Selamat datang to Bali

Bali is pretty. Very. Many would say that it's basically a cleaner Goa, but I don't think that's doing justice to the place. I don't want to make claims about Bali being prettier or more interesting or anything, but the two are definitely different. Goa has its own beauty, culture and stories and so does Bali.
With that said, here's the top few things that I took back with me this last week.

1. The magical waters - the color, the majestic waves and everything below

The waters are indeed beautiful (and as I had remarked here about the waters in Croatia), are clearer than I ever expected. You see this remarkable color - the debate on whether its blue or green or turquoise can go on - that captivated me when I saw it first and continued to enamor me even after a week. Now, one may wonder why I should be so enamored with the blue color of the sea, given I have lived in Bombay (or at least close enough to it ) for the good part of my 26 years, one has to remember that if there's any debate on the color of the water on beaches in Bombay its in the shades of brown and olive green.

Just look at the blue. Swear I've never seen it in Bombay. Ever. 

The sea faces are either white sand beaches like this

Or huge rocks that the waves lash out against like this

The waters around have some of the best and easily accessible corals and aquatic fauna in the world. The short snorkelling trip was proof for it and definitely inspiration to brush up those swimming skills and upgrade to diving next time!

2. The temples
Bali is a 95% Hindu region and are these people religious! They have a lot of daily temples. Of course, there are the really famous ones - the ones that have been recognized by UNESCO and all. We saw a couple - Tirtha Empel and Ulu Watu. I love Ulu Watu - it's on a cliff and offers a splendid view - the huge cliff going all the way down the ocean and huge waves coming and lashing against the rock!

The ulu Watu temple is the three tiered conical roof structure you can see on the cliff behind me

The cliff that you can see from the temple

But apart from these, there are temples everywhere you go. People say that if you throw a rock in Bali, you'll probably hit 10 temples and that's probably true. Cause there aren't just the temple complexes, but every home has a temple in its compound and several shops have temples just outside the door.

A temple outside a restaurant

3. The offerings
Religion is clearly a big part of their lives. It's not just in temples that have been built and forgotten. Everywhere in Bali you will see these offerings. It's some flowers, sometimes a ball of rice and a incense stick in a bamboo basket. You will see it at all times at all places - in temples, in homes, outside shops, or at the door of a bar!

4. The doors
So there is a lot of artwork in Bali all around - wood, gold, silver, stone - lots of things. A lot of furniture is really intricate and ornate. A lot of walls are filled with very delicate carvings. The temples are of course very ornate. But the one thing that really stood out for me was the doors - the gates to enter a compounded space, the archways to mark the end or beginning of a city, or the door to enter a house. The gates are mostly pillars on either sides, with flat walls on the inside and pointed peaks. The doors are often made of intricate wood carvings plated with metal sheets

Entrance to a beach

Entrance to a hotel

Another hotel

A replica of a door from the Jimbaran style of architecture

5. The food
Bali is a paradise for seafood lovers - lobsters, prawns, fish, clams! I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Shell fish

Crab

Prawn or the way they call it - Udang

6. It's more than just beaches. 
When you say Bali, you think beaches. But it's more than just that. There's the temples, and the art that we've seen earlier. But even in terms of the natural landscape there are the beautiful mountains.
The central Ubud region is home to a lot of mountains, many of them volcanoes.

Mount Batur

It's a beautiful landscape. You can see the mountain standing tall and the conspicuous lack of vegetation on the black soil marked by the lava from the last eruption. And then of course the charming rice terraces.

Bali was great. Signing off with a shout out to the people who made the trip what it was!

That week in Sri Lanka

There's something about photographs. They have this uncanny ability to bring back the people you were with, the conversations you had, the sounds that surrounded you and the feeling that defined the moment. And somehow, I can't think of many photographs which make me sad. Most just fill me with a warm, fuzzy feeling. Now that could be because we tend to click photos when we are happy and not when we are sad. But I also think, it's because our mind selectively chooses to remember the good parts and forget the not so good ones. For instance, looking at a photo with a bunch of friends at shack on the beach, one remembers the conversations, the breeze, the beautiful sunset, maybe even the music that played but rarely do we remember the bad service or the noisy people on the neighboring table or the wave that splashed and damaged your phone.

So, there's something about photographs, which brings back a bunch of feelings and the right ones. And I've really wanted to post about the trip to Sri Lanka for a while now. Also, I'm feeling kinda lazy. Also, Sri Lanka is beautiful. So, here we go -

This was my first glimpse of Sri Lanka. Quite literally. We landed at about 9 pm at Colombo. Got into a cab straight from the airport and landed at Kitulgala where we were to raft the next day. This was the sight that greeted us when we woke up in the morning. 

