26 January 2008

chennai airport (tamil nadu), wednesday 23 january

i'm ready to go back home. i'm now at chennai airport waiting to board my flight to delhi. pipi's relatives here in chennai were incredibly sweet and i'm really thankful to them for trying to make me feel at home... but home is home, there's no equal to sleeping in your own bed and using your own bathroom (at some point, i gotta write about bathrooms in india... that was a whoooole experience! maybe dana would like to write about them! :)

i'm sad to leave, i feel that i've learned so much about this culture and about life in general, and i feel that there's still so much to learn. however, i also feel that there's much more time for that and, after a whole month in this country, enough is enough.

chennai seems like a much more civilized place than the other big cities we visited, like delhi or mumbai. yes, people still honk but not as much and there's some respect for other people's lanes on the road. also, poverty is not as in-your-face as it is in those other cities. something that has caught my attention during my stay in the south is the number of christian churches and images of jesus i've seen all over. i knew the portuguese had been around for a while but i ignored they had such a profound long-lasting impact. also, people here seem to speak way more english than in the north, and there are a lot of billboards, signs, and names and descriptions of stores (like vijay plumbing) in english.

the conclusion to our trip was very chill. we arrived yesterday at 6am, pipi's uncle picked us up and took us to his aunt's place. there, we just relaxed and had a delicious breakfast prepared by vanitha, pipi's cousin, south indian style. around 10am, we left for mahabalipuram, literally the great sacrifice village. this is a beautiful archaeological (also a unesco world heritage site, like suomenlinna in finland and the red fort in delhi, etc.) site located by the sea. the temples, many of them in ruins, are about 1300 yeras old, and must huge carvings made out of one single piece of stone, stunning! the main temple, however, which by some divine miracle survived intact the effects of the 2005 tsunami, was built with the same stone they used to construct angkor wat in cambodia, very beautiful.

it was very hot, maybe around 33-34 degrees (celsius), and the heat made us very tired, so we left after 2-3 hours. on the way back, we stopped by a crocodile park and it was cool to see all the crocs just chiling in the sun. then, true to my fresa roots, we had lunch by the beach at fisherman's cove, the taj hotel in chennai. it's really crazy that for $25 you can eat at a place like this---including drinks! but when remember that i've had entire meals for less than $1, then i realize how wide the income gap is in this country.

anyway, the best part of our stop in chennai was undoubtedly getting to know pipi's relatives. in general, people in india are very welcoming and generous and these relatives were a super-augmented version of the average indian possessor of these virtues.

somewhere in tamil nadu (train between madurai and chennai), monday 21 january

today, i rode an elephant. it was the coolest thing in the world! after watching 2 sets of the federer-berdych match in the morning, we had some idlys and sambar and dosai for breakfast, then headed back to the meenakshi temple. we wanted to go back and see it again in the daylight but i hesitated, afraid they'd make my life miserable again. the crowds were still there---more tourists, more pilgrims, more touts---but this time nobody bothered me. as soon as we got there, we looked for the temple yennai (elephant in tamil), hoping that this time i'd be able to take a picture of it blessing me. we found it in its shelter, so we asked the keeper/trainer if we could go in and he asked me in i wanted to ride it! i don't think i had ever seen one from so close-by. it's impressively big---and cute. the trainer asked the elephant to lie down and it took it an impossibly great effort to stretch its two hind legs and then bend them. when he did, it looked as if it were wearing think gray pjs---so loose was its skin. i put my right foot on the elephant's right front leg, hold onto its neck, and pushed myself up to ride it. sitting on it was surprisingly comfortable but i admit i was a bit scared in the beginning. the trainer asked me to grab the elephant by its ears tightly, but as it tried to stand up, it flapped its ears forward, away from me, so i let go. i thought the standing up process would be a lot more turbulent but it was super smooth. then the elephant threw its trunk back at me, as if asking for food, but i just tapped it and caressed it, and i think it liked it. anyway, it was awesome and pipi took a video and many photos of me on top and then being blessed, its heavy trunk resting on my head... super cool!
we spent the rest of the day at the super fresa taj gardens, the taj hotel in madurai. as our guide said, the place was a real oasis in the middle of crazy madurai. i swam, had drinks by the pool, got an ayurvedic massage and steam herbal bath, played karam in the garden, and had dinner in a beautiful terrace (no indian food!) with an amazing view of the city (from this point, it actually looked pretty!!).
now, we are in our last indian train on our way to chennai, our last stop before going back home. it's 10.30pm and they're about to shut the lights off... good night!

