Houston

about 26 hours after returning from india, i had to go to the U.S. for work. it was my first trip stateside, and although i knew it was going to be a long week, i was looking forward to visiting a new place. as it turned out, i got to see the factory, the hotel and i managhed to get to the 'mall' before i left. i didnt see one single bit of Houston the whole week i was there. the jetlag was unreal, from india to norway, then further east to the US was not fun. let me tell you, the tv at 4am is not of the highest quality. i took a couple of crappy phone photos just to say 'i was there'.

a few things of interest though from talking to my american colleagues:

1. the topic of guns came up, now in the uk, we dont have hand guns...well, 99% of us dont. people there have 2 or 3, they love their guns. i asked the question 'wouldnt you prefer to ban ALL guns totally'? (this was the same week as a teenager in the U.S. had run amok in a mall with a machine gun killing 8 people). and i tell you, the response i got back was frightening, i was told in no uncertain terms that banning all guns would be the same as " a hitler style regime"!! i didnt understand this myself, but i could see how emotive people were getting on the subject so i dropped it.

the next point sternly made, was that 'we need guns to defend ourselves'...hmmmm...you need guns to protect yourself from people with guns.....the irony was totally lost on them. i didnt mention it again, it got quite hairy. these were lovely lovely people, and i guess its just a part of culture i dont understand so i cant pass judgement.

the other point that made me wish i was around non americans just to see if anyone else thought this funny, was that 'the reason the world hates americans is because of the tree hugging environmentalists in california'....hhhmmm, now, for me, the reason the some people appear to dislike america/texas so much at the moment is george bush and his aggressive foreign policy, so i was astonished by this comment. BUT we were in george bush country. it does make you aware of how biased people can be. again though, it was an emotive topic so i said nothing. but peoples perceptions of themselves can be so far off other peoples perceptions. the question of who is right and who is wrong has no answer, but its interesting to hear both sides

oh, and at the airport, there was an iPod vending machine. this made me chuckle, capitalsim gone mad. i also bought from the gift shop at George Bush airport a t-shirt that said 'Dont mess with Texas'. again, the irony is sadly missed

Oslo

home :-) from beach to snow in one go (that rhymes you know)

Homeward bound

I actually had planned to go back to Delhi for a day before i flew back, but after the tranquility of goa, i couldnt face the noise and pollution, so i went straight to the airport from the plane from goa (different airports). id changed my flight to come back a day early as i was due to fly to the U.S. 8 hours after i landed from India for a business trip, it cost a bit more, but was totally worth it. so i had to sit in Delhi airport for an uncomfortable 9 hours, my flight was at 3.30am, so no point in getting a hotel.

32 sleepless hours later, and via london, i arrived back home in oslo to temperatures of -8 (i had left the poolside at +32 degrees)

In retrospect, India is an incredible place (last use of incredible i promise), the sights, smells sounds are like nothing you will experience anywhere else. i totally totally loved it. however...one thing to note, you HAVE to be in a good mood ALL the time. you have to stay positive. india is bloody hard work, you get accosted by people every other minute, and if you let it get to you for a single moment, the place will eat you up and leave you in a gibbering wreck in the corner.

with seeing places like india though, it does change your outlook on life, the sheer scale of the poverty there puts a bad day at work totally into perspective.

its an awe inspring place, a cacophony of chaos!

Goa

The beach was a 10 minute walk from my hostel. this meant 10 minutes of walking past stalls selling clothes and all manner of ethnic items...it was a daily barrage of 'sir sir, look at my shop', every few metres, which the novelty soon wore off. i went from a 'no thank you but thank you', to eventually simply a shake of the head, and in the end, just a nonchelant wave away of the hand...well, you got about 100 offers to buy things per day! oh, and this included (at least 5 times per day, offers of all manner os any kind of drugs you can think of...and no...i didnt)

by the last 3 days i had had enough of running the gauntlet of getting to the beach past the sellers, so i stayed by the pool all day. even at the beach you get people every 10 minutes trying to sell you things, by the pool it was total tranquility!

oh yeah, the cows even have free reign on the beach

and so i fell into a pattern of breakfast, beach, reading novels (3 in 1 week), shower, local bar to watch a film on large screen tv with dinner, beer and bed)...this was all week. i had one conversation all week, and you know what? i totally loved it

wednesday was the only exception when i went to the famous anjuna wednesday marklet...which was huuuge!

