Visiting the Konark temple

Here are just a few piccies from our trip to the Konark temple also know as the Sun temple because it was built to look like a chariot of the sun god, with sculptures depicting love and life in the 13th century. But we like to think of it as the rudey nudey giggle giggle, wow we should try that temple. Here's some of our favourite rudey nudey giggle giggle happy snaps :)

Waiting for a bus

The other day we had planned to see the Sun Temple in Konark but since the bus time we had been given for the bus was wrong (as usual), we ended up waiting for an hour at the local bus station in Puri. Instead of hanging around, dealing with the usual bombardment of “Where you from?”, we went for a walk to the nearest little temple.

As soon as we got there we were told that we basically had no chance of getting in because we weren’t Hindu. Oh well, doesn’t really matter, because we had a much better time watching the monkeys play on the trees outside. Cheeky little fellows were having a great time swinging around and hitting each other as often as possible.

After about ten minutes or so of watching the little critters we decided to leave. As we approached the gate on the way out, I (Scott) saw a young child girl sitting near the gate with a little sheet in front of her with a few coins on it. She was obviously begging. I thought this was a little strange because children normally beg around the streets, pulling your sleeve and bouncing around you desperately trying to seek your attention, but this one wasn’t. She was just sitting there quietly.

As we got closer to her I locked eyes with her for a moment. I smiled and tilted my head to the left, which is a common Indian greeting/acknowledgement. She smiled back and tilted her head too, but something wasn’t right. Her eyes were too wise and the way she moved was too subtle and patient. When you greet an Indian child (especially as a white man) they tend to go crazy with excitement, but she hardly moved.

It wasn’t until I had passed her that I realised she wasn’t a child at all. The memory of the small glance I had of her contained wrinkles but she couldn’t have had wrinkles. She couldn’t have been older than 4 or 5. But I had been wrong, she hadn’t been a child. She was an adult, who was no taller than 60cm.

Once we were outside I told Shell about her (she hadn’t noticed). It sounds strange but if you hadn’t looked at her directly from a distance you would never suspect she wasn’t a child. We went back, gave her some money, shook her hand and asked for a photo. She directed us to outside the gate.

As I knelt down on one knee, I felt a little intrusive and was unsure what to do with myself, but she stuck out her hand for me to shake it. We both smiled and – snap, the picture was taken. Shell and I both repeatedly said “Daniabad”, the local word for thank you. She wiggled her head, smiled and looked at us one last time with those eyes, which gleamed of an infinite patience that only someone who is in her position and has accepted her place in life, can obtain, then she walked back into the temple grounds.

Shell and I both left the temple with mixed emotions. We weren’t sure how we felt about the encounter, although it did remind us that there are some amazing people in this world. People who find happiness and inner peace even in the hardest circumstances. They remind you that life is always worth living, no matter how small you may feel :) In the end, we were quite glad we had to wait for the bus!

Delhi Belly or Parlakhemundi Poo?

Ah the joys of India.

Shelley would just like to inform everyone, for the sole reason that it makes her feel better, that it has been 3 and a half weeks since her last regular movement, with many many many irregular types of movements in the interim. Being India of course, the campus doctor is a bit of a twat who talks to Scott instead of me (of course he's the male so he must control me and know intimate details like how runny my poo is) (actually he does know that because he hears me complain all the time but that's not the point). Also the doctor keeps giving me small doses of different drugs so they don't actually work, and he read somewhere that runny poo can be caused by psychological disorders so he wanted to give me anxiety pills. I'm not anxious! Admittedly I probably look pretty pychopathic when I go see him because of his incompetency. That could be the reason he talks to Scott instead. Anyway, you'll all be glad to know, poo situation seems to be improving. So now I just have to deal with the crap that comes out the other end :)

Love Shell!

Wonderful Waterfall...

As a continuation of my birthday celebrations, we visited the local waterfall with Dhanada (the director here), his wife Babita and their son Anish, as well as Anish's cousin and Frances, the Birtish girl staying here at the moment. We had lots of fun splashing round - Anish was a great excuse to have water fights and be childish! Then in the evening, Frances and I baked a chocolate birthday cake (in babita's breadmaker - but it turned out yummy!) and then Scott and I cooked everyone pasta - oh my god it tasted soooooo fantastic after continuous curry every day! It was an excellent birthday dinner - the Indians present seemed to like it too, although I don't think it was spicy enough for them!

Frances, Babita, me and Anish's cousin (who studies at JITM)

Pensively watching a local guy trying to climb up the slippery rocks.

Birthday!! Yay!!!

Yay! it was my birthday on Saturday and I was woken up by balloons and streamers! Had a lovely day being spoilt :) This is us showing how mature I've become now (complete with aussie animal ears)

Another example of the mature 23 year old

The local girls wanted to henna my hand for my birthday - it ended up taking hours longer than we thought it would because they kept arguing over the designs and taking turns to do bits very carefully! Not quite sure what the middle design is - but note the Hindi symbols that looks like Nazi signs!!

Wheeeeee!!!!!!

My new indian Salwar kameez outfit (dress over pants with a scarf) - one of my birthday pressies from Scott. It's so pretty! We had a great day, relaxing, being painted with Henna, buying a new outfit and having a celebratory beer in town. Then the next day continued the celebrations......

New Year's in Calcutta

Yay! Even though we like our little world in rural Orissa, it was great to escape for a bit of partying and playing for a few days over New Years! We spent 4 days in Calcutta, with our friend Cappa who's been travelling all around India for the last few months and has lots of stories! There was, of course, a lot of drinking, card-playing, pub-visiting and street-wandering. We relished in being touristy again and visited a few interesting places, like a graveyard for important people 300 years ago (see picture above and later on). Unfortunately the best places we went you weren't allowed to take photos - like the botanical gardens where they have the Great Banyan Tree, which has the second-largest canopy in the world! Shelley was in heaven. The circumference of the canopy is 450m and it looks more like a forest than a tree. We also went to the Marble Palace (had to bribe the guard to get in - as if anyone is ever going to find the Tourism Bureau to get the permission you're supposed to have - he must make a fortune from tourists!) where some guy from 200 years ago has a mansion and gardens filled with marble statues, busts, ornaments, floors, as well as famous paintings, chandeliers, exotic animals......

New years was interesting - we'd planned to go dancing at a club but found out that it had a 3000 rupee entry fee that night (AU $100!!!!) so we decided it definitely wasn't worth it and ended up on a rooftop with some spanish girls, very drunk japanese tourists, an american guy playing guitar and lots of fireworks going off all around. It was a good night - but we still really want to go dancing, so we'll have to find somewhere good in Goa!! It was excellent to have a few Kingfisher beers after 2 months of beer-deprivation, and I even found muesli for breakfast (Shelley's main objective for the trip to Calcutta). It gave us a taste for the road again, so we're excited that after 4 more weeks here at JITM we'll be off wandering round once more! There's a heap to do in the next 4 weeks though... and it's been slightly delayed by the fact that we both caught tummy bugs on the way home from Calcutta - thankfully we have our own bathroom here! it has been renamed by my dad from 'Delhi Belly' to 'Parlakhemundi Poo'.

My, he must have had a very small.....

New years Eve, yay, getting ready to go out! Kingfisher beer + party hats= lots of fun!

I can drink just as well as the boys...

To be proper tourists, we visited the Victoria Memorial - ooo pretty