madurai (tamil nadu), sunday 20 january

the deep south has been an intense experience. we are now in madurai, in tamil nadu. we arrived this afternoon from cochin, checked into our hotel and went for lunch. it was my first true south indian meal and it was fun. we went to a proper restaurant that only served thalis, which is basically a meal served on a big plate with rice and several little portions of various dishes. this thali was served on a big banana leaf instead of a plate---very eco-friendly, given that these leaves and all the leftovers they give to the cows. the place was full of locals and, as they say, in india do like the indians! this meant that i ate only with my hands, like everybody else, mixing the rice with each of the different curries, gravies, lentils, yoghurt, etc... and then just pushint it inside my mouth with three fingers, licking my fingers every now and then (since they don't have any napkins). the food was excellent but i was a bit anxious at the end... just wanted to finish and wash my hands. at the end, i folded my leaf in two, but the person sitting next to me instructed me to fold the part of the leaf near my body into the table, and not the other way around. don't know why but it was a great meal and a whole cultural experience, all for rs 25 (60 cents!).
after lunch, we went to the koodal azhagar temple. i really like walking into these temples and seeing these very pious devotees pray in the middle of all the chaos. i admire them. they just kneel in front of one of the deities, bow, and mumble prayers, while passersby jump them to avoid them, kids scream, tourists take photos, and people argue about non-religious issues loudly. we walked around the main sanctuary and then went to some other area of the temple, where we found the long-sought elephant guarding the entrance to an "only-hindu" sanctuary. unfortunately, its keeper didn't let me take pictures, but it was super cute, a mix of gray and pink in the ears and face, and with a red and white mark on its forehead. i approached it, it extended its big trunk towards me, sniffing me. i gave it a 2 rs coin, and it proceeded to lift its trunk and put it on top of my head as a sign of blessing, then gave the coin to its keeper... amazing!
the rest of the day was still a very indian experience, although not as pleasant. we walked around the town, stopping by the many little shops, seeing kids being exploited---performing tricks on a rope, drinking south indian coffee in local corner chai and coffee places. we went back to the hotel to rest for a little bit and see a bit of the australian open, and to our surprise we saw a couple of little cockroaches in the bathroom and another couple on a candy that i left on my bedside table for 1 minute or 2. a bit distressed, i complained at the reception and asked them to do something about it. then, my friend's uncle picked us up and took us to the meenakshi temple, the main attraction in madurai (to see pictures, click here).
this temple is massive. as usual, we removed our shoes, but this time it was weird because in other temples in the north, you usually take off your shoes just inside the temple but here you remove them outside, then you had to walk on the street for a bit up to the entry gate. i got lost pretty quickly inside the temple---except this uncle knew his way around. he asked me to wait for a bit at some point since non-hindus were not allowed inside the main sanctuary. i truly don't understand this rule very well but i respect that they want to have their own space for praying, where tourists are not photographing every single corner of the inside temple. however, i do feel that their rule is not enforced correctly and that they actually discriminate against whites (or, rather, non-browns) blatantly, since they never deny the entrance to brown people, irrespective of their religion (how can they know?). same thing with the fees foreign tourists have to pay to enter temples and basically all touristic sites. probably they charge rs 10 or even nothing to indians in order to entice them to go (or simply avoid that they don't go)... but the irony is that everywhere we've been, you find the names of these people written on every pillar, on every wall, together with phrases like "suresh loves kavitha" and the like...
anyway, the chief priest of the temple came to me and asked me to leave, even though i was just standing by the entrance, waiting for pipi and the uncle. i explained that my friends would be right back soon and that i didn't want to lose them, but to no avail. fortunately, as i walked outside, pipi and the uncle came back. once again, we got lost amindst the crowds. the only sign that told me that we were actually heading somewhere was some trumpet/horns/drums music that became increasingly loud. we then arrived at a courtyard where the music was coming from. three camels greeted us, fully dressed as if ready for carnival. further ahead, there was an altar and several people going in circles around it. the leaders of the matachin-like procession were an elephant, fully painted with bells hanging around its neck and swaying sideways as if dancing, and a cow, also fully painted and wearing a colorful costume. it was a marvelous sight and i wish i had taken lots of pictures but unfortunately the uncle only allowed me to take a few. as expected, he rushed us through the temple and didn't let us enjoy the whole thing. it is somewhat understandable, however, since he had just come back from a long trip and was tired, plus he must have seen those things hundreds of times, if not more. anyway, he then left us, we then attended a ceremony where they put the god to sleep (don't know which one of the many), and then headed back to the hotel.
on the way back, we stopped at a restaurant much recommended by our guide, the hotel staff and our rickshaw driver. why? we still don't know. the place looked quite dingy and dirty. we still stayed only because of the many recommendations. we talked about the different concepts of dirt in india and in mexico. i told pipi that a place like that, with used napkings and straws on the dusty floor and a few cobwebs on the walls would be considered dirty in mexico and i don't think anyone would recommend it, regardless of the taste of the food. similarly, it is surprising how people here throw garbage everywhere, and garbage, used platic bottles, and cow dung seem to be part of the landscape, and no one would imagine it otherwise. in udaipur, when i asked our cooking instructor (who runs a lodge and a cafe and seems relatively educated) for a trash can to throw away my chewing fum, she said nonchalantly, in india, we throw everything in the street, but just make sure you put it ON THE SIDES of the road, not in the middle, because THAT is dirty. and in the middle of all those chewing gums and other garbage, people walk shoeless---and not only out of need.
anyway, sa we were saying this, pipi pointed at a giant cockroach on the wall---the flying kind. he asked the waiter if he could do something about it and so he did: he took a clean plate of the neighboring table, which was already set, used it to take the roach away and put it in a little hole in the corner. "don't worry, sir, that's where cockroaches go and it won't come back." then, he proceeded to put the plate back on the same table! we then saw another dead roach on the floor, next to pipi's foot (which wasn't there before, so all of a sudden a dead roach appear next to his foot out of nowhere!), and i didn't have the stomach to finish our meal, so we went back to the hotel.
the worst was yet to come. back in our hotel room, i went to the bathroom to see if the hotel staff had taken care of the little roaches that i had reported (three times) earlier. of course they hadn't, and the 2 roaches had become 6... 7... 8... three on my bed, one inside my backpack, another one on pipi's shirt... every item we lifted had one or two. for a minute, i felt so grossed out that i even wondered why i had come to india---and i'm usually not scared by one cockroach or two... but the mere thought of all the filth somehwere nearby which must have been the source of that many roaches was disturbing. anyway, we made a little scene and they gave us another room, where i lie now and i hope i'll have a good night's sleep.

cochin (kerala), saturday 19 january

our first three days in the south of the country have already been much different from our journey through the north. there's been much less sightseeing and a lot more chilling. the people here seem even friendlier, they bargain less---probably because they don't try to rip you off as much! and everything is a lot cheaper!

we stayed in a very nice guesthouse owned by thomas, a very devote christian (anglican) man. the house has 4 rooms and i really like all of the guests. there's a couple from melbourne that doesn't interact much with the rest and are usually on their own, but they are very nice. all i know is that they travel like crazy---how australian of them! then there's another australian couple from adelaide, neil and kath, who are super chill. they are jewelers and have lived in indonesia and papua new guinea, and their experiences there have been pretty crazy! they also love wine, have a kid and grandchildren in darwin, live in a super eco-friendly house in the country, and would love to go to mexico. the other guest is anna, a 22-year old german girl from a town near munich. the day we met her, she had just received her admission letter to med school in germany, and we went out to celebrate at seagull, a super yummy seafood place by the water, to which we returned once more today to say goodbye to cochin, and there we met neil and kath and said goodbye to the best waiter in india!

the days have gone by so fast. we've just been walking around town, eating kerala food (mainly seafood), drinking coconut juice (out of the coconut... then the flesh... mmmmmmmmmmh i wish i had tajin!)... and having lots of idly and sambar (a dough made with rice and lentils, dowsed in a spicy sauce) for breakfast. yesterday we took a boat through the kerala backwaters and it was gorgeous! we went to a super small village where the locals make ropes out of coconut shells, and had some delicious locally-made tapioca and banana chips. in the evening, we went to this dance performance and we saw many types of indian dances, including the classical kathakala. it's pretty cool. this performance involves moving every part of the body, including the hands and the eyes, and it's crazy how they move the eyes and the eyebrows to denote different feelings.

