don’t call me a backpacker…

Yeah it is kinda funny how many people warned me about how difficult India would be, a notoriously difficult place for some people, and I hit the ground running and didn’t stop.  No problem.

First off… Greece was not a place that was at the top of my itinerary of this trip, or any trip.  But I needed to stop somewhere between India and Spain.  My first choice was Tanzania, but that added like $1000 and numerous other airplanes to the itinerary.  Second choice, Turkey.  If I remember correctly, I still would have had to fly through Greece or Rome to get there from India, it’s cold now, and it would be my 5th “developing country” in a row.  The Middle East?  I would really love to, but it just doesn’t seem like a good time to be there.  Italy?  More cold and more expensive than Greece, so Greece > Italy.

So Athens it was.  Shortest stop on my trip, just long enough to check it out.

Arriving in Greece, has been difficult.  I’m angry that I had to leave India.  I spent over 24 hours in airports or planes to get here.  It’s ridiculously cold and I don’t have a coat, again. (Ok, not that cold, but I spent the previous month wringing sweat out of my clothes every day.)  Everything is expensive.

I get out of the subway near my chosen budget hotel on a Sunday afternoon to find Athens deserted.  I really have no idea where I am.  I don’t see any street signs.  The streets are almost empty, an occasional taxi drives by.  What the hell???  Oh no I bet it’s a holiday.  My good sense of direction and crappy compass lead me to the right street, that’s a start.  With some struggling I find my hotel… closed.  You’ve got to be kidding me.

It’s not like this surprised me all that much as the guide book is pretty clear about Greece’s high season and low season (winter) are pretty drastic.  So whatever, I grab a taxi, driven by a guy who looks like a classic movie criminal, and his scary girlfriend in the passenger seat.  They explain that it’s Halloween here, or as I figure out what they mean, the end of Carnival… and that tomorrow is a public holiday.  So I settle into Acropolis House, choice number two, with no problem.  I even bargained the room down to $25 Euros.  It’s closer to the Acropolis, the only thing I really want to see here, and touristy stuff.

I’m pissed off. cold. sleep deprived. lonely. depressed.  I hate it here.

Who planned this f*@king trip?

I miss my Indonesian friends.  I miss my Vietnamese friends.  I miss my Thai friends.  I miss my Indian friends.

But between then and now when I’m writing this, I’m feeling a little better.  I try think about what an enormous shift this was, two continents, massive climate change, and a 3.5 hour time change, the largest since I started.

I also think about what Sarah (American in Hong Kong) told me about… how the real shock and depression will come when I get home, and that I should mentally prepare for that.  I guess being back in Western culture now is a taste of that.

One thing that’s funny is the natives here walk up to me without hesitation and start speaking Greek (I don’t know a single word.)  That never happened in Indonesia, or India, or anywhere in between. Haha.

The hotel staff is very nice and helpful.  They gave me a map, loaned me a jacket since most everything is closed today, and give advice on what to do.

Last night the Plaka (neighborhood next to the Acropolis) was full of people for this “Halloween.”  Lots of families, people old and young, lots of costumes and silly things, horns, balloons, silly string… and almost everyone had these ridiculous plastic bats, and would hit each other (and me) with them.  Apparently this is a long standing tradition.  I just picked a cafe table for my dinner, gyro and greek salad, and watched the parade of mayhem.

I would have loved to have gone out to partake in the famous Athens nightlife on a holiday like this, but I was tired at 9 PM.  and did I mention it’s cold?

Kerala was really a good choice to see more of India.  Kochin (which is actually the area made up of several towns) is quite a busy city, but still small enough to get a feel of more normal Indian life.

I’ve had better luck with getting my hotel rooms in India, despite it supposedly being a busy time right now.  In Mumbai I got my room Bentley’s very late at night and without reservations.  Same thing in Kochin, I got my first choice of rooms which was Biju’s Tourist Home.  Clean (for India,) super nice staff, very nice priced rooms and very popular place so I met fellow travelers, including several who went on my backwater trip.  Biju’s is highly recommended if you go to Kerala.

(Hmmm, right now I’m writing this in the airport, it’s 2 AM, and I can’t focus… I can’t even remember much about the trip at the moment because I’m thinking about other stuff.  I’ll have to come back and finish this up later.  I’m on my way to Greece, more on that later too)

I did the backwater tour that Rough Guide recommended, which includes two boat trips, lunch, and visits to island villages to see interesting things.  Those things included the converting of mussel shells into calcium carbonate (if i remember correctly), which is used for a wide variety of things.  That was really interesting.  We saw the huge variety of plants that grow in the region, including fruit, spices, medicines including insulin, and the mangoa.  The mangoa, looks like a nice orange fruit, but has enough poison in it to kill 300 people.  Occasionally people use it to commit suicide, but it’s used for real as a natural pesticide. Interesting.  We also had coconuts right off the tree, and watched women make rope out of the threads of the inside of a coconut shell.  Wow!  (see the photo gallery for that stuff.)

