Chikki Chikki Chikkaaaaaay

The tourist being the tourist attraction! I wasnt kidding!
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Saturday was just too awesome of a day not to give it a blog of it's own.  And there is just no way I will be able to do it justice.  We went to Lonavla (waterfalls) and Karla (caves and a temple).

First we hired a car to drive us two hours outside of Mumbai, transition from the brown of the filth covered city to the incredible never ending green of the countryside.  That is what I was expecting from India!  I was expecting something a little more like Colorado with lots of beautifully colored and jeweled women, and what I got was like being dropped off in Harlem with twice as many people and way more exhaust and noise.  So it was nice to escape the city.  Along the drive out there we saw many farmers (bent over raincoats with legs in the mud), beautiful buildings (the richer part of the city is outside of it), bridges, and many an animal ranging from cows to goats.  We were pretty high up on some hills that we were surrounded by clouds, which made for a bit of a damper trip in the monsoon season, but it gave the area such character, not to mention awesome waterfalls!

Trekking in Rubber Shoes

Me and Tarzan (Sam) climbing up the falls
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We started the day at a dam.  Hmmm...a dam?  Yes.  They eased us into the water by setting the path right in the middle of a river.  Good thing I brought my anti-crocs (way cuter maryjane crocs made by Airwalk, baby!) because we walked through water up to our knees without being able to see the bottom at times, and climbed up moss covered slippery rocks.  Once you trek not too far through the river, you find this damn let off over a ton of stone stairs, all covered in...people!  There were people EVERYWHERE, on every stair and over drops just hanging out gettin wet.  This must be like the thing to do in the morning in Lonavla, because it was like a waterpark for all ages at 10am!  It was insanity.  People were getting on top of the stone wall jumping into the lake and swimming around, while others were buying grilled corn in the middle of rapids.  There is just no way to explain this craziness.  There were little shacks lining the whole dam trying to sell snacks and drinks, and there were drunk men taking baths while little children were held tight by their parents' hands. Just something else.  We were quite the spectacle, however, because everywhere we went, groups of men surrounded us asking for pictures.  I of course had to take a few myself!  Its just funny how at a tourist attraction we were the tourist attraction!  And that is no exaggeration.

The dam of people...
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Saturday morning seems the time to drink here, or at least at the waterfalls.  There were just groups of rowdy men being ridiculous, dancing all over the streets.  I dont think I have ever seen grown men goofing around in a dam before, not to mention only in tshirts and their skimmies (sorry a word I picked up from a girl here, its just too hilarious not to use it!).  Some of them were hiking up the waterfalls, and other were just stumbling through the river.  But most of them serenading the Americans for "foe-toes!"  Yeah, that was us.  They were quite humorous actually.  As long as they werent being aggressive, which they werent.

Red dotted at the temple!
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After fighting our way through poeple on the top of the dam trying not to loose our balance and get pulled with the rapids down the steps, we saw a sign that pointed toward water falls!  Heck yes!  We were already wet anyway.  So we trekked through some more knee deep rocky rapids to the bottom of a gorgeous waterfall that we could barely see because of the clouds engulfing us.  So Sam, aka Tarzan, convinced some of us to go climb farther up where we could not see and check out the falls.  Of course, me and my rubber shoes were all about that situation.  P.S. those anti-crocs were the best 15 dollar investment I ever made, I am convinced.  We hiked up as far as the rocks would let us, and Sam continued on via vines.  This was not in my plan, so we waited for him while he checked out some crabs.  I was ok missing those.

The view on top of Karla
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On the way back down it was a bit freakier because the rocks were so slippery.  There were times thent backwards to make sure I grabbed the same rock ledges I had on the way down as to not slip.  It was a tricky situation.  A man that was climbing right along with us the entire time who was with a little girl, a woman, and another man, slipped, inverted himself somehow, and went headfirst over a fall.  It was not pretty.  He cracked his head on some rocks, got a big gash in his head, from hairline in the front to just past his ear, and a nice hole on the other side of his face.  He definitely had an ugly fall hitting more than one rock on the way down.  I was standing above the falls when he slipped, and I had to watch as the woman with him (assumably his wife) shreaked and started freaking out.  I tried to calm her at first, as she was also in the middle of the slippery water fall.  We watched to make sure he was moving.  Someone grabbed him and helped him up, and he put his head to his hand and looked at it covered in blood, which knocked him right back off his feet.  Not so pretty, but I was happy to see he moved.  It was hard to get to him in the middle of the falls (Tarzan was the second to the scene, first aid kit in hand), but some of us managed to  with a bag of gloves (gotta love being with a bunch of premeds) and a bandana that Mike so generously donated to the situation.  We patched him up pretty well and tried to form a monkey chain to help him down the rocks to safety while not loosing shoe grip ourselves.  It was quite a scene with lots of spectators at the bottom as the crowd thicked while the morning progressed, but the man is going to be ok...and so is his wife.