i found some videos on youtube that show some of these facial expressions. this one is great because it shows a little bit of the expressions with music, and the guy's face is painted... although the one i saw showed a guy with the face painted like this. but this other one is great because it shows the woman making the same expressions but without the face paint. finally, this one shows the whole act like i saw it.

today, we went to cherai beach, about 25km from fort kochi, where we thomas's house is. i had low expectations, but the beach was actually very nice, sandy, no algae or jellyfish or strange things floating in the water, and it wasn't overly crowded. at some point, pipi left me in the sea by myself and a couple of locals approached me and started firing questions at me: what's your good name, what's your native country, what is your work,... the typical. and, as it always happens (in the street, at stores, in restaurants... everywhere), after these guys started to talk to me, another one joined them... and then another... and then there were like 10-12 of these guys surrounding me (oh, and of course, there were no women swimming! all of them were outside, just staring at their male counterparts who were having fun at the beach... and they were fully dressed, all wrapped up in their saris and such... although i must say that right before sunset, a large group of these women got into the sea, all still fully dressed...!). they were super friendly and they all wanted to shake hands with me. they were all from "very famous college," sastra college or something like that, somewhere in tamil nadu, and they studied mechanical engineering. they asked me if i had been to all these places i've never heard of, and when i said no, they told me i should go back with them in their bus. after a little while, i felt a bit overwhelmed with all these questions (some of which i couldn't understand) and all these guys surrounding me, and i told them i'd go for a swim, so i swam away, and later pipi told me that all of them started following me but after a while most quit. apparently, it was pretty funny to watch from afar, according to pipi.

mumbai (maharashtra), wednesday 16 january

we're at mumbai airport waiting to take our flight to cochin. i thought this airport would be better but it's actually pretty lame---in my terminal, there's not even one duty free shop, the restaurant is awful, and i paid $6 (rs 240) for an insipid chicken pizza, a sprite and some chips!! plus, there's a lot of things i don't understand about the way airports work here. for example, they ask you to x-ray your bag before checking it in, and then they put some sticker on it... but you can totally stuff it with hazardous materials before checking it in at the counter if you want!

anyway, mumbai was much less than i expected. it's just another ridiculously huge city with crazy pollution and insane traffic. we were told that the sight of the sunset at queen's necklace (a causeway along the bay, all lit up at night) was beautiful... and it is quite pretty, yes, but you could barely see the sun!! and you could not see the other side of the bay at all!

to be fair, it is hard to compare mumbai to other big cities in india because its archnemesis is delhi. in terms of sightseeing and historical sites, delhi understandably wins hands down. but mumbai is the business/financial heart of the country and the hotels, the restaurants, the nightlife... that's way better than delhi. and those things were very nice, we loved the food at basilico (their filet mignon was absolutely divine! and the fact that i hadn't had beef in almost a month helped a lot) and having drinks at starboard (bar at the taj hotel) and at czar (bar at the intercontinental hotel)... but all these things i can do in monterrey or new york or any other big city... even in new haven... and that's definitely not the reason why i went to india... hence the disappointment.

we also went to the prince of wales museum. i liked the first part of the exhibit a lot, which showed all these 1400-year old sculptures and the audioguide explained the whole story behind them and the relationship amongst the different gods, etc. very well... but i expected this museum to be at least as good as the shanghai museum... but it fell short of expectations.

anyway, now we are off to the south where i'm sure i will have a more authentic indian experience!
p.s. i meant to write also about dharavi and all the slums in mumbai. i read somewhere that there are 20 million people living in this city, and 2/3 of them live in slums, which you can see everywhere you go... even right next to the runways at mumbai airport! it's crazy. but instead of writing about these, i refer you to these two articles in the economist which i read recently:
they are very good, especially the second one.
also, something that caught my attention was the stories in the newspaper. i love this one:
The cat killer
In the early 1980s Dharavi used to shudder in fear from a strange man named Nadar Mankadwala. Nadar had many pet cats and used to look after them well. Nobody knows why he suddenly started killing them one by one and drinking their blood.
When all his cats had been killed, Nadar started catching stray cats, slitting their throats, and drinking their blood. A stage came when there were no cats left in the area. Nadar then began picking up stray pups. Worried locals reported the matter to the police. They feared that his next target would be children. The baffled officers did not know on what charge to book Nadar. So, they hit upon their now patented solution: eliminate him. One morning, it was announced that Nadar had been killed in an encounter.
another interesting thing in the paper is the following:
Cold statistic: Rs57 lakh was the value of fake currency seized in the city last year.
and if you are like me and have no idea what a lakh is, let me tell you that in india people don't talk about millions and billions... instead they talk about lakhs (1 lakh = 100,000) and crores (1 crore = 100 lakhs). so, 57 lakhs = 5.7 million rupees, which is about 1.5 million dollars of fake currency! only in mumbai!!

udaipur (rajasthan), sunday 13 january

we arrived in udaipur yesterday. it's amazing that what seems like a very popular touristic destination in rajasthan has such bad connections from other cities in the state. we took the same marudhar express overnight train back from jaisalmer into jodhpur (7 hrs) and from there we hired a car (6 hrs). the whole journey was exhausting but the road trip was incredibly pretty. it was like a little summary of our whole trip in india in only 200-something km. the landscape was amazing, the sights of women carrying all sorts of items on their heads wearing fabulously colorful dresses, the many temples in the middle of nowhere---including perhaps the largest jain temple in the country, in ranakpur---, the street vendors, the sown fields. we came to a complete halt at least twice because dozens of cows were crossing the highway. herds of goats invaded our lane and our driver honked at pretty much everything that moved, be it a cow to scare her, or a couple of children playing on the side of the road to warn them, or a couple of guys sitting as if greeting them. we concluded that there's a whole system of "dippers" (how they call high beams) and "honks" that drivers use on the highway to communicate with one another. i thought of the new road construction between ranakpur and udaipur as a sign of the rapid development of the country... and we saw our first indian elephant, just there, walking in the middle of the highway!!

the city looks much prettier and nicer than the others we've visited thus far. the honking and crazy driving is still ubiquitous but people are nicer and even the sellers are not annoyingly persistent and even thank you for stopping by even if you made them take 20,000 items out and decided not to buy anything.

