You are sure? It is single snails!", it was very tasty, but peeling out all the snails took a loooong time.
The next day was a Sunday, and we managed to start the town tour with a Sunday farmer's market close to Georgetown. Georgetown itself is a laid back part of the city with many nice houses which are about 100 years old. Alongside the Potomac River, we walked towards the Washington Mall, where you find the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington monument, the Capitol and all the museums. We visited the sculpture museum and the Museum of the American Indian.
To get a bit fresh air, we then took the subway to Alexandria, a little town at the border of Washington. There we found a masonic memorial for George Washington!
The town was pretty with its brick stone buildings and many cafes and restaurants. Before going back home, I decided to go to the Mall again, to see the main buildings at night. I also enjoyed it because the evenings were still warm (and not cold as in San Francisco)...I passed by illuminated monuments, statues, a square with Tango dancing people (!), and then I reached the White House! It is not very large, but looks elegant with its water fountain, and the Washington monument in direct sight. Happy and tired, I reached Gil's place at 11pm.
The last day, I only had the morning for some explorations, and I decided to visit the Arlington Cemetery. It was very moving to see the graves of so many people who died in the many wars that the US had fought. Here rest soldiers starting from the revolutionary wars until now (I saw graves of some who just have died a month ago in Afghanistan!). The memorial of J.F. Kennedy was touching with some of his big statements and an eternal flame...and as a perfect finish of my cemetery, I even saw a military salute ceremony at the tomb of the unknown soldier.
Before leaving Washington, I met my friend again for lunch, nad we visited together an exhibition about the history of video games, how cool! This was a good finisher for an amazing time at the east coast. I am now back in San Francisco, a region with much cooler temperatures (especially at night) and too many clouds. But the people and the way to live here is much nicer than at the east coast...to be continued
The little free time we had was used as much as possible to explore the place and to swim in the sea (something impossible at San Francisco). The tiny village was dominated by the MBL buildings, but had also two nice cafes (Pie in the Sky and Coffee Obsession), which were our refuge and essential for our survival (the only places with real espresso!). Besides that, there place was full of nice little houses and beautiful nature! Many times, I used the bike path towards Falmoth to have a run or walk along the coastline. One day, two friends and me took the ferry to the island Martha's Vineyard and did a bike tour there.
A pretty warm place for some relaxed summer holidays, but I felt pity for the "students", who have to stay seven weeks at this place.
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| Aus Woods Hole 2012 |
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| Aus US East Coast Trip - 2012 |
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| Aus US East Coast Trip - 2012 |
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| Aus US East Coast Trip - 2012 |
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| Aus US East Coast Trip - 2012 |
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| Aus US East Coast Trip - 2012 |
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| Aus US East Coast Trip - 2012 |
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| Aus US East Coast Trip - 2012 |
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| Aus US East Coast Trip - 2012 |
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| Aus US East Coast Trip - 2012 |
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| Aus US East Coast Trip - 2012 |
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| Aus US East Coast Trip - 2012 |
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| Aus US East Coast Trip - 2012 |
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| Aus US East Coast Trip - 2012 |
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Summer in San Francisco
June in San Francisco...first of all, there are many other places which provide better summer weather! Especially you have to get used to the cool foggy nights, but sometimes it can be very nice to have a cool night (13-18C), e.g. to sleep well...hm...if you have to sleep in this city ;-)
Work became more serious in June, so that I did not find the time and motivation for longer trips outside SF, but I had some fun time.
One weekend was governed by the Pride 2012 in San Francisco, a festival to honor the city's homo-, bi- and trans-sexual community. The streets around the city hall were filled with people checking out the information booths, shops and music stages. The biggest event of the festival was the parade along the Market Street starting from the piers and going up to the city hall. It was quite fun, to watch the parade, but the quality and size of the marching groups was not as high (colorful, creativity, music) as I experienced during the parades in Paris and Berlin.
Another big event in June was the European Soccer championship, which was due to the time shift with Europe a very pleasant noon-distraction. I had the pleasure to see the game of Germany against Portugal at the place of a Portuguese colleague, who had invited about 20+ people. The atmosphere was great, and during and after the game we had nice conversations, good food and cold beer!
