Blogs from Andhra Pradesh, India, Asia
April 12th 2012
On Day 5 of the Rickshaw Run we woke early to see the ruins of the Vijayanagar empire at Hampi, and get an early start on the longest (yet) driving day clocking 475 Km from Hampi to Hyderabad. The drive should have been closer to 400 Km, but our GPS has "antiquated" maps from 2003, and is unaware of some of the newer highways! As luck would have it, the skies opened up when we were just 20 Km from our hotel in Hyderabad, unleashing a thunderstorm that forced us to take cover on the side of the highway and extended our day by at least an hour. We arrived at the Novotel Airport Hotel, tired, wet and very very glad to have made our target.... read more
Queuing, claustrophobia and the escape to the country – Tirupati to Jeypore, Orissa
Published: March 11th 2012Asia » India » Andhra Pradesh
March 1st 2012
The temple of Lord Venkateshwara is supposedly“one of the richest and most popular places of pilgrimage in world, drawing more devotees than either Rome or Mecca” (Rough Guide, 2011). Around 100,000 people visit the temple every day (Jenny Dufour, 2012), some queuing for up to 14 hours. Now that’s devotion. A shorter queue is available although you do of course have to pay a premium for the privilege. Sounds like quite a spectacle. Well yes it does until you hear that even in the ‘premium’ queue you will probably have to wait around 4 hours in line with several thousand Indians who to be honest don’t follow British etiquette when it comes to queuing. All of this to see what our tour leader described as a pretty average temple that you only get to spend a ... read more
February 14th 2012
By day five I had seen enough to make the thoughts in my head unprocessable. I know we have poverty, diseases and starvation in the States. I know that we don't display our poverty for the world to see and that other countries think that all Americans are wealthy, while in reality we do have a considerable number of issues to work on. However, as far as I know, we're not to the point of loin cloth wearing, no clean water, people sleeping in streets that are covered in animal and human excrement. Maybe this makes me a bleeding heart, but it completely broke my heart to see the things you watch on the Discovery channel right in front of my face. It's near impossible to truly grasp how real the issues are in other parts ... read more
January 19th 2012
I often find myself saying "normal routine" on my blog entries. I find it funny that this feeling of normalacy is present because I know that in the beginning, this definitely was not so. I wish I hadn't been so culture shocked at first so that I would have had the energy to write each and every odd thing down because now I don't often notice them. And this is bugging me because you, as the reader, probably have no idea what my "normal" life is like here. You only hear about my truly out of the ordinary experiences and not the odd little ones. So after about six months of being here, I will carefully pay attention to each and every little odd thing I see and do until I am satisfied that I have ... read more
January 19th 2012
To say I love it here would be an understatement. We always called it "McCloskey Time"... here it's "India Standard Time." Either way = late/own agenda. The food is incredible. Alex thinks I have a tastebud disorder because I'm constantly complaining about bland food, but that's never the case here... unless someone tones down the spice because I'm American. I wasn't raised to be religious. My parents did not baptize me and I'm awkward about God, but my Dad did raise me to be a spiritual, loving, kind being. While I couldn't tell you what it is or how it all works, I do believe there is something bigger than us all out there. Without a book to guide my life, I am trying to live my life in a way that I can be proud ... read more
Rotary GSE Program in Andhra Pradesh, India
Published: January 19th 2012Asia » India » Andhra Pradesh » VisakhapatnamJanuary 18th 2012
I've been in India for a bit over a week and honestly, I'm avoiding my blog because I don't know where to start. Even just this little explanation has taken around a half an hour to write because I keep trying to elaborate, but it feels impossible. I'll start you off with this video... we didn't do anything other than show up in the neighborhood to see a clean water project. We had fun taking pictures of the kids and elderly women then showing them on our digital cameras. Would have been even better if we had a portable printer to give everyone a copy.... read more
January 5th 2012
We flew from Goa to Hyderbad since a road trip through the country would have been a challenge given time, roads, and Ravi’s fractured ankle. We received first-class treatment at the airport lounge, rubbing elbows with a Bollywood actress as we awaited takeoff from Goa.Instead of taking a shuttle bus from airport to the plane, Ravi was taken via wheelchair, and lifted into the plane, wheelchair and all – quite the experience! We were received very warmly at Ravi’s parent’s apartment in Hyderbad, and we all enjoyed reconnecting and meeting more of Ravi’s cousins over Indian Chinese food. It felt really good to be welcomed as if we were coming to our own home. The next morning, we slept in, tired from the cars / planes, and had a delicious South Indian breakfast at Ravi’s cousin’s ... read more
The Rest Of November Then December And Now, 2012
Published: January 4th 2012Asia » India » Andhra Pradesh » Warangal » KakajiJanuary 4th 2012
I promise you I really did write a blog entry for November and some of December, the internet just went out right as I was completing it and I've been busy since. Anyways, insert the last blog entry (written early, mid-December): This month was probably the fastest one yet as I was constantly moving around from hotel to train to bus while touring the south of India. It was full of great sights and great food and great companions. The group was of eleven people, including myself: two from Germany, one from Canada and the rest from different parts of the U.S. like Oregon, Minnesota, Ohio and Vermont. Our group not only got to see great sights but we were also perceived as one by anyone we met. We all had fun warding off the many ... read more
October with a hint of November
Published: November 9th 2011Asia » India » Andhra Pradesh » Warangal » KakajiNovember 9th 2011
Let me just start this blog entry off by apologizing for any grammatical errors that may appear here and for ones that have already appeared in previous posts. My written English is not what it used to be. I've already lost count of how many times I've had to use the backspace key. But please don't jump to the conclusion that this is happening because I'm in India and maybe Indians are bad at English because as far as I can hear, they're really not. My spoken English has actually improved, I'm usually no longer speaking in what my Telugu tutor calls the "fast sleeping way" that Americans use. I haven't even used "uh" in a sentence since the last time someone asked me what the word "uh" meant. So why is my writing terrible? Maybe ... read more
28hr train ride - Hyderabad - Chennai
Published: October 31st 2011Asia » India » Andhra Pradesh » Hyderabad » Secunderabad
October 24th 2011
So we started our 28hr train ride with no one basically on the train and thought that it would be wonderful it if stayed like that – how wrong we were! It took about 20 minutes and 2 train stations to completely fill the carriage up with a mixture of bags, toys, and generally other rubbish that the Indians like to travel with, and of course the multi Indians that also get on (book one seat and then have 3 people sitting/sleeping on it). I just don’t know how they get away with it! But there we go! The actual journey was alright and waking up in the morning after a relatively quite night we both felt like we were alright and refreshed. Sitting up on the top bunks for most of the day and gorging ... read more
