Welcome to India!
The Road to Orissa It’s amazing to think we’ve only been in India for four days now, its all gone so quickly. We spent the first night in Calcutta with a couch surfer which I continue to believe to be a great introduction into any country or even new city. We had the idea to stay two days in Calcutta and then head south to the state of Orissa. Jeanie knew of a Japanese dance teacher there that she was keen to meet and spend a couple weeks learning from. It’s not the ideal time, to head straight into work from work, but that’s the way I was working out! Our flight from Bangkok was delayed by an hour so instead of arriving with some hours of daylight still remaining by the time our destination was reached it was dark outside and there seemed o be little chance of us venturing out of the house on our own. We were immediately introduced to six different people and spent the rest of the night eating, talking and mostly listening to this group of friends who occasionally remembered that Bengali was not one of the languages we spoke! They were very nice to us and it came as something of a surprise when investigating our options for heading south on the train there were no seats available for the next week bearing four pm the following day. This would mean little to no time spent in Calcutta and my inevitable hesitation at spending two weeks in a single large Indian city was upon me. Jeanie knew from the beginning I was not keen on the idea of spending two weeks sitting around as she danced for a few hours each day. I had been to Orissa on my first trip to India in 2000; avoiding our current destination, the capital, in favour of the small sea town of Puri. My original thoughts lead me to spending two weeks there while Jeanie danced however this created one old problem and one new. The idea of spending two weeks away from her knowing she was only two hours away was not one I relished, perhaps even being bored for two weeks was a better option. The second new issue was discovering the reason for all the trains being booked out. The largest Orissian festival is to take place on the 24th and as a result all the hotels and trains in and surrounding Puri are booked out. How this small town managed to hold the largest festival in this state of one point five million people I do not know, however with this being the case any chance of a cheap quiet week in Puri was out of the question. As my couchsurfing host pointed out: most likely any room that usually would go for two hundred rupees (four US dollars) would inflate to closer to a thousand! The exact amount representing my entire daily budget! Being a rational supportive boyfriend I therefore opted to mope around for a fortnight. Until now! I have just moved our stuff into a hotel room after spending two nights at a good friend of the couch surfer from Calcutta when I laid down to have a quick shut-eye. Jeanie is dancing. After a sleepless night last night thanks to what must have been millions of mosquitoes I’m tired. Lying there I decided to listen to some music, perhaps it was playing with this mini computer that made me think of my larger hunk that sat tucked away in my rucksack. The idea of writing, the idea of spending the next couple weeks writing…even if I only write on the blog any period of writing for me is a very positive thing! As I don’t have internet here in the hotel (a good thing) I will write everything out in word on my computer and transfer it over! I must go pick up Jeanie soon, our new location is only a twenty minute walk from her lesions. This is easy enough baring the fact it’s in the high thirties with some eighty percent humidity, walking in mid-day is nothing shy of a pleasure! Okay I’m off, I must write to a friend before leaving the house. I’ve never been one for writing mails out an then sending them, just not a Thunderbird man, however this concerns possibly buying his old laptop that is better than my old laptop. It’s hard to know if I’m too cheap to buy a new one or simply don’t see it as such a priority, I’ve turned into such an anti consumer it’s incredible. I feel I should take a photo of my new street and surroundings, so I will take them now and include them in this post. Speak soon, love, Jeffrey 22.6.09 And one last photo for all you electricians out there!!