After a short break, social live continued at the beer fest of the UCSF brewers guild topped by some nice music tunes to which you could dance to.
My friend Kripa from Davis came over for a couple of weekends, which was a good occasion to cook and to go to some Jazz or Blues concert. One very nice one was in a club called Yoshi's and featured a jazz combo of drummer, bassist, piano player together with three blow instruments: alt-, tenor sax and trumpet. They played a great set of jazz classics decorated with elaborated solo parts.
At work, I discovered Zumba as a new dance activity which helps me to stay in shape and to relax from the day to day work. This is basically a blend of South-American dance moves ranging from Rumba over Salsa to Raga-ton taught in small sets of three to for steps per song- a great way to get rid of additional energy! Another nice routine became the indoor soccer games Tuesdays and Thursdays at lunchtime.
The next blog will come from the East coast, where I will be at Woods Hole as a teaching assitant at the Marine Biological Laboratory...
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| Aus San Francisco - 2012 |
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| Aus San Francisco - 2012 |
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| Aus San Francisco - 2012 |
Monday, May 14, 2012
Back in San Francisco-2012
Since April 18 2012, I am for a second time in San Francisco to continue my work at the Mullins laboratory in the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), which was started last year in November. This time, the stay will be for four months, which made it necessary for me to obtain a visa. The process to get the J1 visa needed some patience, it took in total four months (including my passport being for 10 days with the post service somewhere between Chennai and Bangaore). Now I can better understand the hassle through which so many people have to go through, each time they want to travel.
Adapting to San Francisco life was eased this time by the fact that I stay in the same apartment and with the same people as a few months ago, the laboratory is the same as well, and the city, well, it is still this pleasant place.
During the first weekend, I visited a friend in Davis, where happened to be a Pic Nic day of the university. I took the train to get there and could watch the nice Californian nature while sitting in a very comfortable coach wagon with Wifi and panorama windows. Pic Nic day means that the campus is open for everyone, and each department prepares some attractions. The weather was beautiful and it seemed that the whole city (its not that big) plus many visitors came to see the various attractions. It was mainly about animals and farming, we saw a shepherd dogs competition, how to milk cows, nice horses, goats and so on. In the afternoon there was an awesome battle of the marching bands in a nice park area. But it was not a battle as such, the different instrument groups gathered at different spots in the park and played together. It was pure crazy fun (see pictures!).
The next weekend, I met with a couple of NCBS-Alumni, who work now in the bay area. We drove up north to the national park at point Reys, which is a very nice spot on the coast. On the way, we passed a very nice nature including the rolling hills landscape that is the standard background theme of the Windows desktop (some might understand this). As soon as we reached the coast, the temperature dropped from 28C to 20C including heavy winds. The wind was so steady that trees were formed by its force. We went to the lighthouse, which was located down the shore directly at the water level.
While descending the many steps, we could see very nice stone formations, some were red and green colored from a microbe culture, others showed interesting patterns created by wind and water...you could feel the power of nature. As an extra, we even saw a whale spouting out an air/water fountain in the bay! Coming back home, we joined a little BBQ party at my place, which was done to celebrate fifth may (cinquo de mayo), which is a Mexican independence day. Unfortunately, my Indian friends had to leave on saturday evening. On Sunday, I saw by chance that the 24th and the Valencia streets were closed for car traffic, and I enjoyed wandering through these two beautiful streets filled with so many happy people. On some corners there was some live music, on others were information booths about social activities and at one spot, a bunch of tuned ultra-cool looking classic American cars were exposed!
In the late afternoon, I met a good friend from Berlin, who works in the bay area, to check out with him the beer garden called Zeitgeist. It was an interesting place with a nice garden, but the rock music was a bit loud for a relaxed conversation. We enjoyed the German beer. In the evening, I even discovered a nice gallery which opened its new exposition and saw a freshly burned down house! It was an eventful weekend!
Instead of a calmer start of the week, there were two more friends coming to San Francisco and I invited them to visit me in the evening. I know both from Paris, but they came independently and wanted (what a chance) go both to the Yosemite National Park. After a short discussion, we made the plan to rent a car on wednesday, to do a one day trip to this park. Sure, to make a 4 hours car ride to the site and to come back the same day, was a bit stressful, but it was worth it! We had beautiful weather and could thus fully enjoy the breathtaking nature of this park with its high rising mountains (up to ~ 3000m) and old forest including the giant Sequoia trees.
