To Bangalore and back again

I haven't blogged (properly) for 2 weeks now. Why? First week I was too busy, so I assembled a picture-post in order to have something to post (see back-dated blog post here)

The next week I spontaneously joined a group going to Bangalore - forgetting to finish and post my blog post in the packing process as we left on my "blogging day".

Bangalore

Journey & Accommodation
I spontaneously joined a group going to Bangalore one evening before departure, ending up hurrying through necessary packing ad wrapping up stuff that needed to be done before departure. We travelled by night bus, a nice one, and arrived early at the guesthouse – 05:00… There had been a slight misunderstanding of when we were to arrive, so when we showed up at 5am our rooms were unprepared and quite dirty… We managed to arrange some mattresses and clean sheets and slept a couple of hours, and then we went into the centre of Bangalore for the day.

When we returned to the guesthouse in the afternoon the moods was much lighter and the experience was considerably better. We got the rooms cleaned, talked some more with the manager (whom turns out to be really nice), and the wonderful staff unexpectedly offered chai (tea) brought up to the room – free of charge!

Happy people!

Downtown Bangalore 
Shopping started in a mall, and then we walked up and down the main streets checking out the stores, ending up in a bookstore searching for useful literature to our group assignments in Pondi. I even managed to find an adapter/converter for my camera recharger (– which has Japanese prongs, and a suitable adapter; back home in Norway…), so now I’m finally able to take pictures again! (Happyhappyhappy!)

We had various experiences with the autos (remember the auto-rickshaws?); teaching us that over-eager drivers accepting low prices right away is not to be trusted. They take detours to stores they are affiliated with (tourist traps) to earn more money. At the shop they tried to sell me a nice pashmina shawl – incidentally an identical one to one I already had – and a quick question of the price revealed it to be 5 times the price of what I bought it for in Pondi.

Other experiences, always agree on the price first, and ask some locals to arrange the auto and the price for you if possible; they get much better prices than us obvious and oblivious tourists are able to arrange for ourselves. It might have a background in the poverty and high levels of competition in all areas in India, most Indians we come across in everyday activities (outside of the Study Center in Pondi) are opportunistic to various degrees. (Yes, this is a generalization and a very broad one at that…)

Safari
The second day in Bangalore we decided to go to a nearby Safari. Our guesthouse staff arranged two autos for us (and haggled the price for us), and off we went. It was almost an hour driving to the Safari (can’t remember the name of it, sorry), and then we arranged with the auto drivers that they would wait for us and take us home after a couple of hours –for the same price. Inside the safari we chose to take the Grand Safari bus ride (1hr) and climbed into the safari bus (not as exciting – nor as cute – as the safari buses in Beppu (Japan)). When we entered the bus the driver’s assistant placed us in the front seats, and while driving he took our cameras and took pictures (good ones) for us – for an expected tipping, of course. (We felt a little uncomfortable with the obvious difference in treatment, but as we –the girls in my group and I– believe everyone else in the bus (all Indian) assumed the assistant to do this for extra profit, the discomfort changed to a feeling of …apathy?) Anyway, the safari was really nice, and we were all relieved to see that the animals in the Zoo/Safari looked hale and healthy.

Bangalore (left) vs. Beppu (right)

 

Safari pictures, mine (left) and the driver assistant's (right)

 

New friends
Later the last night in Bangalore Lina and I went out to dinner with Lina’s friend Rohini and Rohini’s mother. They are the sweetest people on earth!! I fell so in love with the two of them. Even though it was the first time we met they asked if I would come along and visit their family in (some place I can’t pronounce) when Lina is going to, and when we said I would not be coming they asked us why! I hope I will get the opportunity to meet them again some time, they were absolutely lovely.

Return 
Even though we didn’t want to leave after meeting with Rohini and her mother, after only such a brief time, it felt good to be on the night bus back to Pondi when we finally settled in our bunks. We arrived home at 5am, good and tired, and slept away most of the day. 

Reisefot og Nyttaarsfeiringer

Juleferie. Saa istedet for aa sitte paa campus 2 livloese uker bestemte jeg jeg meg for aa reise igjen. Det er jo delvis derfor jeg er her. Forrige ferie/break reiste jeg til Hiroshima 5 dager, denne gangen ble det Nagasaki 1 1/2, og Fukuoka 3 1/2 dag. Nagasaki var ikke spes spennende. Ikke har vi vaert heldige med vaeret saalangt heller.