This was a pit stop we took on our way to Nuwara Eliya. The view was so good, you could see layers and layers of mountains and a lake long into the distance, we wished we could have just stayed there.

We did a hike known as the 'World's end' in Nuwara Eliya. This picture was what we saw as we were beginning the hike. Flat plains on both sides extending as far as we could see. The hike alternated between flat plains like above and rainforests. And finally after about a 4 km hike we reached the end of the plateau to see the 'World's end'. 

Honestly, I wasn't very impressed with the view and I made it quite clear to everyone when I proclaimed quite clearly in English "This view isn't too impressive, na?" causing about two dozen other people to turn around! This was basically the end of the plateau, and one could see the valley extend ahead. Clouds had descended into the valley and it's said that on a clear day one could see as far as the sea. Clearly, the day we chose wasn't clear.

As we continued the hike after seeing the 'World's end', we passed along this waterfall. What I really loved about this view was the bright blue sky. The color of the sky was the textbook blue that you read about and the poster color blue that I used to paint the sky as a kid. 

After Nuwara Eliya, we spent some time in the forests of Sinharaja. Sinharaja was quite an experience. There was no mobile network. Just one landline in the whole resort that worked. That too, only intermittently. We went on some jungle trails, jumped into some natural pools and waterfalls and saw a surprisingly large number of colorful but dangerous looking spiders. The other amazing thing about Sinharaja was the food. This was probably the only place where we had some authentic Sri Lankan cuisine. We had some coconut filled pancakes, omlettes, curries, dry chutneys and loved it all!  

I can't seem to find many pictures of the two days we spent there. Probably an indication that it was good enough to keep us so engaged that we forgot to click pictures! 

After the forest of Sinharaja we headed straight to the beach! We were staying at a relatively small place called Hikkaduwa. This was the place where the waves splashed and got us drenched. Thankfully they didn't get our food, like they did to a few unlucky tables. 

The beach was beautiful. Showed us a beautiful sunset and a beautiful sunrise the next day. 

We made a half-day trip to this quaint little town called Galle, which has a cricket stadium, a fort and a bunch of absolutely cute looking eating places, like this one here. Our evening in Galle was also interesting - we did a little bit of a cycle ride to go around the town, again witnessed a beautiful sunset and went through a couple of hours of a pan-country electricity cut-off.

So that was a glimpse of how Sri Lanka looked to us. I am going to sign off with a shout out to the bunch that really make these photos and memories come to the life! I hope we do more of these, guy!

An evening in Krakow

The right time to stop eating is when you think you can have a bite more. Similarly I guess the right time to leave a place is probably when you think you would have liked to spend a few hours more. You leave the place wanting to come back some other time. That's exactly what happened with Krakow. 

We had just one evening to spend in Krakow. There wasn't much to do there apparently. No famous palace or museum. I too had decided to go to Krakow because it was the most comvenient place from where one could visit Auschwitz. We landed at the Krakow railway station about 4 and decided to first walk to our hostel and drop our bags. The path we had to take was strewn with the sights and monuments of Krakow and we had seen half of what we eventually saw on our way to the hostel itself. We stopped at the main square for a bit to watch a group performing some hiphop street dance. The square is bound by the cloth market on one side, and two churches at two corners. All along the sides of the square are pretty looking cafes with outdoor seating. Along one side you can find a row of horse carriages. Most driven by smartly dressed young women.

As we walked down the narrow cobble stones streets, I saw this interesting uni-cycle. Unfortunately, I was only quick enough to get a back view.

And soon we had reached our abode for the night - The Little Havana Party Hostel.The hostel takes its name really seriously - partying hard. They even sent us a mail saying we should cancel the booking if we didn't like parties. But it was a lovely hostel. They gave 3 free beers which I didn't care much for but also 1 free burger which was not bad and quite welcome considering we had hardly eaten the whole day. 

This long hall is the cloth market. It is an old building that was historically inhabited by cloth merchants. Today it is still used as a market, but not specifically for cloth. You have an assortment of stalls ranging from amber jewelry to furs to small souvenirs.

Below is the cloth market from outside. Around the cloth market is the main square of Krakow. On different edges of the square are some churches, towers and other historical buildings. Seeing whether the building is aligned along the edge of the square or not is a good way to tell whether the building was built before or after the cloth market. 

Along the sides of the squares were also several pretty cafes, all with outdoor seating. 