unfortunately, we will only stay for one full day since we're leaving for mumbai tomorrow. but we truly tried to make the most out of it! our day in udaipur was a complete culinary experience, consisting of two major events: a 6-hour cooking lesson and a lunch at the lake palace hotel. the class was divided into two sessions: morning and evening. in the morning, we learned how to make indian masala chai (tea)---and meenu's was certainly the best we've had so far!---, pakoras (fried vegetables), curries, masalas and chutneys (sauces), and daal (lentils). the class was imparted by a jain woman, meenu, very young with two beautiful children in her small house, which she also uses as a guesthouse (with only 2 rooms) and as a cafe (with only 2 tables). we were a bit afraid of eating too much in the class because everything was just exquisite but at 1pm we had our super fancy (and expensive!) lunch appointment, which we definitely didn't want to miss! somehow, we managed to eat just enough to enjoy and learn from the first session of our cooking class.

then went to the lake palace for our lunch. this hotel is supposedly one of the most luxurious in the world (madonna even stayed here only 4 days ago). it's set in the middle of lake pichola and overviews the maharaja's palace on the shore. we didn't have to wait even 30 seconds to wait for our boat to cross the lake or to get our waiter's attention. the service was just superb! we ate in a very nicely decorated room, all by ourselves, and the chef even came out to ask us how our food was! the food was delicious---but, of course- i didn't care much for the desserts. as much as i love indian food, desserts in this country are never of my liking---the only exception being the special birthday cake we got for dessert today at lunch, but even then, i was not crazy about that, in much contrast to the rest of the food.

we left the hotel completely stuffed, almost unable to walk... and the worst part is that we then had the 2nd session of our cooking class! then we learned how to make indian bread (chapati, paratha, naan, puri...), samosas and cachori, pulao and biryani (rice), and lassi (yoghurt-based drink... my favorite!) how did we manage to eat all that? don't ask me... but we certainly decided to walk all the way back to the hotel, not without first hitting the street shops, of course!

25 January 2008

just updated previous posts

some of the previous posts were under construction, and i just updated them... to read them, follow these links:

Delhi-Agra Part 3, 7 January
Delhi-Agra Part 4, 7 January
Jodhpur, 9 January
Jaisalmer, 10 January

also, i added a few paragraphs to this one:

Jaisalmer, 11 January

i will transcribe the rest in the next couple of days and i will also upload the pictures very soon... leave your comments!

jaisalmer (rajasthan), thursday 10 january

dana wrote:

ok! ¿quieren que escriba un poco de esta ciudad donde llegamos esta mañana? es lo que siempre viste en las series y programas especiales de la india en el desierto. estamos en rajastán, al oeste de la india. ¡todo brilla como dorado! estuvimos en un pueblo llamado jodhpur, bueeeno, ¡ciudad! han de disculpar... ahí todas las casitas y el color de todo en la ciudad era azul. aquí todo es como en el desierto, ¡o más bien, estamos en el desierto! pero todo parece más limpio aquí, la gente más amigable y lo increíble es los colores dentro de todo lo desértico. las mujeres se visten más coloridas que en otros lugares. pero, bueno, mañana iremos al desierto con camellos y viendo dunas. ya los dejo porque estamos teniendo una plática interesante con una australiana así que bye. desde este hermoso pueblo donde estoy sentada en la azotea del hotel con un cielo estrellado y sin mucha luz... ¡¡híjole, tienes que poner esta foto, adrián!!

16 January 2008

jaisalmer (rajasthan), thursday 11 january

somehow, since i started planning this trip, i knew that jaisalmer would be my favorite place in india... and it certainly lived up to my expectations. we arrived yesterday morning at 6am on the overnight train from jodhpur. the train ride was very nice, we slept almost all the way throughout, although dana complained a lot about the not-so-pleasant smell of a backpacker (perhaps russian?) who slept on the berth just below hers. the good thing was that this time we didn't have to worry about getting food and water.

jaisalmer is a magical place. this town is located in the desert, one-hundred-something km from the border with pakistan. the houses and the fort on top of the hill are all made of sandstone and the sun gives a golden glitter to the whole town. the women dress in even more colorful dresses and, to our delight, even though this town is much smaller than the other cities we've visited, people are a lot cleaner (although osian was way smaller and much much dirtier).

we are amazed that all hotels here have let us sleep and shower in rooms even if we arrive at 6am, way before the check-in time, or in the evening before leaving town, way past our check-out time---and they don't charge anything extra! yesterday morning, we slept until 9.30am or so then headed out to the fort. the walk from our hotel to the fort was super nice. we saw another cow giving birth and right after the baby calf was born the first thing it did was to look for its mom's udder to eat... super cute. we also saw some kids flying very colorful kites. apparently, the strings they use here have crushed glass all along and the master of the kite is that who can cut the rival's string, killing the kite's flight.

inside the fort, life is much more hectic---and everything is way more touristy. the fort itself is not as impressive as jodhpur's, but they also have an audioguide and at least the first part of the tour is quite interesting (seems like they added the 2nd half just to make it longer but the info is not very relevant or interesting).

the most amazing jaisalmer experience began after our visit to the fort, at lunch. we stopped by vyas cafe, a place recommended by dana's 2002 lonely planet guide. it was strange because the door of the place was locked but people who worked next door asked us to knock and wait. after 3-4 minutes, we were about to leave, but a very old lady finally opened the door and prompted us in. we climbed the stairs (as always, the steps are always very high) and she asked us to remove our shoes and told us we could stay inside or go to the rooftop terrace.

the place was empty. the only other person there besides us was the old lady's grand-daughter, hansa. she had trouble bringing the dishware, water, etc. from the kitchen to the rooftop because a few days back some idiot on the street spilled boiling water on her leg and now the outside part of her calf is all burned and hurts. so, although the place didn't serve alcohol and rafa was craving a super thanda kingfisher (cold indian beer), we decided to eat in their kitchen to make their lives easier. we sat on the floor and saw the lady cook everything from scratch. using pipi as our interpreter, we talked to both the old woman and the girl the whole time and it was great. we learned that the girl's uncle lived in mumbai, that her parents were school teachers, that she was very good in math and that her dream is to study at IIT, india's most prestigious technical institute. for a girl in a 80,000-people town in the middle of the desert, those are huge ambitions, and i loved it.

anyway, this whole experience was unforgettable---but, unfortunately, not only in a good way. the food was rather oily and only ok, but rafa was happy to get his unlimited roti (indian bread). after we were done with the meal, rafa gave a huge jump all of a sudden which startled us and he stood up, then tried to pretend nothing had happened. he had seen a little mouse running along the wall next to him and dana and him were very grossed out, and the poor old lady was super embarassed and very apologetic. trying not to make a big fuss out of it, we thanked them heartily and left.