Because this year's winter was mild the Tioga pass was free, which goes up to 2800m and allowed us to have an astonishing view over the landscape! Besides that, it made so much fun to drive these curvy roads which were harmless compared to the serpentines in the Alps. The pass ended at Mono lake at the border of California to Nevada, and the first thing we realized when passing the imaginary border was that the road quality increased drastically! The landscape became more flat and we drove on a straight road in the pink orange light of sunset...and then we got back to the hills in the night! It was a great ride, using the brights to enlighten the pitch dark curvy roads and listening to electrifying music to entertain us. A couple of times, we saw a pair of reflective eyes or a couple of deer at the border of the road, but fortunately none of them jumped into our way. At 1.30 am, we parked the car and went home, relieved from the long ride, happy about the trip and a bit tired. I knew that I had to work the next day and that I had to bring back the car in the early morning, but I did not regret at all the trip.
My friends left on Thursday evening and on Saturday evening, I met another friend from Paris in a Club. She is actually in Los Angeles for an internship with an artist (painter), and came to San Francisco with someone who was DJing that night. While talking with her, I just realized how crazy the week was, and what a chance it was to have met so many old friends from Paris!
The bay area is really very attractive and active, so many things to see and to do...I am so lucky to stay here for a while.
to be continued...
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| Aus San Francisco - 2012 |
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| Aus San Francisco - 2012 |
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| Aus San Francisco - 2012 |
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Goa-2012
After two months resting and exploring newly Bangalore, some good friends and me left the city for a long weekend in Goa. In contrast to my last trip to Goa in 2011, we have chosen a sleeper bus, which was much more comfortable AND did not have any half rotten garlic and onion as cargo. We started our journey on a thursday evening and arrived after very long feeling 13 hours on the road in Palolem, a beautiful beach in south Goa. To our surprise, it was quite empty and some cafes were closed. The reason was a very sad one: due to elections on saturday, the consumption and vending of alcohol was prohibited for three days. That meant for us that we had to handle two “dry days” before we could officially enjoy a bear at the beach on sunday! The worst for me was, that the silent noise party would not take place. But hey, this was no problem for us, and I have to say that this were one of the most interesting and refreshing short holidays since long time.
After finding a little nice shag next to the beach (whose landlord even had a fridge with some beers!) and a little refreshment, we hired a car and went on the road towards north to see some cities, beaches and churches. The National Highway 66 was only a two lane road, but in perfect state with little traffic, so that we had a very pleasant and smooth ride. First stop was for lunch at Margoe, a small city with cute old little hoses in the center which are reminders from the time of the Portuguese and a restaurant called Longhuinos. This establishment exists since 1950 and its interior is in old Mediterranean bar style with lots of dark wooden panels. and colored glass windows. The food was just great Goa cuisine even with some shark! And for the dessert? Natural ice cream in tender coconut and jack-fruit!!!
Energized like that, we continued our trip and went to Panjim, the capital of Goa, but before entering the city we turned right to get to Old Goa, a village which houses a complex of old Portuguese churches which are an UNESCO world heritage site. The most impressive one was the Basilica do Bom Jesus which was constructed from 1594-1605 and is one of the eldest churches in India. One of the high lights is the sarcophagus with the body of St. Francis Xavier, who died in 1552, but does merely show any signs of decay! The church itself impresses with its tall walls of lava stone withstanding the harsh Indian climate. Just next to it stands a white church, Se Cathedral, and next to it, the Indian historic museum, which was unfortunately already closed when we arrived. Further behind is the Cathedral St Cajetan, the bishop school, and a little gate leading to the sea. This gate is decorated with the sculpture of Vasco da Gama with a very cool beard.
On the boarder of the see, with sight on a ferry to Divar island and some larger cargo ships, we had a warming, charming tea in the evening sun.
