So its already been 4 months since I left incredible India to come back home and "settle down" for the time being. I've managed to score a job as an accountant working with a medium sized firm called Davies Knox Maynards. Top place hey, good people, good hours, the moneys good, so overall I've managed score big time. And I'm planning to stay here for the next few years while I do my post grad degree to qualify to do my CPA to eventually become a fully qualified accountant. Yes the one thing I've been resisting against over the past number of years, I'm doing it ;) don't laugh, accountants are people too.....
But I must say its been challening coming back home...and when I say coming home, I really do mean coming home...staying with my parents. After more than 2 years of total independence living just a few kms from the centre of cities to coming back home to logan...the sticks, the burbs......its taken alot of getting used to being back in logan again...
I really miss people.....like there is just no one around. I miss having people everywhere...things happening all around....my senses constantly being aroused and challenged.....smells, sights, sounds, tastes....god I miss spicy Indian food. The "indian" food here just isn't the same. A while back I ordered a butter chicken and told them to make it as hot as they possibly can....and it really wasn't that hot. I was sweating like a royal pig while eating it, but the burning sensation of my mouth just wasn't there......so the search continues for good, hot indian food...especially cheese pav bhaji, i would dead set sell my first born child to get a cheese pav bhaji from Kanti Sweets on CMH Road in Bangalore.....
So I've been back home for just on 3 weeks now, and I've managed to come across my next little project, while I earn enough money to go travelling again. My brother cameron is big style into cars and has gotten into the competitive drifting scene in Australia. Now the only thing really keeping him back from being big is money, as this is one bloody expensive past time. So what we are starting to do now is to start up a drift team. So if anyone who sees this knows of anyone who would be interested in an alternative method of advertising to Australian youth, please let us know.
Below is my brothers car and also a link to the drift action we went to over the weekend. As you can see his car is extremely bare and in need of sponsors......opportunity sitting right here ;)
So yes its true, the India Tour '07 is over, which also means that I'm actually making this post from my bedroom back in Australia......after 2 years away I'm back. But before I move onto being back in Australia, I have to put up some photos of the final parts of our trip. So these photos are from Delhi, Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Mumbai, Goa (waiting on photos from the scottish boys, as we were too smashed to take photos ourselves ;)) and finally the last few moments in Bangalore.
Token and his family whom we stayed with for the 4 days in delhi and the India gate
Looking towards the Indian Government buildings with the presidents house at the end. Beside it a very powerful statement that is writen above the entrance to the prime ministers building.
Touristy sites in Jaipur, aka the pink city
Photos from the Teej festival in Jaipur. A festival celebrating the god Parvithi.
Sites of Jaisalmer, a desert city which revolves around this magnificant fort.
Our Camel Safari in Jaisalmer.
Sunset and sleeping in the Thar Desert on our safari....true blue desert living
Classic Mumbai, VT Station and Hotel Taj
Me and Matt acting as extras in Bollywood, staring in the upcoming bollywood and hollywood movie named "The colour of passion" and no it wasn't a porn....unfortunately
Final days in Bangalore...this is Kanti Sweets where I've spent on average 4 out of 7 days each week over the last year eating Cheese Pav Bhaji and Paneer Cheese Roll and hanging out with the guys who work here...Chidanandan, Swami and Dilip...rock on Kanti Sweets, my kitchen away from home
Final drinks with my room mates from the Indiranagar Trainee House (minus Stefan). Thanks Fuzz bucket, Nikhil with an H, Hubli, Snoop, Christian and Selmene for the good times and great memories of that house, I couldn't have asked to live with better people...Long live ITH....
And I thought that to finish off my experience in India, I'd upload these videos of what it looks like from the back of an auto rickshaw going to the centre of Bangalore.
So thats it, back home and broke as a bum. I'm already keen to get out of Australia again and see more of this beautiful and amazing world, with my eye on Latin America for the next adventure...but we'll see.
Farewell India and g'day once again to 'Straya, till something exciting happens here at home...take care all and say g'day to your mum for me
One thing that I wasn't expecting during this trip was to gain an interest in local politics. But one thing in New Delhi has changed this for me and its something that I just have to share with the world. The reason for my interest in local politics in New Delhi is all thanks to the Chief Minister of New Delhi, Sheila Dikshit. As an aussie, this is the ultimate name of a politician. Yes she is a real person and if you google it, you'll get to see some of the things Ms Dikshit gets up to.
So yeah, rock on Delhi Politics and fingers crossed that in Australia get more Dikshits in local politics, currently there are plenty, but they are just not recognised as or officially named Dikshits ;)
So at the moment me and matt are in "our" city in India; McLeod Ganj. McLeod is spelt differently as we are MacLeod, but we still feel at home up here none the less. So over the last couple of weeks we've gone from Varanasi to Agra, spent a night back at Sheela Inn, where everything happened back in 2005 for IC2005. We then went up to Amritsar for a couple of days, checking out the golden temple and chilling with the Sikhs for a bit, then coming up here to the chilled out hill station McLeod Ganj. Here are a few photos of the last couple of weeks.....
