Corey writes:

We left Mumbai early on Thursday morning and flew to Visakhapatnam, and then took an SUV to Koraput. Gina and I had traveled this bumpy road a few times before, but it was a new experience for Chris and Jackie. I think they have a newfound respect for American roads. Here’s a short video that Chris took:

Once we arrived in Koraput, settled our luggage and stomachs, we headed out to get some Koraput lassis and dinner at the Raj. This was Chris’ first time experiencing a Koraput lassi, and his mind was sufficiently blown.

The next day was the official guided tour of Koraput by Gina and I. We took Jackie and Chris to the markets, the Jagannath temple, and the Tribal Museum. After my sister & brother-in-law and my parents, Gina and I are professionals at the Koraput tour. But we still enjoy showing our home to our friends and passing on a little of our earned knowledge about the town.

Jackie bought a beautiful sari.

And got her nose pierced. This is becoming a Koraput tradition.

That evening we threw a party at our house for all our Indian friends to meet our American friends. It was a similar format as past parties: we provide the fried snacks, sweets, soda, and foreigners; our Indian friends are the DJs and dance leaders. Everyone has a good time. My guy friends here in Koraput went over the top and brought a whole chenna poda decorated to say “Welcome to India”. This was an excellent surprise and really made me proud of my Indian friends.

My friends Bhabani and Masi breaking it down.

Indian air guitar.

The next morning we ate Spanish Tortilla for breakfast (my recipe in next week’s blog). This was followed by Jackie and Chris’ laundry lesson. While they enjoyed the experience, I think they also appreciated the work that our machines do back home. We had planned on touring one of SPREAD’s villages that morning, but the plans fell through because of an all-Koraput strike! Chris and Jackie got to experience how unpredictable India can be sometimes. So instead we walked to the SPREAD office so they could see where Gina works and meet some of her co-workers.

After that we went to the stadium near our house where a big health camp was taking place. Health camps are regular occurrences here in Koraput and are pretty effective. Since many people don’t live near paved roads, it’s difficult for them to travel to the hospital to see a doctor when they are sick. Many diseases end up going untreated or end up getting to an emergency stage. By focusing on a one or two day event format, the government or NGOs are able to bring together doctors of many different specialities, drug distributors, and patients in a way that makes sense. This was a good thing for Jackie and Chris to experience.

For lunch on Saturday we had a cooking lesson: mushroom paneer curry with roti and mixed pickle. I think our guests were pleasantly surprised at how easy Indian cooking can be. The results were delicious and devoured within a few minutes. We made another trip in to the market and then spent the rest of the day relaxing in our house.

The paneer mushroom curry

Sunday was our last day in Koraput, and it was also Holi. We had all started getting excited for Holi a few days before when makeshift stalls started showing up all over town hawking the brightly colored dust. Of course we purchased one of each color.

Before hitting the town and getting dusted, we ate a hearty breakfast of poori with channa curry. This is my second favorite Indian breakfast, next to dosa.

We spent the next couple hours walking up and down the main road into the town center saying “Happy Holi!” a million times, shaking people’s hands, and having color powder rubbed on our face, neck, and hair. It was a great time, as you can see from the results:

We left Koraput on Sunday evening by train and woke up in Bhubaneswar the next morning. Chris and Jackie got another taste of Indian spontaneity there. We decided to get off the train early at the advice of a new Indian friend we met on the train. We then had to scramble to the booking office, find out the details of the next train to Puri, book four tickets, and get to the correct platform: “3 or 4” said the fellow behind the window. We went to platform 3, and sure enough, a Puri-bound train pulled in. We got on and breathed a sigh of relief. Just as the engineer gave the warning toot of the horn, another train pulled in to platform 4, also going to Puri. We looked at our tickets and then at the other train, realizing with panic that it was ours. We were too late, as our train (the wrong one) started moving along the tracks. “Well, at least we’re going to the right place” we said to each other. Like many of our adventures in India, this one turned out all right too. The ticket taker never came to our car, we had plenty of room (the right train was packed), and we made it to Puri in half the time we anticipated.

