Sanjay's at no 42

Doesn't my couch (or should I say floor?) look lovely in the morning? A bit hard in the middle but the sides work fine...




The 'giant teacup heater' is your way to a warm bath, all things considering I chose the cold shower option...

And no toiletpaper so I had to go Indian...Toilets have a (powerful) waterbeam integrated, which finds the way to the 'hairy seastar' with a remarkable cruise missile precision!

But apart from this little details (which make it the more interesting!), the hospitality at Sanjay's is tremendous! What a nice way to see the Indian culture from the inside...

2morrow

For my train trip to Agra, I had to queue in the line of the "freedom fighters'...Now how cool is that!

I see dead people

Today I had my first real religious experience in India!

Got up early, or rather was forced to by the 6 am chanting of the mosque (the North has more Muslims).

So I decided to put on my walking boots and head for the Old Town aka the Pink City.

Sanjay's place is in the outskirts of Jaipur, so it was a good walk to the center. After a few streets I was drawn to quite a large pink building. As I got closer I could here the chanting going on and what sounded like a hundred drums and bells.

It had a bit of spooky feeling... Clearly something was happening here so I stepped through the gate of the building to do some exploration. I was greeted by a young man. He didn't speak any English but his bodylanguage suggested it was ok for me to enter. I followed the sound of the 'hundreds of drums' but ended up in a small temple where a Sadhu was doing a ceremony. The 'hundreds of drums' appeared to be an ingenious automized drum-and-bell machine. An old man smiled and gestured to sit down, which I did. Sat there for an hour and watched the Sadhu do his thing. The drums and bells didn't miss their effect and there was this 'trance thing' going on, which stopped after half an hour. We just sat there for a while, very relax. The Sadhu, the old man and me. Saying nothing, just being there in the little temple. It had a really good feeling...

Time to go so I got up. They gave me some food wrapped in newspaper. On the way out I crossed the young man again. In sign-language I asked if this was a temple or an ashram or whatever. He took a long time to find the right words and then said "dead people...burn...".

...so I sat in a temple in a cemetery, no wonder I looked a bit spooky...but hey, you gotta start somewhere :-).

Took some pictures, try to upload them asap.

Cheers!

>

Having a cold beer at sunset with fellow couchsurfer and beer lover (he's an Ozzie...) Mark on the balcony of Sanjay's house in Jaipur.

Posted with LifeCast

Hasta la vista, baby

Some parts of the profile of my couchsurfing host in Jaipur tomorrow...:-)

"In the middle of the town , My wife and daughter , I have bed , No i don't have a pet , I am not if anybody want to smoke that;s ok , Indian old bazaar , Histrocical monuments , Pubs and Hotels , Public transportion is very good because i am situated in the middle of the Jaipur . I can show peoples around me , i am free for my surfers , Its depends to go to bed late or early , I host both in weekdays and weekends , I have full accomadation for the surfers , a week is too many for me .

I like the movie Volcono , and movies of Arnoldshavznager and fighting movies"

Bean bag

The "Killroy was here" of Bombay. You'll find it everywhere in the city. A lot of speculation is going on: prostitutes, drugs,...but apparently they are just guys who want to sell a lot of bean bags...:-)

The one and only...

M&S

They found out that Mark had been stealing paperclips for years, so they had to let him go....

Travel route

View Larger Map

I made a maps of my whereabouts so far in India. I'll try to add some photo's later.

Now trying to get a couch in Jaipur, Rajasthan.

Beer heaven

I just found my mission for next month in Thailand...a temple made out of 1 million beer bottles!!!






Never mind the Taj Mahal! This is much better...:-)

What's in a name?

We just came back from the jungle and were visiting a small village nearby Nagarhole National Park when suddenly this truck drove by...

Fusion cook

Look...Anneke with the Indian twin brother of Christer Elfving...:-)

Goa

On board safety

In case of an emergence, try to suck your own dick. This might be your last change for sex. If this doesn't work, as your neighbor to help you. After reaching orgasm leave the plane on your hands and feet.




If the plane has crashed and you need to get out, develop superpowers and tear a piece out of the plane. Gently throw away the piece of plane. Then stick out your tongue, squeeze your hands together very firmly and jump out of the plane. Remember to take of your pointy shoes or the slide will explode and you'll die anyway.

On board instruction on flight 106 to Bombay, 20th of February 2009

Window or aisle?

Mister Mosquito: "I know I asked for a window seat, but this is ridiculous..."