Back in the car, we crossed another bay to get further north and drove along the coast towards Anjuna. This gave us an impression of how Palolem hopefully never will become. The streets were crowded with cars, scooters and auto rickshaws, driving tourists from one coffee shop to another or to a shop of a brand. The stone beach was quite nice, but unfortunately, it was already dark and very windy, so we could not spend a lot of time there.
To finish our tour, we headed back south to a place called Martin's Corner, which is a resort and restaurant in a small village a few kilometers away from the coast. Thanks to GPS, we were able to find this place, and we were surprised to find it so crowded on a "dry day". We took some other Goan dishes, seafood, and, for my personal amusement, some beef tongue! It was the first time that I saw such a dish on a menu in India, and my Indian friends did not seem tobe familiar with tongue, too. But two of them tried at least...it was delicious, slightly grilled and lightly spiced slices of tongue. Also the other things were very good, which explained the large crowd in the restaurant and the higher prices (they had a sea food plate for 4800 INR, approx. 70 Eur. Typically, dishes cost about 150-300 INR). Very pleased from the whole tour, we drove back to our shack and fell in our beds directly.
The next morning was very relaxing with some jogging along the beach, later a nice swim with Sonal to a little island at the end of the bay. We climbed on top of the island and had a great view on the sea. It was pure peace and relaxation. Arond noon, we joined Anup and Ishier who just had their “morning” coffee, and went to Droopadi for lunch. We chose our crab which was still living, and had it together with a very well marinated and grilled fish filet. This was more European style, but very well done by the Indian chefs :-)
In the afternoon, Anup and me took a scooter and drove to the ruins of a Portuguese fort. The drive through valleys and hill sides was so rich and colorful that it is hard to describe in words (but we took osme pictures). We stopped by the Agonda beach which is very broad and long, and still much calmer than the Palolem beach. We saw bright green paddies of rice (?), beautiful old trees, little villages, the sea. It was my first time driving a scooter in India and it was pure fun. Reaching back to Palolem, we sat some time at the beach together with Sonal and Ishier, played some cards, relaxed. For dinner, we went to a Pizzeria which is actually run by Italians, and which served very good stuff. Sad, that no cocktails, and no parties (there is normally a Silent Noise Party) were available on these "dry days", we walked along the beach and enjoyed the stars (I think, we even saw a meteorite, because there was a bright flickering light on the sky, which disappeared after a minute or so...), knowing that the next day would be already the last one!
The last day was dedicated to not very much but swimming, and hanging out in different beach cafes. The elections were over, so we could finally enjoy some drinks while watching the sea, listening to the sound of waves, and talking. It was a great end of a great trip.
After finding a little nice shag next to the beach (whose landlord even had a fridge with some beers!) and a little refreshment, we hired a car and went on the road towards north to see some cities, beaches and churches. The National Highway 66 was only a two lane road, but in perfect state with little traffic, so that we had a very pleasant and smooth ride. First stop was for lunch at Margoe, a small city with cute old little hoses in the center which are reminders from the time of the Portuguese and a restaurant called Longhuinos. This establishment exists since 1950 and its interior is in old Mediterranean bar style with lots of dark wooden panels. and colored glass windows. The food was just great Goa cuisine even with some shark! And for the dessert? Natural ice cream in tender coconut and jack-fruit!!!
Energized like that, we continued our trip and went to Panjim, the capital of Goa, but before entering the city we turned right to get to Old Goa, a village which houses a complex of old Portuguese churches which are an UNESCO world heritage site. The most impressive one was the Basilica do Bom Jesus which was constructed from 1594-1605 and is one of the eldest churches in India. One of the high lights is the sarcophagus with the body of St. Francis Xavier, who died in 1552, but does merely show any signs of decay! The church itself impresses with its tall walls of lava stone withstanding the harsh Indian climate. Just next to it stands a white church, Se Cathedral, and next to it, the Indian historic museum, which was unfortunately already closed when we arrived. Further behind is the Cathedral St Cajetan, the bishop school, and a little gate leading to the sea. This gate is decorated with the sculpture of Vasco da Gama with a very cool beard.
On the boarder of the see, with sight on a ferry to Divar island and some larger cargo ships, we had a warming, charming tea in the evening sun.
