oliabroad :: Oli on his way from Munich to Hong Kong

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2010-06-04
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Diary - 2009 February (India)

2009-02-06 to 2009-02-14

Participating in the adventure - Andy meets Oli in India - a guest comment by Andy

Having not seen him for approximately ten years and knowing nothing about his project, I was just blown away from what he did, when Oli replied to the announcement of my new mobile phone number. By means of writing a hundred pages of e-mails, we quickly made close and fruitful contact again and found ourselves seamlessly continuing discussion of the philosophical issues, we started ten years ago. After I had studied his website, I was even more impressed by his adventures and when Oli invited me to meet him in India, I didn’t hesitate a second and took the decision before knowing it myself. Before telling you about my time with Oli, I have to emphasize that I really, really liked it very much! Keep that in mind! “Welcome to India”. On 06 February I arrived at Mumbai and met Oli in the front of the airport. Although both of us having gone through some evolution (and, well, a couple of hairs had decided to grow on other parts of the body) we connected immediately and I was thrown into a crowded, dirty and hot Asian metropolis, before having a chance to think about jet lags or cultural shocks. Against all odds we survived the taxi trip to the “hotel”, where Oli had arranged a room for us – probably taking into account what I wrote in one of my mails (something stupid like “I’m okay with ANY accommodation”). I found myself having learnt the first lesson of my trip: “I am a bitchy milksoap!”. The hotel was a corridor somewhere deep inside a building and far from the next window. Behind a wooden board – “the reception” – there “existed” an Indian – sitting there during the day and sleeping there during the night. The room didn’t have neither a window nor a toilet. But there was a source of water, a so called shower, in order to create some humidity in the dark room and the dark corridor. I had a tough time finding sleep at 35 degrees and 100% humidity, accompanied with untold gastrointestinal “circumstances” during the second night… Welcome to India!

During our two days in Mumbai, Oli showed me round some of the sites including the Gate of India and a Museum with Indian sacral art. We also investigated the Taj Mahal hotel and the “Leopold” (a nice bar), both of which were sites of the terror events in November. We drank our Kingfisher beer next to shot holes in the wall and windows. With regard to the shootings the whole city had been filled with security personnel. Literally on every single street corner some naive guys in uniforms sat behind a pile of sandbags and waited for attacks - equipped with impressive wooden sticks, but sometimes with ancient sniper rifles, too. Welcome to India! Our tour to the Dharavi slums was the most serious site seeing action during our stay at Mumbai. Dharavi is the biggest slum of Asia. Over one million people are living in the slums and we expected the worst when we started the tour. But astonishingly, we learnt that most of the people living there have work, electricity and water. Plastic recycling and leather tannery are the industrial branches, that most people make a living on. Dharavi also has its own school. Although it was most impressive to see this area, the tour left us with the feeling that this was not a slum. There’s significantly more poverty outside of the slum: Everywhere in Mumbai we saw people sleeping on the streets. “Poverty beyond expected” – my second learning from my trip to India.

On 08 February we flew down to Goa and – What a contrast! Yes! – It is paradise! Oli brought me to the place, where he had been at home for the last month – Palolem – this beach was like it was straight out from a picture postcard. Living in a hippie cottage we fell out of the bed each day - directly onto our breakfast terrace under the palm trees in front of the ocean. Swimming in the ocean (having the temperature of a bath tub) – enjoying Kingfisher beer in a mild breeze – feasting on delicacies like jumbo prawns (at a tenth of the German price – just like everything else) - chilling at sunset, sipping at a “sundowner” cocktail – that’s the way life should be! This amazing life style is completed by little things like getting shaved at the barber’s – including a face peeling, face massage and ayurvedic face treatment for only Euro 1,20! Now eat this! Welcome to India!