Mister Mosquito stuck in airtight window. Taken on the flight from Bangalore to Goa, Tuesday 17th of February 2009

Quick status update

The last couple of days were almost without internet connection. So just a quick post to let you know everything is more than fine!!! A lot of travelling went on: trains, plains & automobiles...which resulted in some really great and unforgettable moments with keywords like: jungle, leopard, resort, elephants, wild boar, stunning sunsets, gin-tonic, safari, sushi, Bangalore, fish curry, extreme couchsurfing in the jungle, swimmingpool, Christer Elving, Ganesh, Mysore, more gin-tonic (many mosquitos...;-). I'll get into detail later on.

Arrived yesterday in Goa for some R&R on the beach. Life's good and relax here and you only need simple things... a swimming short and a cold Kingfisher in reach ;-).

I,ll try to get some picture of the hippies around here (which are actually a lot older than I imagined...).

Peace to you all!

Diarrhea problem solved...

Do not try this at home

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS EXPLICIT PICTURES. NOT SUITABLE FOR THOSE WHO WORK FROM 9 TO 5!!!











Tarkarli Beach, 10-11th of February 2009

Cockroach count

7

Search for water

Stop searching for water...Gogola mineral water finds you!

The only gay in Bombay

Shot in Cobala, Bombay at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival.

Later in the afternoon we saw a Argentine movie called "Quién dice que es fácil?"

Live at the Bollywood Bowl

Meet the neighbors of Marlies: Chloe Papazahariakis and Puneet Vasistha. Chloe is an Australian fashion designer and Puneet is a Bollywood star. I guess that qualifies them as a bit of a glam couple...

They invited us to the set of a Bollywood production in which Puneet plays the leading role.

In Puneet's "VIP box"



Just us hanging around on the set




It takes a lot of Indians to make a movie...


.

Suspense and action: knives, girls tied in ropes, sticks to hit the villain,...

Street cricket

What better way to spend your day with some Sunday afternoon cricket with Puneet and his gang?






Pictures by Natalie Lycops

iPod Punjabi

Recipe for chicken massala

Chicken masala is very easy to make...


Just follow these 3 steps:


Step 1: go to the market to buy some fresh veggies and a chicken.








Step 2: convince the chicken




Step 3: The chicken will surrender immediately and marinate itself in a mixture of yogurt and spices, jump into a hot pan with a simmering curry in.





The alternative is to ask Maria, the cleaning lady of Marlies, and her daughter in law to cook a wonderful and delicious chicken masala. She also made 6 or 7 heavenly dishes which names I can't remember...we enjoyed this fantastic food together with our neighbors. It turned out to be a very joyful evening!

Le bureau nouveau est arrivé

First day in Mumbai finished with a scene of a Tarantino movie. I ended up with Marlies in a little advertising company (oh irony...) where we met Donald Woodrow, an Antwerp based photographer who's specialized in diamond photography. So a very colorful figure with many amazing stories (sometimes a bit full of himself, but hey I didn't mind in this kind of weird setting...). And Imman, a local media figure. Donald has big plans of taking over the advertising industry!!! Donalds view on advertising companies was very clear: they are too expensive, too many people, too many meeting,...And you know what? He might be right.

So before realizing it, I witnessed the birth of a sparkling fresh business idea. Meet the newest advertising agency, nouveau style of Mumbai!



Donald, Marlies & Imman
The lean & mean fighting machine (worktitle). Good luck to you guys! And give them a call if you need to advertise something!


PS: this is how a (very small, but oh so friendly) agency looks like in Mumbai:



Visage Studio, Mumbai

Mumbai magic

Fantastic first impressions, love at first sight! Mumbai really has got some magic in the air...

I couldn't stop smiling from the minute I got into the cab at Mumbai airport.


Oh yeah...taxis in Mumbai look like "Vitamientje" in the stripalbums of Suske & Wiske. Thousands of little black and yellow ,cartoon lookalikes, cars are speeding across the (bumpy) roads. And never mind about the lanes...just drive wherever you want.







And a very warm welcome from Marlies, lots of kudos to her for the hospitality and relax atmosphere!!!

Sitar hero

You can go Indian style in many ways...sitar hero is one way. Check out the karma meter!

rucksack

The Deuter ACT Lite 40 + 10 chose me to be his travel companion for the next 3 months. I'm grateful for that...

He says he will keep me clothes dry when it rains (like that would happen...) and prevent my back from sweating like a horse. In return I will stuff him with useless memorabilia and cheap local booze. I think that's a fair deal.

Slight concern about this little paragraph on their website:

"1939
The dark years
All equipment and tent production was taken over for the armed forces."

Hopefully this will not be picked up by a certain magazine of a certain religion...