Back in the car, we crossed another bay to get further north and drove along the coast towards Anjuna. This gave us an impression of how Palolem hopefully never will become. The streets were crowded with cars, scooters and auto rickshaws, driving tourists from one coffee shop to another or to a shop of a brand. The stone beach was quite nice, but unfortunately, it was already dark and very windy, so we could not spend a lot of time there.
To finish our tour, we headed back south to a place called Martin's Corner, which is a resort and restaurant in a small village a few kilometers away from the coast. Thanks to GPS, we were able to find this place, and we were surprised to find it so crowded on a "dry day". We took some other Goan dishes, seafood, and, for my personal amusement, some beef tongue! It was the first time that I saw such a dish on a menu in India, and my Indian friends did not seem tobe familiar with tongue, too. But two of them tried at least...it was delicious, slightly grilled and lightly spiced slices of tongue. Also the other things were very good, which explained the large crowd in the restaurant and the higher prices (they had a sea food plate for 4800 INR, approx. 70 Eur. Typically, dishes cost about 150-300 INR). Very pleased from the whole tour, we drove back to our shack and fell in our beds directly.
The next morning was very relaxing with some jogging along the beach, later a nice swim with Sonal to a little island at the end of the bay. We climbed on top of the island and had a great view on the sea. It was pure peace and relaxation. Arond noon, we joined Anup and Ishier who just had their “morning” coffee, and went to Droopadi for lunch. We chose our crab which was still living, and had it together with a very well marinated and grilled fish filet. This was more European style, but very well done by the Indian chefs :-)
In the afternoon, Anup and me took a scooter and drove to the ruins of a Portuguese fort. The drive through valleys and hill sides was so rich and colorful that it is hard to describe in words (but we took osme pictures). We stopped by the Agonda beach which is very broad and long, and still much calmer than the Palolem beach. We saw bright green paddies of rice (?), beautiful old trees, little villages, the sea. It was my first time driving a scooter in India and it was pure fun. Reaching back to Palolem, we sat some time at the beach together with Sonal and Ishier, played some cards, relaxed. For dinner, we went to a Pizzeria which is actually run by Italians, and which served very good stuff. Sad, that no cocktails, and no parties (there is normally a Silent Noise Party) were available on these "dry days", we walked along the beach and enjoyed the stars (I think, we even saw a meteorite, because there was a bright flickering light on the sky, which disappeared after a minute or so...), knowing that the next day would be already the last one!
The last day was dedicated to not very much but swimming, and hanging out in different beach cafes. The elections were over, so we could finally enjoy some drinks while watching the sea, listening to the sound of waves, and talking. It was a great end of a great trip.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Resettling in Bangalore
After my stay in San Francisco and a wonderful Christmas with my parents in Berlin, I came back to Bangalore. I realized that I was away for entire two months, but had to my surprise no problems to adapt again to the Indian life style. Since my return, I stayed in Bangalore and did not travel around, that's why I will not describe any new place this time, but wanted to write about some of my Bangalore experiences and my feelings.
I arrived in Bangalore on December 29 and on the same day in the evening, two German friends which I know from Leipzig arrived. This was a great occasion for me to get directly into Bangalore life again while showing them the city. It was the first time for me to show others the city, and also for myself it was a tour to rediscover the different places: going to the busy bazaar with sounds from the mess in the catholic church competing with muezzins from the mosques; walking through Sampige road in Maleshwaram with the flower market, the old temples, the many small shops; the dosa in New Krishna Bhavan, the harsh contrast of Mantri mall; visiting the National Gallery of Modern Arts...
for new years eve, we went to good Indian friends. Together with two other Germans, who study for one semester at a Bangalore Management school, we managed to be as many Germans as Indians (five and five), and we have spent a great time with some German cheese (Handkaes mit Musik), ham and liquors-a very good start into the new year. So it was no wonder that I found all "my Germans" sleeping in my apartment on the first day of the year. But my two Leipzig friends moved on early to Coorg and Mysore. Before they left India three days later, they passed by in Bangalore to say good bye.
The next week, I could continue my rediscovery of Bangalore while I was showing the city to some visitors of the NCBS. But much more important, I discovered some decent dance clubs in this city of forbidden dance! Two of my actual favorites are the club "counter culture", a club in a former warehouse, and the Pebbles, an open air club on palace grounds with lots of plants and nice seating areas in the green! In those clubs, I have met some Indians who seem to be in the clubbing scene, and I hope that this will give me some better information about upcoming events.