Goa

Didnt take too many photos in Goa, basically i didnt do much, didnt explore much or..much. it was all about relaxing.

Goa is reknowned for being a party capital, and a huge trance dance music global scene, full of aging hippies. and in truth, it was. it was very laid back, loads of old hippies, who live out there lives in goa. its unlike any part of india, its more akin to south east asia, and is very back packery.

the trance raves, these days you have to go and find them in the mountains. i couldnt be bothered to to be honest. although i did go to a famous club on the beach on my first night, but that was it. this week was about relaxation.

now, id managed to not have any trouble with food the whole first week, i mean, we ate at some ropey places, but no sign of illness at all. first night in goa, i ate western food for the first time in india, cannaloni...my second morning i woke up terribly ill with chronic food poisoning (i use the word chronic not lightly or dramatically). i couldnt move for 24 hours, i couldnt sleep as i was in serious pain, i was stuck in a £10 per night back packer basic room, with no aircon, only an intermittant fan, with no one to help. this was a pretty low point.

by the 3rd day i was ok again, although a little weak.

that day i also moved hostels, to the nicest one in Anguna the area where i was staying. this one had air con, and a pool, it was still basic, but much nicer.

Goa!

For the second week i flew from Delhi to Goa on my own to recover from the previous week! and the previous year to be honest. I was a bit reticent about an internal indian flight anyway, with a poor safety record etc... i checked in, picked up an english spaeking indian newspaper....and this was the headline! it was a story about how, due to the explosion of cheap internal indian airlines, they couldnt find enough pilots, so the standards of pilots they had on indian budget airlines was very very poor indeed, it then cited all of the pilot induced crashes in india.....triffic

Goodbyes

Went for dinner with Kamala in New Delhi on her last night. Also said a sad goodbye to Vijay our valiant driver (who gave me his cheap but great gold rimmed aviator sunglasses...not sure if he was expecting my oakleys in return...)

huge huge thanks to kamala for organising and booking everything, for inviting me and being a down-right ace travelling buddy. was a week of a lifetime mate x

Old Delhi

Contrary to New Delhi, Old Delhi is (oh crap, was going to say 'amazing' again)...erm...amazing

It's dirty, the pollution is a killer, its noisy, busy...but i loved it. the pollution had actually made me quite ill by this point, my throat was on fire, my eyes were streaming, i had to wear a bandana around my face, and i felt pretty lousy...but, Old Delhi was brimming with charm (gutted that we never had time to go to a bollywood film at the cinema, so took a photo)

also, got 'rabbit fingered' by a market stall boy..kamala...i suspect you!

Lunge

This will mean nothing to anybody apart from my good friends Rich and Katie...not even sure i should post this, but...Rich has designed a 'lunge', a kind of stance/pose, and tries to get as many people to do it on photos as possible (you should see the wedding photos of a friend of theirs who recently got married...)

anyway Rich, for you...a 'Delhi Lunge' from me (was totally gutted i forgot at the taj mahal...that would have been the ultimate)

and my favourite...in Old Delhi, this is a tuk tuk driver, who speak no english what so ever, being accosted by a whitey, who is asking him to stand in this weird pose while he takes a photo...god knows what he though....and Rich...you will never know the lengths i had to go to to get this 'Old Delhi tuk tuk driver lunge'

enjoy fella

p.s. you can tell the difference between a New Delhi Lunge and an Old Delhi Lunge by the positioning of the back foot. the angle is slightly different

New Delhi

Difficult to say much about New Delhi...theres not really much to it, nothing of great excitement. the group photo is quite funny, as i walked through the main part of new delhi, i noticed a guy taking a photo with his phone, so i moved out of the way so he could get a good shot, mysteriously, the camera followed me, so that it was obvious he was taking a photo of me (kamala was somewhere else...so for once, it was me they wanted!) so, i said hello, and put my arm around him and got his mate to take our photo together. then ALL his mates came over, and their wives...which culminated in a massive group photo of all of us. unfortuantely, the bloke who used my camera, missed off all of the women...not sure why.

another day...another weird guide. this one is a 'singer', and attempted to sing at every opportunity...not sure who he thought i was...he also wouldnt go away...even at lunch and dinner