Date: March 23, 2007
Location: Singapore
Next Location: Malaysia, West Coast
Departing Singapore: March 24, 2007

Leaving India

I spent far less time in India than I had originally planned. There was a lot that I didn't see, but a lot that I did experience. The weather was a lot more tolerable than I had expected. Kerala was warm and partly cloudy with a gentle breeze.

The people were friendly and helpful all over India. Of the people that were helpful, 99% didn't help me for money. Only in Mumbai did people help for profit. The throngs of beggars never materialized, I looked and looked but I guess they were busy elsewhere. Of the beggars I did encounter, none were aggressive, unlike San Francisco where sometimes people will harrass you for several blocks to get a quarter.

The night life in India was rather disappointing. Large cities like Mumbai had a lot to offer, but even large cities elsewhere had nothing exciting at night. I guess the Indian people, who work hard and long hours, don't go to plays, or performances at night. Many people work 6 days/week and have Sunday off. At most places I'd see the same person at 7am and 7pm. Dinner is usually at 7pm-10pm, and restaurant service is very slow, so going out on the town must be difficult if you work long days.

I didn't get any diseases despite not taking medication. Malaria is not as prevalaint as Americans fear, although if I was bitten by a malaria carrying mosquito the symptoms could show up 4 weeks from now, so maybe I shouldn't sound so snooty. I should mention that I was bitten by mosquitos a 1001 times. I should've brought a mosquito net rather than a tent. I have mosquito clothing, and you'd think that such clothing would be cool, but in the heat of the night I preferred the mosquitos to the protective clothing. Even the air-conditioned rooms had a few mosquitos. I prefered rooms with fans over A/C rooms because the A/C rooms got too cold and your choice was no air or cold air. The honeywell thermostats never offered anything over 30 celsius, and even that felt cold after a while.

I have a water-filter, and an UV water purifier, but never used either. Only once did I get kinda-very sick with food poisoning. I say "kinda-very" because sometimes bad bacteria can make you vomit, and I was fortunate not to experience that. Several times I rode my bicycle with diahrea, but with physical fortitude that was never a problem. I never take medication for such ailments, it's a normal and important part of your defense mechanism, although if I were in a meeting for 8 hours, I'd consider medication. I drank normal water until my stomach felt bad, then switched to bottled water until I felt better.

The Indian food was always spicier in non-tourist areas. The resort food was never very spicy, although they never mentioned making mild meals. Every restaurant offered Indian and Chinese food, but most of the times the Chinese food tasted more Indian than Chinese. The vegetarian fried rice had a few slivers of carrot in them, this was common everywhere in India. I wondered if the beef fried rice had only a few toothpick thick slivers of beef in them. Certainly not the fried rice I'm used to in America.

I often opted for American comfort food, but never found pancakes, omeletes, or decent french toast. The last hotel I was at in Cochin was the Abad Airport Hotel, but it wasn't a bad hotel at all, infact it was very nice. They made excellent Indian food, but their menu promised "fluffy" omeletes and the omelete was as thin as a few sheets of paper. It was the only place where I found American pancakes, but they were only similar to "Silver Dollar" pancakes, very small and thin. They also offered french toast but something didn't taste right. I think the batter was a few centimeters thick, but I didn't mind because they had maple syrup instead of ketchup.

The internet cafe's in India weren't really cafe's but hot cells with old computers. In Mumbai I found a cafe that had one computer hooked up to the internet, but an employee was always on it. Only once did I find an internet cafe that had many computers and offered food & drink. Most of the time, sitting in a hot cell with an old, slow computer and slow internet access, I just typed a few notes and never went into detail about my trip. I say that now because I'm in Singapore with fast computers, fast internet, and an air conditioned room. Very comfortable and I could sit here for hours, but I haven't had breakfast yet and its 12:10pm., so I'll just type a few things about Singapore.

Singapore

Singapore is more manicured than Disneyland, very beautiful and clean. Every street is like main street, except not crouded. It's a lot more spacious than I expected. My first perception was that there are a lot of young people in Singapore, but my hotel (The Strand Hotel) is next to three universities, so I feel like I'm in the middle of UCLA, or at least in famed Westwood where all the UCLA kids shop and hang out. I don't think that I mentioned the noise in India. Lots of honking, I mean lots. That's how they avoid accidents in the midst of chaos. Add to that all the honking of people saying hello to me as a bicycle-tourist, and I wished to never hear a horn again. Well, I got my wish. Singapore is the quietest city I could ever imagine. I have yet to hear a single horn. Most every pedestrian uses the cross-walks, instead of the streets being filled with people trying to cross the street like India.

In India, except perhaps Mumbai, cross-streets were uncommon. Once you were on a street, you either had to turn around or get lucky. I found this out many times when on my bicycle I would would ride on to make the next left or right to get to the next street over. Never wanting to go backward on my bicyle, thinking that it would just add km to my trip, I'd sometimes end up full-circle or totally lost if I weren't on the exact street.

I'm hungry so I'll probably add more later. Like why I left my bicycle in India bought a new Trek bicycle in Singapore.

-Rick