in the evening, we had another unforgettable experience---this one, unforgettable only in a good way. after we came back from our tour downtown (aka, cow central---by the way, we saw a good show of cows partying, cows having sex, cows fighting, etc.), we came back to the hotel and chilled in their rooftop cafe---super nice. later, we had a very nice dinner, met the chef---which happened to be also from bihar and pipi was super excited---, and chatted it up with a few guests and the hotel staff. we got a bottle of indian whiskey and drank with everybody, then got a surprise birthday cake for pipi. by the end of the evening, the hotel people had made a fire, and we all sat around it, drank, sang local and mexican songs, and talked for a long time, which reminded me of those winter nights when i went deer hunting with my dad and his friends when i was a kid, and it was awesome.

but the best part was yet to come. today i woke up a bit late and chilled on the rooftop until we had to leave for the desert. we drove on a jeep for about an hour or so and arrived in a very small village (500 people or so) in the middle of a barren landscape. our guide showed us his house (all of them made of a mix of sandstone and camel crap), then got ready to ride our camels...

the ride was out of this world! it is not too comfortable to ride a camel, mainly because it doesn't have a proper saddle like the one on horses and your legs are dangling all the time and your balls squeezed. even so, the experience was incredibly exciting, the barren landscape was beautiful and the whole procession in a caravan amidst the golden sand dunes made me feel as if in a movie. we arrived at the campsite, we sat by a bonfire, and our guide made us some delicious chai, some pakoras and other indian snacks, while the burning branches cracked on one side and the sun set on the other.

that evening, the only thing that made me forget these exquisite images was the view of a million stars in a pitch black night and the cool desert breeze, and i couldn't help thinking of the last drawing in le petit prince, my favorite story ever.


jodhpur (rajasthan), wednesday 9 january

rafa wrote:

me parece haber encontrado a mi idolo acá en india. su nombre es akbar, de él sólo sé poco, llegando a méxico me pondré a estudiar más y a aprender de él.

también descubrí que la comida puede pasar a un término importante. lo que más me gustó de todo, fue el pan o tortilla... ¡qué barbaridad! le da un toque final a la comida que me es difícil explicar esa sensación, pero qué rico es.

por acá aluciné (sigo haciéndolo) mi restaurante. lo veo claro, ya sé cómo poner el horno para el pan, la distribución de las mesas, las charolas, los platos, los cubiertos, los cuadros, y hasta el menú... siento que será fácil igualar lso sabores, lo que me preocupa es el nan y el roti.

nunca pensé en la pobreza de acá. no me asusta tanto. en méxico la hay, y mucha. la única diferencia es que acá camine y comí en ella, y en méxico siempre la evito. pero creo que acá hay más.

en osian, un pueblo en el desierto, me di cuenta de lo afortunado que soy, pues estabamos comiendo un delicioso platillo por 10 pesos... y comer a llenar! lo único extraño es que el chef tenía tantos pelos en las orejas que juré le caería alguno a mi plato jajajaj... no sé por qué, pero creo que está de moda los pelos en las orejas y largos ehhh!!! de unos 8cm jajaja.

jodhpur es la ciudad donde encontré el palacio más increíble hasta ahora, el templo de los pájaros, ahí encajado en lo alto de la montaña, completamente rodeado de pájaros.

india es algo que nunca imaginé... sonrisas y sabores.

delhi-agra (part 4), 7 january

the next day was hell (although, i must say it, it was still fun). we hired a chauffeured car to agra and only later did we realize it was a huge mistake---even our guide warned against it! delhi and agra are only about 200-something km apart, yet the journey took us 6 hours to complete---and this is without taking into account the time we spent finding our way to fatehpur sikri (a famous moghul palace 35 km from agra, hencetoforth referred to as fps). the reason? the usual trucks, cars, rickshaws, all driving without respecting any lanes, passing on the left, on the right, using the shoulder; cows laying down in the middle of the "highway," goats wandering between the cars, people selling fake copies of dan brown's and stephen covey's books tapping on our car window... as if we never left delhi. and of course, all this happened while everybody honked like there's no tomorrow, and we listened to this honking concerto for the whole 6+ hours...

our driver got a bit cranky because the idiot had no breakfast and hadn't eaten anything. but he didn't want to stop to grab something quick, neither did he accept any of the snacks we offered him. we were supposed to stop by fps before reaching the hotel in agra but by the time we reached the city it was already too late. to make things worse, the driver decided that a better route to the palace was to go through the city, but the traffic and the general chaos was---believe it or not---even worse than delhi! then, we got pulled over by a cop. the driver asked pipi in hindi to say that this was pipi's car because he didn't have his car papers or something. we waited and waited and the cop, to avoid grabbing the attention of the passersby, instructed us (the three goras or whities in the car) to remain inside, while he attempted to get a good bribe from us through the driver. he told the driver he wouldn't be able to drive away unless he (i.e., we) paid rs 3000 (about 75 dls... more than the cost of the delhi-agra trip!). exasperated, we decided to leave the place and take another taxi to our hotel, but knowing that he wouldn't get anything at all from the penniless driver, he reduced the bribe amount to rs 1000. he asked pipi to pay the 1000 to the driver and then he sent us back to the car and extracted the bribe directly from the driver... and we made sure to deduct that amount from the total paid to the driver when he finally dropped us off in our hotel.

the hotel was very nice, a little "paradise" in the middle of this never-ending chaos called agra. it was a pleasant rooftop, where of course you can still hear the honking incessantly, but it's still nice. they have a friendly dog there at all times to scare away the monkeys and the pigeons, who would otherwise make a quick appearance to steal your food. the staff is all super nice and they helped us make plans to do all the sightseeing and change our train tix to jodhpur to a/c class, since we were warned that non-a/c would be too cold at night.

the next morning, we woke up super early (5.30am) and got ready to go see the great taj mahal. the hotel is very close-by and by 6am we were already walking towards the east gate, when it was still very dark, hoping that we'd see the taj at dawn. as usual, the ticket for foreigners is way more expensive than that for indian nationals, but the difference this time was a bit ridiculous: 20 dls vs. rs 20 (50 cents)!! however, it's interesting to see that the required fee offers more to the foreign tourists. our $20 covers a bottle of water, the camera/videocamera fee, covers for our shoes (you can't walk with shoes inside), and a nice ticket that looks almost like a postcard. instead, indians get nothing but a shitty-looking ticket.