After checking in to our hotel in Puri, we took a short stroll on the beach. There we met a woman who spoke good English and offered to cook us lunch in her home in the nearby fishing village. Gina and I are so used to touts (even women touts) and scams here in India that we really didn’t take her seriously at first. I even tried blowing her off with the Indian “Yes, we’ll come tomorrow, definitely.” But she still persisted in an earnest way, asking me to talk to my friends about it and “promise” we would come. Something about her earnestness convinced me this wasn’t a scam and that it might be a cool opportunity to sample Puri cuisine in someone’s home. So, we agreed to meet her in the same place on Tuesday for lunch.

The fishing village near Puri beach

We relaxed the rest of that day and ate dinner at the excellent Honey Bee (real pizza!). The morning Chris and I rented mopeds, Gina and Jackie recruited a rickshaw, and we all took off for Konark Sun Temple. Gina and I did this trip by moped last year at this time, so I knew Chris and I would enjoy it. It’s a beautiful stretch of about 35 km that has beach views, long flat rice fields, and shady forests. Unfortunately, it also takes over an hour by moped.

By the time Chris and I arrived at Konark, it was already 11:30 and we were supposed to be back in Puri to meet our lunch friend at 2pm. We quickly hired a guide and set off on the short version of the temple tour. Still I think Chris and Jackie really enjoyed the experience. Since we’d been there before, Gina and I opted not to pay the Rs 250 entry fee and watched from the perimeter.

The base of one wheels that surround the temple

Gina really is that tall, I swear.

It was 1:30pm by the time we left Konark: “We’ll be Indian late” we told ourselves. We ran out to the beach meeting spot at 2:40pm, frantically looking for our host. We got nothing but a bunch of stares from the locals. We searched and waited, but no luck. Defeated, we had a beer for lunch.

On Wednesday, our last day together, the four of us piled into another SUV and hit the road south to the town of Satapada, which is on Chilika lake and renowned for the freshwater dolphins living in the lake nearby. We arrived and hopped into a rickety boat with a rusting engine and headed out for a 3 hour tour (no Gilligan jokes). The tour was fun, but the dolphins were a little disappointing. I really just enjoyed the boat ride on a beautiful day with my friends.

The view from our boat.

For some reason, all the Indian tourists on the lake rented cowboy hats.

After Satapada, we headed for the Bhubaneswar airport and said goodbye for now to Jackie and Chris. Gina and I caught our own train back to Koraput later that evening: exhausted, missing our friends, but glad to be headed home.

Gina writes:

Our friends Chris and Jackie were here to visit us for about 10 days. We arranged a trip for them that showed them the various sides of India -- urban and rural, rich and poor, bustling and relaxing.

The visit started with a 4-day stay in Mumbai. We thought the 2nd largest city in the world, with 14-20 million people (depending on the source) would be a crazy, but true introduction to India.

We met them at the airport a little after midnight, in true Indian fashion.



Then we zipped off to the Traveller's Inn, a simple but fantastic place that was in a great location; we'd highly recommend it to other budget-minded travellers (Rs. 1,400 or USD 31 for an a/c room!).

During our first morning in Mumbai, we walked to the Gateway of India. The destination wasn't as important as allowing Chris and Jackie to experience the sights and sounds of India for the first time, and giving Corey and me a chance to get the feel for a new city.

I was expecting Mumbai to feel a lot like Delhi, old and dirty and loud, with very little (on the streets at least) that could be called peaceful or beautiful. But the Fort area of Mumbai where we were walking was exactly that, filled with huge, gorgeous buildings, wide streets that were relatively clean, and lots of trees and greenery.



I don't know anything about architecture, but the style of the buildings really amazed me. It felt more like a well-preserved European city than an Indian metropolis.



We only walked for about 30 minutes before reaching the Gateway of India, a monument built to welcome British dignitaries in the early 20th century. The Taj Mahal Palace hotel is here too, a cool building to see. We took a short half-hour cruise to see these structures and more from the harbour. A good introduction to Mumbai!



In the evening, we walked to Victoria Terminus, the main railway station in Mumbai. It's a UNESCO World Heritage site, so the building itself is neat, but it also sees 2 million people pass through it every day, so was interesting to visit, especially since we didn't have a train to find!





The heat and the jetlag were a lot for our guests to handle, so we didn't plan much else for the first day. That was okay, since we really wanted to just hang out and catch up after not seeing each other for 17 months! Corey was especially happy to have some drinking buddies!