Thanks two my two "management friends", I was invited to a private party which was organized by two Spanish women, who work as Spanish teachers in Bangalore. It was very interesting to meet some other expats, and a lot of fun, because most of them were either Spanish or German. We had to leave the place of the party, an apartment, at 11.30pm, but an Australian lady just offered us her place for the continuation. And the whole party crowd, about 40 people, shifted the place using scooters, cars, autorikshas or bicycle (me). For a spectator, this must have given a great scene.
Other nice things during Jan and Feb were an evening on the terrace of a colleagues house in center Bangalore, the street art exposition "Malleshwaram Moves", an exposition at GallerySKE, a literature festival at the National Gallery of Modern Arts, the Queer film festival (gay and lesbian films) and a beautiful concert of the percussionist Ustad Zakir Hussain, and some very nice cook outs in the Mandara hostel.
And before I forget it...a tempel close to the Mandara hostel was inaugurated, and I followed some of the activities. It was a big event with music...VERY VERY LOUD music...and scenic plays of mythical stories just until 1 or 1.30 am. It was very exciting to see the plays, even though I did not understand the language. The whole area was nicely decorated, the streets were illuminated by hundreds of blinking LED-arcs. and all that for about 5 days, amazing.
Supporting photos can be found here...
I arrived in Bangalore on December 29 and on the same day in the evening, two German friends which I know from Leipzig arrived. This was a great occasion for me to get directly into Bangalore life again while showing them the city. It was the first time for me to show others the city, and also for myself it was a tour to rediscover the different places: going to the busy bazaar with sounds from the mess in the catholic church competing with muezzins from the mosques; walking through Sampige road in Maleshwaram with the flower market, the old temples, the many small shops; the dosa in New Krishna Bhavan, the harsh contrast of Mantri mall; visiting the National Gallery of Modern Arts...
for new years eve, we went to good Indian friends. Together with two other Germans, who study for one semester at a Bangalore Management school, we managed to be as many Germans as Indians (five and five), and we have spent a great time with some German cheese (Handkaes mit Musik), ham and liquors-a very good start into the new year. So it was no wonder that I found all "my Germans" sleeping in my apartment on the first day of the year. But my two Leipzig friends moved on early to Coorg and Mysore. Before they left India three days later, they passed by in Bangalore to say good bye.
The next week, I could continue my rediscovery of Bangalore while I was showing the city to some visitors of the NCBS. But much more important, I discovered some decent dance clubs in this city of forbidden dance! Two of my actual favorites are the club "counter culture", a club in a former warehouse, and the Pebbles, an open air club on palace grounds with lots of plants and nice seating areas in the green! In those clubs, I have met some Indians who seem to be in the clubbing scene, and I hope that this will give me some better information about upcoming events.
Thanks two my two "management friends", I was invited to a private party which was organized by two Spanish women, who work as Spanish teachers in Bangalore. It was very interesting to meet some other expats, and a lot of fun, because most of them were either Spanish or German. We had to leave the place of the party, an apartment, at 11.30pm, but an Australian lady just offered us her place for the continuation. And the whole party crowd, about 40 people, shifted the place using scooters, cars, autorikshas or bicycle (me). For a spectator, this must have given a great scene.
Other nice things during Jan and Feb were an evening on the terrace of a colleagues house in center Bangalore, the street art exposition "Malleshwaram Moves", an exposition at GallerySKE, a literature festival at the National Gallery of Modern Arts, the Queer film festival (gay and lesbian films) and a beautiful concert of the percussionist Ustad Zakir Hussain, and some very nice cook outs in the Mandara hostel.
And before I forget it...a tempel close to the Mandara hostel was inaugurated, and I followed some of the activities. It was a big event with music...VERY VERY LOUD music...and scenic plays of mythical stories just until 1 or 1.30 am. It was very exciting to see the plays, even though I did not understand the language. The whole area was nicely decorated, the streets were illuminated by hundreds of blinking LED-arcs. and all that for about 5 days, amazing.
Supporting photos can be found here...
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| India-2012 |
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