Ankomst Nagasaki. Etter aa ha rotet oss bort (jeg og venninnen min) i forsoeket paa aa finne minshuku'et (pensjonatet) vi bodde paa fant vi omsider frem etter 50 min trasking. Det lengste vi gikk den kveldebn var fra minshuku'et og til Mos Burger og tilbake til rommet vart. Dagen etter paa moette vi en kamerat fra campus (en native Nagasakier) og dro han med rundt til alle turiststedene bare for aa snu ved inngangen da de 1 saa kjedelige ut, og 2 var dyre. "Is it worth it (the entrance fee)?" var et meget repetert spm etter 10~15 min traving gjennom Nagasakis gater fra det ene turistmaalet til det neste. Da vi mente vi hadde sett nok ruslet vi rundt kjoepesentrene og chattet om loest og fast. Vi ble sittende paa Starbucks nesten 4 timer, og deretter gikk vi til middag. Vi hadde nok blitt sittende og skravle der ogsaa hadde vi ikke blitt kastet ut da de stengte kl. 22. Klarte aa finne hjem paa foerste forsoek. Yokatta (heldigvis).

Fukuoka, ankomst/dag 1:Reiste tidlig fra Nagasaki, fikk sitteplass paa toget og greier (hvilket vi ikke fikk pa vei *til* Nagasaki). Kom tidligere enn vi kunne sjekke inn paa ungdomsherberget vaart, saa vi trasket rundt stasjonskjoepesenteret for aa finne lunsj, og etterpaa gikk vi for aa finne templer ~i kulde, bitende vind og tidvis hagl. Venninnen min var glad hun kunne bruke meg som "vestlig / gaijin alibi" da vi tok bilder i et tempel uten aa ha lagt merke til "foto forbudt" skiltet.. Venninnen min har kinesisk familie saa alle tror hun snakker japansk siden hun ser asiatisk ut. Fordommene mot meg derimot er at jeg er en intetanende "Westerner", uansett hvor jeg opprinnelig kommer fra. Jeg mistenker de fleste her tror jeg er amerikansk.

Etter tempelvandringen gikk vi for aa finne ungdomsherberget, og etter en liten hvil gikk vi for aa spise middag. Daarligste middagen jeg noensinne har betalt saa mye for. Vi oppdaget da vi skulle betale at de tok betalt for en "seteavgift", bare for aa sitte der, i tillegg til at de tok betalt for riskjeks vi ikke hadde bestilt, pluss en egen serviceavgift -for en service vi absolutt ikke mener vi fikk. Maten kom sent, maten kom paa forskjellige tidspunkt saa vi hadde klald ris til resten av maaltidet, som foroevrig var knoettlite. I tillegg ryddet de selektivt; de tok noen av tallerknene vaare, men ikke alt, osv. Vi gaar ikke tilbake til den kjeden noengan iaf. Det er jeg rimelig sikker paa.

Etter middag har vi bare hengt her paa ungdomsherberget, de har kjoekken for aapen bruk og fri internettilgang. Imorgen tenker jeg det blir shopping/vindushopping, mulig det blir tid til noen turistaktiviteter innimellom. Vi tar det litt som detkommer, og det er igrunnen veldig aalreit. Haaper paa aa faa med meg hvordan japanerene feirer Nyttaar, men venninnen min er ikke saa glad i templer saa jeg maa nok moderere interessen min noen hakk. Noe haaper jeg da vi faar til likevel. :)

Naa har jeg skrevet altfor lenge!　Haaper alle har hatt en fin jul og faar et riktig godt 2008!

(Crossposted on LJ)

Quarter Break in Hiroshima

At APU the school year is separated in both semesters and quarters, quarters marking the middle of a semester. After discussing different destinations, among them Okinawa (scrapped for multiple reasons) Shannon (US) and I finally decided to spend 4 days of our first Quarter Break in Hiroshima.