Carvings inside the caves
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After the falls, we drove to Karla (said like Care-la, we got laughed at by the driver by saying Car-la! Silly Americans) which had about four tolls each way and a $2 (yes, thats a tourist price and actually really in dollars) entrance fee to check out some cool caves and a temple which was the best preserved Buddhist Chaitya (chapel) in India.  Pretty cool.  We gave an offering and got back some coconuts and flowers, and powdery red dots on our foreheads...that leave yellow marks on your forehead!  Haha.  Its ok, I look alright in yellow!  These caves were actually quite high up, and when you looked out over the land you could see the farm square patched and crazy shaped mountains.  It was stunning.  Even though it was raining on and off all afternoon, I wouldnt trade it for anything.  What are the caves in monsoon season without a bit of rain here and there?

I cant read it, can you?
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We managed to make a stop for some food, some delicious hot and sour soup and chicken kababs.  If I thought any of you might repeat my trek I would look up the name of it and recommend it, but until then it will remain anonymous.  They even capped off the meal with diamond shapped crystals of sugar!  Yes please!  Sooo good.  Ok, so I have a sweet tooth sometimes =) but only for sugar cubes so its ok.  We also stopped to get some chikki.  We kept seeing signs everywhere for it, so we had to stop and figure it out.  It is like all sorts of kinds of nut brittle.  The cashew one was quite deliscious.  They also had all sorts of strange granulated fudge, nothing like we have in the states.  There was coconut, mango, peanut butter, and obviously a chocolate one, but it was more like lumpy brownie mix than anything else.  It was actually decent, and thats saying alot coming from someone who doesnt normally fancy chocolate (sorry, picked THAT one up from the British girl here!  After spending a day with her I cant help but think to myself in a British accent, haha).

In the car!
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When I got home, I got to take a real shower!  Two of the girls in our room are gone for the weekend so we didnt run out of water in the shower head!  Sweet.  The limbo over the hole in the ground while trying to shower with a bucket is quite riduclous, in fact Kate decided to have not one but two incidents where she dropped the soap down the toilet!  Haha.  She dropped hers one afternoon and asked me to borrow mine.  Of course I said yes, under the conditions that she would hold on tight...not so much.  I am sitting in my room and I hear "Oh shit!"  I knew right then and there it was over for my beautiful smelling lavendar Dial.  Sad sad day.  But now we have some Ivory.  Equally as good.  Lets hope there will be no more slip ups, quite literally, with the soap and the hole in the floor.

Walkin down the stairs in the cave...scarey!
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At night we went out to a touristy bar called Zenzi.  If you have been to Mumbai, I expect you have been.  Here it was not so odd to be white.  Ha.  There was an elephant hanging out outside, but I have no rode one yet.  Soon enough!  We ended up having the craziest rickshaw driver ever taking us there.  He blared his music and sped his way down the road.  Just imagine sitting in this tiny old time car from amusement park, with no doors or protection from the activity in the road (or from the pollution), going far too many miles an hour open to wind and elements of the air.  He made the other cars on the road look like they were standing still and was beeping with the beat of the Indian beat on the cassette.  Beep beep, bee bee beeeeeeep!  Just weaving in and out of cars, I held on for dear life, not to mention the unanticipated turns where there are no lights, no rules, and no hesitation!  It was nuts.  I told myself if i made it out alive i would never forget that ride because it was like the most ridiculous roller coaster ride ever.  Jenny and I decided we are going to make a video game around Indian traffic.  First level you are a cow, out on the country roads.  Then you become a dog, being able to be in the road or on the sides.  Next level, a cab driver, and hardest level is a rickshaw.  This man would be recreated for this game.  INSANE!  Surviving that ride called for a drink at the bar, so I had an Electric tea (long island with blue something or another instead of coke).  Very good!

Colorful dranks! Mine is the blue one, yay.
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Sunday we just meandered around the Mahalaxmi area where Taji Ali is because some people had not been.  Sam and I decided to walk through the slums, which is a strange but nice break from the crowded city streets even though the are right off of them.  People here are not out to beg you for your money, but just to enjoy simple pleasures and each others company, and always a good of cricket in the street far too small for it.  We got asked over and over again where we were from by young teens and children following us trying to say "hallo!"  Its almost like being a celebrity in a small town.  But the great thing is, for some reason, as invading as we are, the people are always smiling, interested in your company, and incredibly welcoming.  You can meander in and out of shops (while they try very hard to make you interested in something) and peer through homes.  Some are small and quant one roomers, while others open up to a kitchen and have a tv set off in a back room.  All sorts of homes range in these areas, oen attached to the other, but they all huddle happily together along the dirt roads while spending most of their time just outside of them.

Fact of the day: It is illegal for rickshaw drivers to charge you more than what the meter requires, but they sure as heck will try.

Lesson of the day: Always have a spare bar of soap!  And rubber shoes!

Craziness of the day: The man that fell down the waterfall also helped me get down a big rick minutes before.

Daily Hindi: Motkarna = sorry (huge when the city is so crammed that you hit someone every few steps you take, but also not as widely used for the same reason)