Oli introduced me to lots of people. We spent our first day at Palolem with Kerstin, a kind and lovely girl, who was writing for her studies in India. Oli had spent a lot of time with her during the last weeks, but unfortunately she had to leave on the following day. Of course other people were there to talk with, play with, dance with and drink with. It’s amazing what kind of folks are staying / living (?) on the beaches of Goa. As this place was so inspiring, Oli and I were digging into philosophical topics quite frequently - during (even more frequent) beers. Another day… and party again! A Japanese DJ had arrived in Palolem and engaged the turntables at the Café Del Mar. We had a lot of cocktails and danced until late hours. When we finally started back for home, high tide had arrived and the beach (our way home) had disappeared! Being in an adventurous and “inspired” mood, we were okay with swimming home. Not everyone was… Tim, an old Hippie-friend of ours was concerned about his money and tobacco getting wet and was afraid of swimming. Oli turned into a real hero and lead the way – swimming on his back and with one arm only – having the other arm lifted up into the air and saving Tim’s tobacco from getting wet.

The rest of our time thrived with activity. Being a biologist I was interested in the vegetation beyond the palm trees on the beach and one day suggested to explore the forest. Later we found ourselves in an ambitious and challenging expedition. The forest turned into a hill, the hill turned into a mountain and the mountain ended in a stone plateau with vertical walls. This cannot stop Oli of course and he pushed me to my limits. We found a crevice in the rock, where somebody had left a rope, leading the way up the 90 degrees stone walls. But the tail of the rope was three meters away from where we were standing. After discussing the situation for a long time, Oli lifted me up and, stepping on his shoulder, I was able to catch the tail of the rope.

Being alone down there, Oli had to climb a (way to small) tree, “reshape” its branches, bent it to their extremes and finally swung over to the stone walls where I could pull him towards the rope. Oli was quickly climbing upwards and I had a tough time fighting my fears and learning climbing (on the fly) in order to follow him. Finally we managed it, hit the target and found ourselves rewarded with a fantastic view.

Long story short: Oli created a lot of action for me: Besides climbing I had to train crawling (I’m a bad swimmer), kayaking and surfing. When returned from my trip I had lost 1.5 kg of body weight – in spite of the fantastic food and the massive amount of beer we enjoyed. The other day we travelled to the Bhagwan Mahaveer National Park and were driven through the forest and rivers with jeeps. The journey ended at a fantastic waterfall that had created an icy pool. The water was way too cold for me, but I enjoyed taking pictures of Oli, who was doing crazy leaps and headers, and the monkeys, who had also visited that amazing site. Time flew and my holidays were over – approximately one year too early. Oli, thank you for the amazing trip and the enlightening time with you! Best wishes for your onward journey! I will check your progress and hopefully will be able to meet you again, when you reach new milestones in other parts of our globe! See you! Yours, Andy

2009-02-14 to 2009-02-18

Mumbai Police took my car!

Another friend was coming to see me: Andy. Plan was to meet in Mumbai, do some sightseeing there and drive down together with my car back to Palolem in Goa.

The drive up to Mumbai was easy, because streets in this region are the bests in whole India. But the second day, around an hour before Mumbai, I felt, that something is wrong with my gearbox and when I was checking, I saw oil dropping out! Shit, another repair, which means costs and time. Time was more critical this time, because Andy just had nearly two weeks in India and would not be very interested in Indians workshops.

As it became clear for me, that we would not drive down to Goa with my car, I quickly bought two air-tickets for Andy and me - happy me they were super cheap: Euro 30 for the two of us! Unbelievable, this is less than it would have been the petrol for the car! :-)

The bad thing was, I had to leave my car in Mumbai. My guesthouse told me, I could leave it in front of the house, where I stayed. Well, I parked it a hundred meters further, because I couldn't find a better place and hoped the best. Well it turned out bad and when I came back to Mumbai, my car was gone. There were two options: First, it got stolen, second, the police took it. I quickly found out, that the police took it and so I went out with Kerstin, who had her last day in Mumbai for a nice dinner and then we went to the police station, which was quite near by. Then I felt again the 'Welcome to India'-Feeling! :-) (We use this phrase in all situations, when something works out totally different than it would back home! :-)

Of course everybody new about the stupid tourist, who left his car unattended. But also of course, there was no one in charge to give proper answers. the only thing we found out in about two hours was, that they took my car, because they thought it might be a bomb. Obvious that a bomb attacker would leave a car for ten days at a parking place and then blast it off! Well, different countries, different ways of thinking...