On day 2, we spent the morning on a "slum tour" run by a company called Reality Gives. The tours in Dharavi, a large slum on the outskirts of Mumbai, limit tour groups to 4 or 5 people, prohibit cameras and hand-outs, and focus on the slum's huge, thriving industries. Dharavi is home to 10,000 small (unregulated) factories, on which the estimated 1 million people make their living. Businesses manufacture everything from pottery to leather goods and generate an estimated $665 million a year in revenue.

It was interesting to see the industries and the complexity of the slum. We saw the plastics and cardboard recycling area, where companies around the world get their plastic pellets. We saw woodworking, soap, and biscuit factories. We walked through dark, tight alleys with tiny rooms, some of them pictures of the squalor that you'd expect, some of them with satellite dishes and bright tile floors and refrigerators. It was still a sobering sight that made my stomach flip a few times, but it was nice to see the hope behind the hovels.

There's a popular discussion in development about the pros and cons of slum tourism. You can decide for yourself what you think by reading this article.

As part of the tour, we also took a quick look at Dhobi Ghat, a huge, open-air laundry with about 700 washing platform where 200 washer-men wash a clothes for hotels and residences all over the city. It's a chaotic and amazing sight.



After the tour, we had lunch at Rajdhani, a place known for it's huge thalis. A thali is found in many Indian restaurants, a platter with small dishes giving a sample of many different curries, breads, and other items. This thali was the biggest I've ever had, 4 kinds of bread, 6 or so curries, sauces, dessert, buttermilk. Delicious!



Then we visited Crawford Market, a big fruit and vegetable market that's housed in a cool-looking building.



Outside of the market building was a very typical street market, busy and filled with all kinds of shops, loosely organized by item (so you have the underwear shops all together, the elecric shops together, etc.).



We tried to find another market area, but ended up getting lost and walking in the wrong direction before finally admitting defeat and hailing a cab. I'd guess that we walked about 8 or 9 miles that day!

On day 3, we had a smattering of spiritual and other tourist sites on our itinerary. Again we were walking the whole day, getting a feel for yet another part of Mumbai. It felt extra-hot, but it wasn't until we read the newspaper the next day did we find out that it was the hottest March day in 55 years. 41.6 degree Celsius - 107 degrees Fahrenheit!

Banganga tank is a devotional place for Hindus. The tank is fed by a spring, so the water is clean and fresh. While hiding in the shade for a bit, we watched the birds and the big schools of fish and a man performing a Hindu purification ritual .



A stroll through the Hanging Gardens was only marginally enjoyable, since there was virtually no tree cover and we were there in the hottest part of the day. However, "experience confirms that friends who meet and walk regularly in the garden have remained healthy and fit for the day!"







Chowpatty Beach and Marine Drive are great places to stroll along during dusk.





We watched the sunset here, listening to the waves break, the cacophony of rush hour in the background, a cool breeze brushing across our faces.





We ended our Mumbai adventure with food at a nice restaurant that didn't have ANY Indian food on the menu! Lasagna and a steak burger were dinner for me and for Corey. Chris and Jackie might not have been tired of Indian food yet, but it was our vacation too, and we needed to indulge in the variety of food that only the big cities can offer. Cheese...steak...yum...



Early the next morning, we were off to the airport to fly across the country to show Chris and Jackie our home in Koraput. Check back next week for stories about that part of the trip!

Gina writes:

Note: In Koraput, the verb used to indicate shopping of any sort is "marketing"...I laugh to myself when I hear this since both my BA and MBA are in marketing!



Marketing in Koraput (or anywhere in India, for that matter) is an interesting experience.

• Each store only sells certain things, some of which are obvious at first glance, some of which aren't. For instance, we've learned the place to buy mushrooms year-round is not the vegetable market, but the main milk-seller.
  
• Most of the stores have a counter separating the customers from the goods, so you have to know what you're looking for or you can point, but it's hard to browse.
  
• A lot of the stores sell the same basic items (e.g. rice, flour, sugar), but the quality, specifically the likelihood of bugs, differs between them, so you have to get used to which stores have decent stock.
  
• At a lot of stores, you'll just be spending 50 rupees (1 USD) or less and the shop owners sometimes don't have or won't give change. So you have to plan ahead and try to use largers bills when you can, to increase your stock of small bills and coins.
  