perhaps because of the hatred between hindus and muslims, in most hindu- or muslim-specific sites we've visited, we've gone through a metal detector and a security check. the taj was, of course, no exception. we walked slowly towards the main gate, an impressively tall structure which doesn't allow you to get even the slightest peek at the architectural wonder behind it. as we walked, we became ever more excited...

we crossed the threshold, and there it was, the great taj mahal, standing imposingly in front of us. the fog was heavy and morning had yet to come, but the misty darkness gave the sight perhaps a more romantic, magical hue. we sat there and waited for the sun to come up. we had been told that the marble changes colors with the sunlight at different times of the day, and we wanted to see that by ourselves. unfortunately, the sun never truly came out because of the heavy winter fog---although, given the ridiculous pollution, we're still unsure that people can ever see the taj without that "misty hue." nonetheless, the whole place is fantastic, and we left the place electrified; somehow, having known that i have already seen the taj, made me feel like a different person.

after the taj, we had breakfast at a local place next to our hotel. the place was empty and looked a bit shady but the food was surprisingly good. the best part, though, was when rafa asked the owner if we could see the kitchen. everything was very simple but they had everything they needed including a tandoor, or clay oven. there we saw how the typical indian break, like naan, is made, and rafa even got to put one naan into the oven and take it out!

the other big thing to see near agra is fatehpur sikri. this is a beautiful palace built by emperor akbar when he changed the capital of his empire to this place. he believed in the union of all major religions, and in agreement with such beliefs, he had 3 wives---one hindu, one muslim, and one christian. the whole palace is decorated with religious motives of these 3 religions and it's really impressive---rafa even said that this place was better than the taj! i wouldn't quite agree with that statement, not because i believe the taj is better, but they are very different structures which served very different purposes... but the taj is definitely way more majestic and beautiful---although on second thoughts, the main gate of fps, the tallest in the world, i believe, is quite a sight!

on the way back, i admired the landscape. the 10km closer to the palace are surrounded by beautiful fields and natural landscapes. the road segment closer to agra is full of street bazaars and the usual chaos. i wonder why the government has not invested in a nice road connecting agra and fps, given the importance of tourism in the region---and especially given how much they charge foreigners at these places. after all, $20 go a very long way in india---just to put things in perspective, let me say that we've had entire meals for rs 40 ($1)!! so, one can only wonder what the government is doing with all the proceeds from ticket sales at these sites.

in our last evening in agra, we decided not to venture out into the city and stayed at the hotel for dinner. there we met an american lone traveler, alex, who upon hearing that i go to yale, said excited that her best friend also goes there... and it turns out that he was my student and that his roommate is some other mexican guy from monterrey... what a small world!

now, we're ready to get out of "the center" and go to rajasthan! our train departs at 6am!

delhi-agra (part 3), 7 january

the next day we woke up early and tried to cover as many sites as the heavy traffic allowed us to cover in a day. we first stopped at the baha'i temple, a huge edifice, all in white shaped like a lotus flower. the baha'i is a strange religion, kinda hippie, i remember hearing about it years ago in monterrey... anyway, they asked us to remove our shoes and to keep absolute silence inside. the experience was not precisely mystical... it was just strange.

from there we went to some of delhi's main attractions: the red fort and jama masjid. i won't write much about these sites because it will simply take too long and whatever i write won't do them justice. i will just say briefly what these are and focus more on what happened around this neighborhood. the red fort is just a huge fort built by the emperor shahjahan in the 17th century. the whole thing is very big and beautiful and if you ever visit, make sure you hire one of these authorized guides outside, because it makes all the difference to understand why this fort was built, why it was constructed the way it's built, etc. a few blocks away (although i don't think the concept of a block truly exists in delhi), another imposing construction stands: jama masjid. this is, i believe, the largest or second largest mosque in the world. we had trouble going in, first because it was prayer time, then because we had to cover our heads, then because of other reasons we didn't understand. we went for a bite and came back, and we were a bit annoyed because we had to take off our shoes to get in but the whole place is very dirty. we still went in only because we were already there but this place didn't really impress us much.

the best part of our stroll around this area (and here "best" isn't necessarily employed as a superlative for good, but rather refers to an educating/enlightening experience) was to be a part of the unbelievable chaos the streets in this area are---the wildness of the rest of delhi pales in comparison. cows, donkeys, pigs, dogs, rats, pedestrians, cyclists, rickshaw-drivers, cars, ... they all come and go in the same narrow road. there are no sidewalks or lanes... no sense of direction. people stop by to pee right in front of you and nobody seems to notice---or care. and people here must have the strongest stomachs in the world because, even in the middle of this filth, street vendors sell everything, from pani puri and samosas to chai and chaat.

it was almost unbelievable to realize there are actually some excellent places to eat in the area. we went to a small restaurant, karim's, a muslim place which seems to be an institution in delhi. we had the best lamb kebabs there and rafa claims that's the best naan he's had so far. in the evening, we went to some bar with perro, rachita and four of their friends, had a few drinks and went back home, exhausted.

on our last full day in delhi, we visited a few tombs, the most impressive of which is humayun's. the place is supposed to be a taj mahalito, although i'm sure that this is nothing in comparison, but not having seen the taj, this place is absolutely gorgeous and very well preserved. the last sight sightseeing stop was a new "temple", only opened in 2005, and a bit far from everything else---on the other side of the yamuna river. the place is called akshardham and you must see some of the pictures here or in the official site, and look it up in the internet when you have time because it is truly impressive. the place is massive and every part of it is marvelously carved... it actually holds the world guiness record for the largest hindu temple in the world... although, i must say that pipi was truly disgusted because it seems that the different stories that they portray throughout the temple are very biased, with missing information, etc. plus, everything in the temple is to adore this swaminarayan sanstha (some sort of saint) and there is not much reference to the typical hindu deities. i don't know much about that, but what i do know is that the place doesn't feel like a temple at all. instead, it feels as though the whole thing is about showing off how much money these people spent in the construction of this place. also, there seems to be some controversy going on, apparently there are some temples, like the meenakshi temple in madurai (which i will visit in this trip) which claim to be bigger... especially because this akshardham place takes into account some restaurant and different non-temple-like things they have inside the whole complex... anyway, irrespective of all these buts, the place is indeed beautiful and majestic and it is a must see in delhi.