As the sun set we just walked around the city with a map, identifying buildings as we walked past them. There were a lot of churches, and almost every church seemed to have some concert. It looked like the churches had concerts almost every day. It was a regular affair. We decided to see one. It was supposed to be classical and film music. I could identify only one song - the track from Schindler's List, nevertheless the concert was really nice. The setting of attending a concert in a church was new to me and seemed to add to the experience. 

Music in Krakow wasn't limited to concerts. There were musicians or singers on almost every street I walked on. This man was playing the violin on the street. He was playing so well that a couple of old couples started dancing on the footpath!

 We stood by the river for a while and then hurried to see the museum of the underground city. They have apparently preserved an underground city. Alas we reached too late and couldn't see it. Then we walked all around the city looking at appetizing restaurants and rejoicing about how much cheaper Poland was compared to Western Europe. Unfortunately, we spent  a tad too much time rejoicing and soon places began to shut down. Eventually we had dinner at the faithful old friend called a Doner shop. 

We ended the meal with a lody each. That's what ice creams are called in Poland - Lody. You get amazing flavours and they are much cheaper compared to Western Europe - sometimes even India. 1 scoop for 0.75 cents. I had tiramisu, mango and coffee over the three days I was in Poland and loved all of them! 

After the dinner we walked around the city for a while. Unlike some other cities, we'd been to earlier, Krakow didn't go quiet at 8. It was quite up and alive till midnight, when we finally went back to the hostel - with people in the street and street musicians keeping the atmosphere alive. I had a lovely evening in Krakow - and I know I owe it to the people as much as to the place, but Krakow was lovely and it's definitely on the list of places I want to go back to. Hopefully soon. 

What I would do different if I wasn't on a student budget

I am writing this list to my future self who may laugh at it and hopefully be rich enough and young enough to do things differently! 

• Not eaten from super markets in Norway. Eating bread and nutella for any and every meal is indeed sad. Not eaten pizza or noodles in Paris! 
• Cancelled the train and stayed in Stavanger after the body breaking trek that Kjerag turned out to be. 
• Not take Ryan air flights from godforsaken airports.
• Taken a river cruise or eaten at one of those boats that take you through the river in the evening in Paris 
• Eaten in those pretty looking cafes with outdoor seating in cobblestoned streets - in Salzburg, Werfen, Krakow, Koeln, Paris and i guess every European city I'll go to. 
• Seen a show and had that dinner worth 180 Euros in Moulin Rouge. 
• Taken the Thalys from Koeln to Paris. For the experience, convenience and time saved.
• Gone inside the castle/ palace at Salzburg having done the 20 minute climb to the gate and for the better view of the city it promised.
• Visited more museums in general. Every city I've been to has loads of museums and I haven't gone inside several thinking they are huge, I won't have time to see them properly and hence do justice to the exorbitant fee I would be paying to enter. If I wasn't on a budget, I'd probably think less. 

That said, I am thoroughly enjoying going around Europe on a student budget and some of these constraints are making for wonderful stories I'll remember for a long time.

Comment with things you'd like to add! 

Isn't it good? Norwegian wood

Norway is magnificent. I don't think I have  the literary genius to convey how beautiful the country is. So I am just going to share some glimpses of how Norway looked through the camera. Let me add, I don't have the photographic genius to capture what my eyes actually saw either. Treat this as an amateur's attempt and just take my word for what it's worth when I say that you must see Norway for yourself. It has changed my definition of beauty forever. I am scared nothing else may seem beautiful ever again.

It was raining all the way during our train ride to Myrdal, but even the view from the rain drenched window was so pretty!

~I hear the drizzle of the rain, like a memory it falls, soft and warm continuing, tapping on my roof and walls~

This picture somewhat captures our introduction to the fjords and is what will define that first cruise from Flam to Gudvangen. At every turn we saw yet another mountain and yet another shade of green. There was the fresh, light green of the meadows at the bottom and the deep, dark shade of the conifers on the top, that somehow gave a whole new meaning to Norwegian woods. Added to these were the dark grey shades of the rocky mountains, the white patches of snow on the peaks and the rays of golden sunlight poking their way through the clouds, which seemed to be the final stroke in this masterpiece of a painting.

I felt really overwhelmed by just the vastness of the geography. The mountains are tall. They are like tall walls that can keep the sun out. And the waters are vast. The tiny specks that Akshita and Avinash look like in this picture is the best I found to capture how tiny I felt. It's one of those sights that makes one think about how small and insignificant we humans actually are and how powerful the forces of nature can be. 

