Wednesday, February 10, 2010
I meant to write this sooner regarding our weekend. But I've had issues uploading the photos and I really wanted to post a slide show of Lonavala. The internet here is such poop, we have no issues downloading, but uploading even just three pictures can take twenty minutes! ><;
The weekend began as a surprise from Remi, I didn't know where we were going until the day before which was so exciting! We both just wanted to get out of Pune for awhile, it was time. He'd heard about a hotel called Dukes Retreat in Khandala that was recommended by colleagues. It sits high on a cliff in the countryside, has aryurvedic massages, swimming pool, and a tasty restaurant. To give you an idea of where these places are on a map, Lonavala and Khandala are inbetween Mumbai and Pune.
The hotel was nice, was not as fancy as we'd thought it would be, and perhaps a tad too rustic for my tastes. Also, I was SO excited to be able to swim! I was majorly disappointed to see the pool located in the most precarious spot, right in front of the outside dining area to the hotel restaurant. So while you swim you're on display to all the patrons eating lunch. Which, in any other country I couldn't care less. India is a different story, I suffer from non-stop stare-a-thons, and when wearing a bikini it just feels weird to be gawked at endlessly. Plus we were the only foreigners at the hotel and there were no women in the pool. I told Remi I couldn't do it, and he understood. We instead decided to sunbath on our private outdoor porch, which sadly still had a gardener who was ogling me the entire time. I tolerated it, *sigh* story of my life here.
Aside from sunbathing everyday, we did visit a lot of the popular tourist attractions. I want to mention this first though, Lonavala gave me renewed energy and actually let me see a different side to India. For the most part it was clean, which is a huge contrast to Mumbai or Pune. The difference is evident the minute to pull off the Mumabi express way, clean stores, clean streets, and less beggars. The people here care about their town, you could see it. Aside from the cleanliness of it, I couldn't put my finger one what exactly made me feel so good here, why I felt so darn happy. On my second day I realized it, less people. You haven't seen a crowd till you've seen India. People are everywhere, all the time, in your face. Which you might not think is a big deal at first, I mean...I didn't even realize how much I didn't like it until I was in Lonavala. Just long stretches of empty country road with nothing but a mahout and his elephant. I was glowing entire trip. It was so peaceful and rejuvenating that I didn't want to leave.
I also got to see my first wild monkeys in India! Yes, it's true! We came upon a fort atop this giant cliff, and all around us were monkeys! It took me awhile to realize we were surrounded, they were in the trees, on the ground, and even chilling in park benches. Since monkeys are revered in India (Thanks to Hanuman the Hindu monkey god) people come to pay respects and feed them treats like coconuts, corn, and the occasional beer. I kid you not, they drink beer. Whether by accident or on purpose, these monkeys do drink beer, Remi even snagged a picture of one holding an empty Kingfisher can. The trip was already awesome, but seeing those makaks at the end of the trip totally made my day.
So with all the lovely dovey stuff aside. I have only a few gripes.
The picture I attached above is of Karla Caves in Khandala (close to Lonavala). The whole cave is covered with Buddhist carvings, dating back to around 160 B.C. They were beautiful. However, the ugliest part of the whole ordeal was the vandalism, ancient caves like these should be preserved, but lots of statues had peoples names carved into them, can you believe it?! It royally ticked me off to see that. Oh on top of that - A Hindu temple was built recently right in front of the cave entrance...literally IN front of it. (see photo of cave enterance) Tourists come to see the Buddhist carvings dating back to B.C., and instead are forced to walk around this garish temple that looks completely out of place amongst such antiquity. They call it "encroachment" here and it's apparently common practice to place Hindu objects in front ancient Buddhist temples or statues. I find it kinda rude if you ask me.
New ad campaign by India to discourage mistreatment of it's historical monuments, I literally saw this commercial right after I wrote this, which prompted me to find it on YouTube and post it with my entry.
My last gripe I swear...
The whole "white" entrance fee thing, which for Karala Caves was 100 rupees ($2.15) versus the Indian price of 5 rupees(10cents), which is also common here. It is completely racist if you ask me. I know of no other country that can get away with having signs in front of tourist attractions labelling different prices like that. In India's desire to make money off of tourists (who are already IN the country spending their money anyway) they do nothing but hurt their image in my opinion, it bothers me every time I see those frickin' signs and I know I'm not the only ones who finds this offensive.
You may say, "But Mary, everything in India is so cheap anyway, what difference is 100 rupees to you? Who cares?" That's not the point, whether I can pay the price or not, it's that I am in India and I should have the same price as any one else here. You might also think, "But perhaps it's a good thing, it makes the attractions more affordable to regular Indians so they can appreciate museums and art too." It's not that they make the price more affordable, that is the price, I am the only one paying ten times that. It would be like posting a sign in front of Disneyland saying "$5 for U.S. citizens, $50 for foreigners" and most tourists are Indian here anyway. Remi and I were the only white people at the caves the day we went, the only ones who had to pay the special price.
I know it sounds silly to be annoyed about that, but when you live here your perspective is different than that of a carefree traveller on fun Indian vacation. I have to deal with this inequality everywhere I go here. Trust me, it gets old.
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