after akshardham, we went to some random bar in defence colony. it was not too good at the beginning---i think rafa hated it because they ahd no music. but all of a sudden they started playing something and the atmosphere improved a lot. i had my first indian "scotch" here, antiquity blue, and it was surprisingly good. rahul's mom and sister joined us later for drinks, and it was really cool---rahul's mom is so young and chill, i almost forgot she is my friend's mom! to cap off the evening, we had dinner at a nearby seafood place, swagath, and it was just divine. by the end of the evening, we were incredibly tired (and lame), and even though it was our last night in "the center," as perro loves to call delhi, we went home and slept.

delhi-agra (continued), 7 january

(continued from "agra (uttar pradesh), 7 january"... except here i'm still talking about what happened in delhi)

... a few minutes later, my thoughts went back to delhi, to perro's place, and we stayed up and talked and drank rum until almost 5am.

the next morning, rahul's mom woke me up and i was so confused and jet lagged that i only remembered saying some gibberish in spanish to her. rahul's mom (hencetoforth referred to as "auntie") told me i had a phone call. it was my sister and my jijeji (brother-in-law in hindi... but i hate that word in english), and they told me the hotel where they were staying and the area it was in were horrible. i got all worried but later they realized it was not as bad as they'd initially thought, but coming in at night anywhere in delhi could be dauntint, all the cows, sheep, and pigs in the street, the inexistent traffic laws, the never-ending honking, the beggars knocking on your car window, tapping on your shoulder, pulling your arm... and while all this happens, all people stare at you and it's impossible to be invisible. we got to their hotel and they had just returned from a walk in the main south ext I market and around the neighborhood. they took pictures of a cow giving birth in the middle of the street, even though people looked at them disapprovingly.

our first day in india started with a visit to q'tab minar, a 700-800 year old temple complex built by the first muslim ruler of delhi. the most impressive structure in this site is a 73m-high column all carved with moghul motives. apparently this was originally a hindu temple, which was later taken over by the moghuls, and they scratched all the hindu symbols carved on the temple walls, columns, and used the temple for their own religious purposes. dana thought that the whole site looked very much like chichen itza or one of these ruin sites in mexico. i didn't think so but i think i understood why she thought so: the wide spaces, the mix of temples in the middle of an archaeological site, the pure mysticism that emanated from the stone. after that, we had lunch at dragon palace, a sino-indian place much-recommended by perro. a street vendor sold paan to us, a wide tree leaf filled with a strange concoction of spices which is much loved by indians seeking to digest their heavy meals. we have a couple of videos of how this is prepared, and you must watch them, they are really funny. we then headed to perro's and had tea and indian sweets at his place, which, of course, rafa devoured. it was strange enough for me to be in perro's house in delhi with his sister and parents... but it was even stranger to be with then AND my sister and jijeji, and hear them argue with sakti (rahul's dad) about religion, temples in india, etc.

we left the house and stopped by india gate (delhi's answer to paris's arc de triomphe), the parliament, the president's house and the raj path. i loved that walk around india gate, where we saw all these street vendors selling everything from chai to pani puri to pakoras to cotton candy. it was fun to see indian men holding hands everywhere and then rafa and i followed suit and dana took a picture. despite the insanely polluted air (or perhaps because of it?), the sunset was gorgeous. we then ended our evening with drinks and a delicious dinner at punjabi, rahul's favorite restaurant in delhi. the drinks were yummy... but the best was the roasted leg of lamb... it was out of this world!

10 January 2008

agra (uttar pradesh), monday 7 january 2008



may i have your attention please: 4863 marudhar express from varanasi to jodhpur WIA [some cities including lucknow and jaipur] is reported to be 1h20 late from its shhheduled time, 6h10. inconvenience cost i deeply regretted.

(note the WIA, this is how indians would normally pronounce VIA.)

we've been sitting in the "upper class wait room" at the agra train station for the last 1h15 and we've been listening to the message above constantly since then---of course, followed by various similar messages, in english and hindi, notifying travelers that all trains arriving at this station are delayed. it's been 5 days since we arrived in india and this has been---as expected---a recurring theme in our trip. but it's ok: having multiple connection with india, we had been warned that patience is the greatest virtue in this country.

india welcomed us with open arms---too many of them, actually! the first sight as soon as you get out of the luggage claim at delhi airport, is that of hundreds of people, some anxiously waiting for their friends and relatives, some standing there with a sign to pick up business travelers, some touts who want to take you to some shady hotel, and some just standing there, or in common p.o. parlance, just being frank.

(for those who are unfamiliar with these terms, p.o. stands for party office, and this is basically as my office, room b4 at 37 hillhouse avenue in new haven, has become widely known in the yale economics department. being frank just means to stand leisurely, to procrastinate---basically, to do nothing... and i will leave the detail of ths word's etymology for some other time.)

anyway, one of the people who stood there and who somehow managed to be anxiously waiting for his friends and to look frank and to look like a tout, all at the same time, was rahul, a.k.a. perro. he stood there amidst the other touts and the sardars and the sikhs and the sari-wearing women, with hi cute big grin and wearing his (brand) sneakers and his black kenneth cole peacock coat---very indian middle class, of course. he had taken us to the train station in new haven when we left for helsinki, and it was weird seeing him again, now picking u up in india, in his hometown, in the middle of this orderly chaos.

we left the airport immediately, not after having had a small argument with a group of frank people who were standing next to our car, one of whom had parked right behind us and simpáticamente refused to move his car because, according to him, we could totally get out of the spot. so, instead, he offered to give directions (and at least 3 other people followed suit), and just let us know when we were about to hit his car or the one in front of us, and so on, until we finally got out. next, we got out of the lot and tried to find directions to vasant kunj, the neighborhood where perro lives. my friend was unsure of the road because of a big detour you're required to make when exiting the airport. the roads are in extremely poor condition, there are no signs anywhere, there are people standing in the middle of the street, not dressed in uniform, giving incomprehensible traffic instructions, and unexpected intersections and bifurcation appear out of the blue. several thing came to my head at once. i remembered that article i had read on fp online a few weeks back about delhi airport being one of the bottom 5 in the world; i recalled those big signs i saw immediately as soon as i got off the plane that read "a world-class airport is coming to you in 2009. in the meantime, please excuse the inconvenience," or something to that effect. i also wondered whether my sister and rafa had made it safely to their hotel and what their first impressions of india had been, coming out into the city in the middle of the night, their first time in india, in this chaos, in a taxi by themselves.