"If people sat outside and looked at the stars every night I bet they would live life differently"  - Calvin and Hobbes 

We talk about seeing things which look their straight out of fairytales, but this sight was straight out of my childhood drawing book. For years the most cliched scenery I drew was mountains in the background, a stream flowing, trees around it and a few dainty houses dotting the landscape. I drew it I think mostly because that's how I was taught to draw a scenery and I may have seen it as an illustration in a book. But I doubt I had seen such a close version of that for real.

This was on the way to Kjerag. We were on a narrow, winding road that seemed to reveal a new sight at every turn.

This was on the flat stretch at the very end of our trek to Kjerag Bolton. There were mountains stretching till as far as my eyes could see. And not like I've been on a lot of mountains, but I think I've seen my fair share, but I've never quite seen rocky ones like these. I had a similar overwhelming feeling as when I had earlier seen the fjords, but in this case I think it probably was just born of fear. One thought that I think continuously ran through my mind was what if I got lost in this maze of mountains.

So yeah, maybe they weren't the mountains of my dreams but I definitely had to keep telling myself to it wouldn't be as hard as it seemed.

~Standing on a hill, in the mountain of my dreams, telling myself it wasn't as hard, hard, hard as it seemed~

The trek was challenging and I was scared. But as scared as I was the sight of standing in between and seeing mountains on all four sides, extend till as far as my vision and the clouds would let me see was quite something. It's a pity the camera can't capture the cold wind blowing into my face and the shivers running down my back. 

Panaroma from the climb

I saw this glorious sunset from a ferry in the Fjords. The water body on either side stretched far and wide till it was finally contained by the steep and rocky mountains. The sun blazed through the clouds, letting its light reflect on the water as well as the rocks and the mountains, seas and skies seemed to be competing for creating a riot of colours. 

~The sea was red and the sky was grey, I wondered how tomorrow could ever follow today~

The riot was over. Games had been played. The colours had settled into a peaceful portrait. 

~Shaam bhi koi jaise hai nadi leher leherjaise beh rahi hai~

Norway was magnificent and majestic. And I don't think any of these pictures can capture what we saw and felt. Even while I was there, I felt overjoyed with the sights, which are like a never ending  feast to the eye, helpless knowing that these sights were going to be fleeting and hopeful that I would somehow find a way to keep everything I saw and felt with me long after I had left at the same time. So long, Norway! Hope I see you again! 

Before I sign off, cheers to the people with whom I shared these amazing sights. 

~Good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye, singing this'll be the day I die~

Hello, Oslo

I did some sort of a walking tour of Oslo in two parts – the first one being the day we started our Norway trip and the second the day we ended it. The rain played a little bit of spoiler both times – we all got wet and then really cold. And it wouldn’t let us take our cameras out at times. But Oslo, was basically the first European city I saw properly, after the fleeting glimpses of Koln the previous day and of Bruxelles that day while on our way to Charleroi. So notwithstanding the rain, or maybe cause of it (courtesy having lived most of my life in Mumbai or to be more precise, Thane) I quite liked Oslo.
The first thing that I fell in love with were the cobblestoned streets, and I couldn't stop Sound of Silence from playing in my head on a loop. 

Karl Johans Gate

~In restless dreams I walked alone, narrow streets of cobblestone~

The next thing I fell in love with was the bright colours of the building. I encountered those bright coloured buildings first in Oslo, and then kept seeing all through Norway and later in other European towns as well. I still haven’t gotten over the freshness of the colors. They are straight out of the set of 12 poster colors that I used as a kid – you could identify the poster red, cobalt blue, prussian et al.

                     

             
Oslo, like most towns and cities in Norway is a coastal city with a harbour worth watching. I've heard Oslo has a spectacular coastline, especially at night. Unfortunately, we couldn't catch that but we did visit the harbour.

The harbour

We saw all the touristy places such as the Royal palace, and the parliament. Honestly, I was rather disappointed in the Royal palace. The Main building at R was more imposing and beautiful than this. And maybe having seen so many palaces in Rajasthan, one just expects to see something really grand and rare.

Oslo, was pretty, rainy and cold. And if I am adding adjectives, how can I miss expensive? To plan your first trip to Norway is a bad bad idea. One would find all of Europe expensive compared to India, and Norway is expensive even by European standards! That first day in Oslo, was so difficult. We just couldn’t get ourselves to pay 3 euros for a coffee!

By the second time we came to Oslo, five days later, we had gotten used to Norway and bought ourselves a nice hot breakfast of waffles and coffee. 

Of course, that breakfast wasn't half filling and we couldn't stop ourselves from shamelessly staring at those delicious macaroons through the store window! 

Before I sign off, a big shout out to the people who I walked around Oslo with! Cheers!