• Almost all of the shops close during the afternoon every day from about 2-5. This is there lunch break, but can be frustrating.
  

Here are pictures of some of the shops that we frequent. Notice the HUGE numbers of signs!

This is Santosh's shop, one of our favorites for vegetables.

Here's the main milk seller. The owner likes to chat Corey's ear off, so we always have to plan a few extra minutes here. We don't even know his name, we just call him Omfed Guy (Omfed is the name of the milk brand).

At Rolex Xerox, we don't buy physical products, but we buy internet time. This is where many of our Sunday evenings have been spent, squished in a little closet, using the high-speed Internet to Skype with our families and friends.

This store doesn't look like much, but tends to have a lot of things that similar stores don't. The owner is really friendly and loves when I ask for things in Oriya.

Here is the tiny shop right outside our front gate. Literally about 20 feet away, this shop has gotten us out of a bind more than a few times by selling basics like eggs, potatoes, laundry detergent, and chilis.

This is our electrician. Take anything to him and he'll fix it!

Here's the craft store! I really never thought there'd be a place like this in Koraput. The shop owner lets me slip behind the counter and browse to my crafty heart's content!

There are two stores that I don't have photos of. One is what we call "the department store" which just means that it's slightly bigger and offers a little more choice on brands and sizes of products. The other is "Amar's" where we get special goods like toilet paper and peanut butter and tuna. We buy cereal and soda by the case from him, to decrease the load on the 1-mile walk back to our house!

The trek to so many different stores to buy basic groceries and household needs can be frustrating, but the personal relationships that we've developed with the shopkeepers is something that I'll really miss when we return to the U.S.

Gina writes:

India has an excellent street-food culture. In any city in India, you can buy snacks, meals, drinks, or desserts from street vendors. It's a tasty, authentic, and cheap way to experience Indian food! So last week, we decided to have Street Food Friday. The Koraput foreigners would show each other our favorite places for great street grub.

Our first stop was to Kevin and Rhea's favorite chicken roll place. To my, Corey's, and Nancy's surprise, the spiced chicken mixture was wrapped in an egg!



I thought it was delicious (and filling!), but I think I prefer the other chicken rolls I've had that are wrapped in flatbread.

Next was bread pakora. This is one of Nancy's favorites, though I'm not sure why! Maybe because she doesn't like a lot of spice. Breaded pakora is a piece of white bread that is breaded with a batter made from chickpea flour and then fried. The breaded bread idea...well, I'll just say it was good to include a taste on Street Food Friday, but it won't become a part of my regular menu!







After our "breaded bread" was the stop I was most looking forward to - Koraput lassis! A lassi is a yogurt-based drink with bananas, cococunt, and cashews.



First it looks so pretty like in the picture. Then they pour it from one glass to another a few times and it's perfectly blended!





It's delicious and I was waiting eagerly for the stands to pop up, since they're only around during summer. And last week there they were, side by side on Post Office Road, two identical street booths selling identical lassis!

Sorry for the bad picture, it's the best I could manage in the dark with the crowds. But you can see the side-by-side competition.




Then was on to the pani puri cart. Pani puri isn't just about the food, it's about the experience of eating it from a cart. You stand in a circle around the chaat-walla. He takes a small hollow ball, punches a hole in it with his thumb, fills the ball with a filling (of onions, potatoes, chilis, tomato, and spices), dips it in a watery limey mixture, and places it on your plate. You eat the pani puri in one bite, even though it can be a little big and everyone looks like a slob eating them. The chaat-walla, lightning-quick, places puri after puri on any empty plate he sees, until you're finished.





After the pani puri, we were in the mood for "cold drinks" which is India's way of saying soda or pop or whatever. Someone noticed chocolate shakes on the sign at the drinks shop, so three of us had that instead. A delicious surprise!

Notice the spelling!


The last item is something that we actually didn't have a chance to get on Street Food Friday, but it one of my favorite things to get. Jalebi is basically fried sugar! Sugar mixed with a little flour and made into a paste, then drizzled into fry oil to make a pretty flower-shape of hot sweet goodness.





Our meal of street food cost us a little more than a dollar each and we were all full! If you're feeling brave and want to experience a true part of Indian culture, ignore the dirty carts and shops, stick to fried food and popular stalls with high turnover, and dig in!