The food was great too.  We had the option of buying a dish made of the fresh freshwater mussels.  When he asked who wanted, I was like the only one that was ready and willing, but then after I said yes, more people raised their hands, haha.  The traditional Keralan vegetarian lunch was also fantastic.

If I had had more time I would have taken another public ferry ride on the rivers.  Highly recommended.

Ok so I had written this long, witty post full of wonderful narratives when Internet Exploder (on the hotels WINDOWS pc) decided to barf it up when I hit save. Thanks. I was too upset and not feeling well to re-write it so this is a place holder.

—————– let’s try again ——————-

Here’s a conversation I have had in a many taxis from Bali to Vietnam:

(I mean no offense by this, just reporting what happens…)

taxi driver: “Where you from?”
me: “USA”
(you always get a lump in your throat when you have to tell a Vietnamy this, but I grin and bear it.)
taxi: “Ah USA. America! Number 1! hahaha”
me: “uh, yeah, we try.”
taxi: “I have a brother (or sometimes uncle) in San Jose Californeeaah”
me: “ah yes I live in California”
(then he proceeds to make unidentafiable sounds I’m assuming are in Vietnamese)
taxi: “aaahniiiooooswaaassiiinaaaoooHahaha”
me: “umm, say again?”
taxi: “aaahniiioooo swaaassiiinaagooor Hahaha”
me: “I’m sorry I don’t understand”
taxi: “Aaaniiood Swassiiinaggor”
me: “Ahhh Arnold Schwarzanegger. Hahaha”

Hue, pronounced Hway, is a very lovely town. After the bustle and din of Hanoi, I feel like I could stay here for a month just riding a bicycle around. Sigh.

The 11 hour overnight train ride was not too bad, considering the first class “soft sleeper” (4 to a room) cars were sold out. I had to settle for 2nd class “hard sleeper” (6 to a room). Hey, it’s an adventure right? I’m down with the people.

The people were all nice locals, one guy spoke a little English, asked all the usual questions, and tried to translate that the two late-40’s looking ladies (they looked like sisters) were talking about me in Vietnamese, saying I was handsome and being very “careful.” They’d understand if they knew I had a Macbook in my bag.

I wrapped the strap of my backpack containing said Macbook around my foot, and I put on my ipod on to Modest Mouse, and Godspeed You Black Emperor. Basically I would fall asleep for a while, wake up and the album would be over, start another album, repeat. So I know I got some sleep that night but I really have no idea how much. Got woken up around 4 or 5 AM for our first stop, which of course half the people woke up and got off the train. Went back to sleep.

All fine except these trains are very much a germ cesspool. I was starting to feel sick the day before on the way back from Ha Long, and as the hours ticked by on the train ride, I could feel my throat getting more and more sore.

So my Hue visit was kinda ruined by this cold. Fortunately, I was comforted by the BEST HOTEL BARGAIN on my trip, and probably in all of VN.
First, my Rough Guide to Vietnam (Sept 2006) has been great and right on with a lot of recommendations. I will certainly look at them now before Lonely Planet guides.

Binh Duong III was 1 of the highlighted Rough Guide picks for hotels in Hue. The room was one of the cleanest and nicest I’ve seen so far, and better than many hotel rooms I’ve stayed in California that cost over $100. A Balcony with a view, huge windows, nice bathroom and furniture, and get this – a computer IN YOUR ROOM with internet access. $15.
This was a great room to wind up being sick with a cold in. (until of course it crashed this post)

But I did take advantage of the computer access and updated my Wordpress blog version to 2.0.7 for all you geeks out there. It’s hard to find time to do this while traveling.

I did muster the energy (after buying a used rain jacket for $.60) to make it out for the biggest attraction of Hue, it’s old Imperial citadel. It’s really not that old, but housed the Emperors of Vietnam from around 1800 until WWII I think, when everything changed and the French were booted. It says it was left in disrepair, a lot burned in a fire in 1947, and then the Vietnam-American war pretty much did the rest of it in.

They are very slowly getting some of the buildings put back together, with some museums, but it was a staggering number of how many buildings were destroyed. Worth a visit.