Well, they told me everything is save and they took all my stuff in a locker room!! What, I thought! All my stuff meant about 800kg of equipment. From food via valuables, tools, clothes, clean things and dirty things to heavy things and light and china things. They, the Indians, who do not pay attention to anything, took all my things! Oh-God!

Of course I could not see my stuff, but I had to wait for the next day! They told me I have to come in the evening. When I asked for the reason there was just the every time used head shaking, which means everything and nothing. I just thought, it's more easy to thread a tourist and bribe him in the night, when it's dark and the chief officer is not there...

I came back the next day a little earlier, because I had no nerve to wait and appointments with Indians is nothing we know from Germany anyway! :-) First thing of course was, that they told me I am too early! OK, back to a cafe and one beer later I tried again! This time I just waited for about an hour and then a nice policeman (normally nice means, they want money later) was talking with me about the danger of bomb blast in Mumbai, the 28/11 attacks, my trip, cultural differences and so on. It would have been a nice chat, when the matter I was sitting there would have been a different one! The end of this day was, that he wrote a report about my trip. But this report was more a report of a 10-year-old in school: He wrote down the whole story of my trip, including all the countries I passed since Germany, my work in Bulgaria, the exact entry dates from Pakistan to India, from India to Nepal, out again, into Nepal again and finally into India again! Very related to the case in Mumbai I thought, but as I said, different cultures... Of course I could not see my belongings this day. I should come the next day in the morning. But please not too early! :-)

At nine the next day I arrived and of course I had to wait an hour! In this hour I nearly became Indians enemy number one, because I replayed a scene from the movie with Eddie Murphy called Coming to America, where all his belongings get stolen and then the thieves offer him his stuff to buy. What happened was, that when I was sitting and waiting in the police officers room, I saw a man walking by with MY trousers, which were in my car! So I asked him, where he got the trouser from and he simply told me, they are from me! I told him, that this is not exactly what I wanted to hear and if he thinks, that this is normal, but the chat did not produce any good answers. In the next hour I was just thinking of how to burn that damn place down! :-)

After more than an hour I finally was allowed to see my stuff. Everything was on a big pile. But not how I would pack my things away, but how Indians do it: Everything was mixed the 30kg high jack with the spaghetti, the hiking boots with the business shirts, the dirtiest tools wrapped with my sleeping blanket and the like! I really nearly collapsed and told them all my bad English words I have. They figured out, that maybe they made a mistake and started as a defense to call for the guy who was wearing my trousers. They already wanted him to put them off right in front of me, but as they were totally dirty anyway and I did need some guys to help me carrying all my stuff from the 3 floor of the locker building down to my car, I thought it's better time to make friends. I gave him my trousers, which he had already on for some days, and in return he should help me with my stuff.

It took me about an hour to check everything, with the officer watching every move I made! :-) When I was ready with examining some guys helped me to bring all my stuff down to the car. The I was very lucky again, because the higher officers were not around anymore and when I ask a 2-star officer, if I could leave my car for one hour to check the internet quickly, he didn't want to take the risk and told me he does not want to take the responsibility that something gets stolen (on the police court!!) and I should move it now! Well, my decision was quickly taken and I took my car without returning ever! And also not paying any fee or whatever!

So in the end, I had a free parking for 10 days, a lot of fun, insights of Indians police work and another story to tell! :-) Welcome to India!


	Start: 2008-04-10					Oli on his way from Munich to Hong Kong				End: 2010-05-12