(to be continued...)

vantaa, tuesday 1 january 2008

happy new year!!! i never learned how to say this (or anything else) in finnish, and as the days went by, i felt increasingly frustrated with my inability to understand ANYTHING of this language! but oh well, thank God most finns speak english very well, so we were able to get by without a problem.

anyway, we're now at the airport waiting to board our flight to delhi. i think the shock of visiting india will be even greater after having stayed in finland for a week. even the "crowded" places in helsinki were so sparsely populated. like last night during the new year's celebrations in senate's square. this is suposed to be the "times square" of helsinki, where everybody gathers to get drunk during the hours of the year and welcome the new year. well earlier that night around 9.30pm we passed by and there were like 50-100 people at the very most, and we heard some of the most awful rap we've ever heard---in finnish!! the kids were so out of tune that we were certain that acho was having a headache back in jersey!

anyway, the celebrations were actually not bad. we went back to senate's square around 11pm and the place was getting more and more crowded by the minute. we joined the crowd and queued to get our share of gloegi (hot red wine with dried fruits), and some finnish-style fruit cakes. on stage, there was now an a-cappella all-men group singing what seemed to be traditional finnish religious songs, and this was much more pleasant that the finnish rap we had heard earlier. the most exciting thing was the fireworks. just one block away, the whole esplanade, and all nearby parks, were full of young people lighting up fireworks and crackers, very well visible from senate's square to the enjoyment of the ever-growing crowd. at midnight, someone (i believe it was the helsinki mayor---and i was disappointed it was not finland's president, conan o'brien's twin sister) wished us all a happy new year in several languages, and a beautiful display of fireworks ensued. that lasted for about 15-20 minutes, and then the people slowly emptied the square and headed towards the esplanade, where pipi and i took a stroll until we decided to go into a french brasserie to make a toast to the new year.earlier that day, we visited the island of suomenlinna, a unesco world heritage site that julio strongly recommended not to visit in the winter due to the cold weather, but which we found very pretty nonetheless. the island is one of the largest island-fortresses in the world and was built in the 17th century by the swedes to defend helsinki from the russians---to no avail. in spite of the grey weather, we thought the walk around the island was quite enjoyable and concluded that helsinki must be a ridiculously pretty city in the summer. still, we were grateful that during this week, average temperatures have been around +4-6 degrees celsius---while, historically, they have been around -3.finally, another of the highlights of our last day of 2007 was our dinner at seahorse, one of the most traditional restaurants of typical finnish cuisine in helsinki. the fish dishes (herring and something called pike-perch, or something to that effect, with lots of potatoes) were just ok, but the salmon soup as exquisite, and the fried camembert (doesn't sound too traditionally-finnish) with very-traditionally-finnish cloudberry jam we had for dessert was superb!

anyway, plane is about to take off... see you all in delhi!!

porvoo, sunday 30 december 2007

we are at this very cozy cafe by the river on the porvoo shore. after our long walk in tallinn yesterday, and after realizing that the day would be gray and rainy today, we were too lazy to come all the way to this medieval town 50k away from helsinki. we're glad we dragged our lazy asses all the way over here. the town is very small--we probably saw the entire old town in less than 2 hours-- and very pretty. the walk along the river with old red swedish-style wooden houses would be incredibly enjoyable in the summer sun.

pipi takes over:

we also saw sunlight for the first time in three days--it's quite incredible what sunlight can be when you don't see it and it's cold as hel(!) outside. met this finnish woman while walking around and she was telling about the town and how she liked india because people were friendly and that "life was on the street." she added that the finns were shy and not talkative--no shit! she also had a chinese HAIRLESS dog--in the middle of winter in finland. poor perro was freezing.

helsinki, part II

under construction!

helsinki, saturday 29 december 2007

it's been 3 days since we left ny but we've walked and done so much that it feels as though we left a week ago. we were so sick of all the planning, of all the emails and calls we made to arrange accommodation and book train and flights in india, finland, and estonia, and we couldn't be happier that all of that came to an end, that we at last began our journey.

our trip to jfk was uneventful, but we were so happy that our flight on the 25th was cancelled. that gave us an extra day to pack, to rest, to prepare mentally for the chaos that this trip will certainly be. the flight to helsinki went by in a jiffy---thank you, sleeping pills! and thanks to those sleeping pills we were able to run up and down helsinki throughout the day almost without taking a nap, even though we arrived very early in the morning of the 27th.

it took us a while to figur out what we wanted to do. helsinki is not exactly the most tourist-friendly city: the information you get at tourist info booths is scant and hard to come by. besides, althout finns definitely try to help when you ask for directions or suggestions, they're definitely not the simpatico type. one person that was very helpful--although still quite dry-- was a lady at the information point in the rail station. she gave us plenty of information on what to do in helsinki, how to move around the city, how to get to tallinn. she also said she could help us book a hostel in rovaniemi, although it'd be difficult to find something given that we're in high season. ever since we read about this town by the arctic circle, home of santa claus, we've been really trying to go, but it's been impossible to find something. in our attempt to find a room, we came across an incredible comunity of world travelers called couchsurfer.com, whose members offer their couches to random backpackers for free. these people are simply excited about meeting other travelers and not only do they offer their couches to them, but they also pick them up at the train station in the wee morning hours, take them out for a drink, and show them around town. we definitely wanted to take part in this experience and get to know at least one of these cool people, but unfortunately all of the couch surfers living in rovaniemi would be going home or on vacation to another town for the holidays. besides, we learned that the finnish rail system only considers to be "students" those youngsters studying in finland, so our individual rate for a sleeper train would go up from 36 to 72 euro each way!! that meant to visit to santa for us this christmas... :(

anyway, we bought a one-day travel pass and ventured into the cold to explore the city. we dropped our bags at the eurohostel and then headed downtown to the senate's square and the alexsanterinkatu (alexander road). this looks like a very posh area of the city with lots of trendy shops and restaurants. we were hungry and looked for a spot to eat. walking along the esplanade (a beautiful pedestrian road in the middle of two very busy streets packed with more trendy stores and cafes), we came across the ----, our lonely planet's favorite restaurant in helsinki. main dishes were very expensive, between 20 and 30 dollars, so we decided to walk further south and look for seahorse, a finnish specialty place much recommended by my friend julio (a mex ex-pat in helsinki) and some thorntree forum contributors. it was closed..! so we went back to aleksteschingando and ended up in a kebab place--one of those few places that seemed relatively friendly to our wallets...

(to be continued)