South Indian Ghat in Varanasi with Indians bathing in the ganges and the view of the sunrise from our boat trip along the Ganges
Us in front of Taj and me doing "Indian shit position"
Memories of IC2005 still remaining in Sheela Inn...they still remember us and wanted to know what everyones doing and when AIESEC is coming back to Agra
Golden temple and me and matt with fully sick Sikh standing in front of it
Border ceremony in attari with overly excited Indians running back and forth with Indian flag. It was just a big we are better than you rally with Pakistan, to see who can yell the loudest, who can stomp the hardest and who ultimately is the best......go India
View of valley in McLeod Ganj right outside of our hotel and sign supporting Tibet to be in 2008 Olympics in China...as McLeod Ganj is a tibetan colony of people (including the Dali Lama) who have fled to safety from Tibet
A view of the water fall we walked to around McLeod Ganj which was a nice 3km hike and me indulging in some Nutella after a mega hike up the hills around McLeod Ganj.
G'day all, so me and matt are currently in the holy city of varanasi. For both us being not very religious, this trip so far has brought us across some very holy sites to a number of different faiths. For example, in Chennai we went to the church of Saint Thomas, which is aparently one of 3 churches in the whole world that is built on top of the burial place of one of Jesus' deciples, which is an extremely holy place for christians. And on our way to varanasi from Nepal, we stopped by Kushinagar which is the death and cremation place of Buddha, which is a popular pilgrimage place of buddhists, as this place is also only 100 km south of where buddha was born in Nepal, 200 km north of where buddha gave his first speech, and 150 east of where buddha reached enlightment.
So yeah, we are currently sitting in Varanasi, also a very holy place to Hindu's, where alot of people from all over india and the world come to bathe, be blessed by and be cremated along the ganges. All the way along the ganges there are these ghats, which represent different places for different purposes for use by different castes, for washing, bathing and cremation etc.
Over the last couple of days we've spent a bit of time down at the burning ghats watching people being cremated. And its actually quite expensive to be cremated here as cremation is charge per kg of wood and each different wood has a different price, which leads to the differing amounts of wood that is used for each cremation depending on how much money the family has. The bodies that have alot of wood are ok, and burn away happily and don't really smell, but there was one yesterday that had hardly any wood and it stank like a mother fucker, even all the indian's around us were covering their faces to avoid the smell.
And what makes it even more interesting is when the body is quite well burnt, the untouchables who are in charge of the whole thing, move the body around so that the unburnt parts are put onto the fire and are burnt, and one of their finest moves when moving the body around is to smash the skull in, which yesterday they hit this really crispy dude and his brain started bubbling out of his smashed skull. Yes it sounds absolutely disgusting, but its not really.....But I must say that its quite an experience watching someone be cremated, at first i thought it would be just wrong and would just stink, but its definitely something to see.......
So yeah, one more day left here along side the banks of the ganges in Varanasi then we're off to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, hopefully if the sky clears up, we'll be able to see it by full moon, which is aparently supposed to be magical....but lets keep our fingers crossed. Until next time..... cheers and beers.
So we're currently sitting in Pokhara, which is about 7 hours east of Kathmandu. Its a nice place, but unfortunately its been the place where we've had a number of bad experiences that have really given a bad impression on this place. Well pretty much every single time we go to eat or just go to buy anything in general, someone tries to screw us over.
Yes this is a tourist place, in which I blame all tourists for what happens here, but when you know whats going on and how much something is supposed to cost, then its frustrating. Ok so back in India when you get a bottle of soft drink, the price is printed on the side of the bottle and you can go to 100 shops all beside each other and they'll all charge that price. Yes maybe its different here, but....on the bus from kathmandu to pokhara, we stopped in at some roadside food place and we rocked up to their little shop and we're like, can we have a bottle of fanta, so she gives us the bottle of fanta with N INR 32 written on the side (which means it costs 32 bucks), and she's like thats Rs. 70. And we're like pardon me what? It says Rs. 32 on the bottle and she's like, no thats indian rupees, so we're like, umm, its actually nepalese rupees as it says that on the bottle and even if it were indian rupees then its only Rs. 52 (as the nepalese rupee is pegged to the indian rupee at Rs. 1.6) and she's like umm, arr and then this dude rocks up and he's like no its actually from bhutan....so thats Rs. 70, so we just said thanks and walked off.
and the crappiest thing is that this happens everywhere. Every meal we've sat down for, every place has tried to overcharge on something or give back less change so its taken almost as long to fix the bill as it has to actually eat the meal. So yeah...thats my two cents worth....But unfortunately these small shitty experiences have added up to give me a bad impression of nepal and a real need to get back to India as soon as possible. I'm sure if i came here at some other time, for some other purpose it would be different, but at the moment..........
So yeah, this is a place I want to come back to, but specifically to do a trek and get out of the cities and see the real nepal......cause that is where i really feel the beauty of this country lies.....
This is my limited, but sometimes insighful opinion of life, stuff and all things Trent.
About Me
Name: Trenton MacLeod
Location: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Well I guess I would say that I'm a born and bred Aussie who is going places in this world. I've lived in Australia all my life and now I'm at the point of my life where the world is my oyster. In which there will be many adventures to be had and many stories to be told.