Hiroshima, Day 1: November 20^th

Departure Beppu at 10:50 on a Sonic train to Kokura, change at Kokura at 12:15 to Shinkansen (the Japanese Bullet Train) between Kokura and Hiroshima (arrival Hiroshima 13:10). The train ride from Beppu to Kokura was the most interesting part; it took us through various kinds of Japanese landscape. The car we sat in was sparingly but tastefully furnished, with comfortable seats in a deep green, and occasionally a snack-trolley would be pushed past us by a uniformed woman. We drove through tunnels and valleys crowned with green hills, past tiny villages and remote farmlands, through vast farm fields and finally cities before we came to Kokura. Finding the Shinkansen platform was quite easy once we saw the big signs clearly displaying "Shinkansen" and a big arrow to indicate the direction. The Shinkansen wasn't that exciting; it was (logically enough) mostly tunnels. The interesting parts on board the Shinkansen were the obvious difference between us and the travelling businessmen, and to feel the speed of the train even underground.

When we arrived in Hiroshima we took streetcar (tram) 2 or 6 from Hiroshima Station to Dobashi; the tram stop closest to our hostel J-Hoppers Hiroshima, app. 20 min. The J-Hoppers was really nice, nothing fancy but clean and comfortable. We had reservations in Japanese style (with futons and tatami mats) shared rooms. The area around Dobashi seemed a little run-down, some closed down shops, restaurants and dirty houses, but otherwise OK. We got to our room, stashed our things and went to explore Hiroshima and find somewhere to eat. We jumped on board the first tram that came without reading its signs and getting “lost” on the tram lines we ended up at Hiroshima’s Yokogawa station. After exploring the area around Yokogawa station we took the tram to the Kamiyacho and Hatchobori area where we found an underground shopping area/mall. We ate, explored and shopped a little before we returned to the hostel around 19:00, chatted and exchanged stories and misc. info with our roommates (Anna from Sydney and Putney? from Virginia) until bedtime.

Our delicious breakfast.

Day 2: November 21^st
Breakfast later than planned (hostel dorm damn comfy), found a nice breakfast café right by the Dobashi tram stop. They had perfect toast and wonderful coffee. After breakfast we went to the A-dome and the Peace Park. The A-dome and Peace Park is a peaceful bubble in the very heart of Hiroshima, right in the busiest stretch of the city. In the Peace Park there is a collection of memorials, most noteworthy the Peace Bell, the Paper Crane Memorial and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum (HPMM). Shannon and I wandered around the Dome and the memorials in the park until we met up with Maki around 13:00. After putting Maki’s luggage in the hostel we went to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum(s).

The A-dome, and the A-dome before and after.

1) The Paper Crane Memorial, in memory of the children that died because of the bomb.
2) Thousands of paper cranes are donated to the memorial by school classes from all over Japan.
Each school class visiting this memorial hold a small ceremony where they sing, read aloud text or letters, or just keep 1 minute silence in front of the statue, and then present their paper cranes to the memorial.

A wonderful piece of architecture and architectural planning; from the Peace Memorial in front of the HPMM there's a straight line to the Peace Flame and then to the A-dome in the far background; crowned and emphasized by the arch of the Peace Memorial.

In the HPMM Maki asked med “Do you like the museum?” That’s a difficult question to answer.

The museum is great. It is a magnificent compilation of educational info and historical recollections, facts of actions and their consequences and so on. But I didn’t enjoy being there. Just seeing the Dome was touching, and watching the visiting school classes pay their respect, to the children that died prematurely due to radiation, in front of the Paper Crane Memorial Statue was emotional. Inside the museum I got more and more depressed and uncomfortable as the exhibition progressed to the effects of the bomb. But getting depressed after seeing that is a good sign I believe. People should be depressed after seeing that. It’s a good thing that this issue remains this emotionally effective on us, even from two generations and half a world away. A second (and newer) museum focused on the survivor’s stories from when they fled from the post-bomb inferno to safety. It didn’t help my depressions. I hope future generations will keep these memorials in regard and work to destroy the atomic bombs to never be used again. No one should have to live through the nightmares these people did 52 years ago. To continue using nuclear weapons, especially after seeing the effects of the first ones, is an unforgivable abomination.

After eating Hiroshima-yaki (a form of Okonomiyaki – also explained as a kind of Japanese “pancake”) for dinner we shopped again (managing to lose (and find!) my wallet twice) before returning to the hostel. Shared room with Ingrid from Canada.

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I was halfway through this text when I realized it was in English, so I decided to just keep it that way.

I'll post pictures when I'm able to steal bandwidth enough to post them... and Hiroshima part 2 comes when I have bandwidth to post it with pictures.