Pune, India - May 2013

How to tackle Pune?  We can start with the reason Gilbert and I are even here in the first place – his two weeks of lecturing.  Gilbert’s part (I think) in all this – lecture on a variety of business topics so students would have an idea as to what classes might be like in Canada. 

Suffice to say, Gilbert gets an A+ for managing a difficult situation that really has not happened as was originally communicated to him.  Each day has brought new challenges but his prior exposure to teaching in a developing country (China) has given him the flexibility and patience to weather this 2 week ‘storm’.  Imagine this, the school asked him finish with a 2-hour lecture to the community at large(capped it at 200 people) and to do an interview with a local Pune TV station.  I am certain that if they had his picture in advance he would have been up on the billboards in an advertisement, looking just like one of the local politicians we see here, minus the full head of dark head.  Fortunately, the Grand Finale was changed (about 5 times) and instead it was a talk on studying in Canada with a Q&A period afterwards (10? 60? 100? people in attendance).  Apparently this was an experiment this year in trying to get something started between the India school and Douglas College– we can both vouch for that.  That being said, the staff and administration are happy with how things went and would like Gilbert to come back next year.  To recap:  he has been videotaped, interviewed, the sessions advertised on the internet and in six Pune newspapers.  How’s that for success!

 

 

Now for some of the fun stuff here in Pune/India:

 

Gilbert’s first day at the College – a meeting to iron out his 2 week agenda.  So he is in the school office with the lady who is in charge of arranging the sessions.  They need a piece of paper to write on – she rings a bell, a guy opens the office door, she tells him they need paper and he goes and gets it.  Next they need a writing implement – she rings the bell, the guy opens the door, she gives instruction and he gets the implement.  Need a drink of water or tea?  Off goes the bell, the door opens and the routine is repeated.  Gilbert’s telling of the story is quite comical except we do appreciate the reality of the situation here - there is a pecking order here and a surplus of labour to be had.  Wages at times are almost, but not quite, a song.

 

Alluding to the 2 week ‘storm’ I will include the actual weather as well.  It is pre-monsoon season.  Translation without mincing words -  it is mega, boiling hot by 12 noon each day.  It tipped the thermometer at 41 C yesterday.  Expected high today – 102 F but feels like 106 F due to the extreme humidity.  Unfortunately for Gilbert, the school has no air conditioning so lecturing for 3 hours in the heat is exhausting.  Fortunately for both of us, we can hang out at the hotel in a climate controlled, cool and comfortable 19 C when class is not in session.  It is a lifestyle of the not-so-rich (sad to say we didn’t win the USA powerball $600 million jackpot) and non-famous (Gilbert missed his billboard appearance).

 

Not ones to cramp our lifestyle here – we did enjoy a 90 minute, full body massage.  This has to be one of the nicest facilities I have ever been in and the massage was also one of the best.  We were put in a couples room to enjoy the ambience, the music, and the soft-lit, starlight ceiling together.  Until part way through Gilbert starts snoring (yes he fell asleep) and almost, but not quite ruined my ultimate spa experience.

 

Food can often be an interesting topic.  With globalization, we can pretty much eat any cuisine wherever we are whenever we want.  So Gilbert orders a hamburger at the hotel restaurant.  The waiter is gone for awhile and then comes back and asks him if he would like it grilled.  An odd question for cooking a hamburger – isn’t it usually grilled? but, who knows, we are in India.  The food is eventually brought to the table and Gilbert is given a grilled ham and cheese sandwich.  He looks at it and says he is ok to eat it but it is not what he ordered.  The waiter disagrees and says that is exactly what he ordered – he ordered ham.  Gilbert says no, he actually ordered a hamburger.  The waiter says they don’t have a hamburger on the menu.  So we have the waiter bring us a menu and we point to the ‘Marriott Burger’.  In all his wonderful innocence, the waiter says “that is a beef burger.  You ordered ham so I brought you the hamburger”.  We explained to him that a beef burger is a hamburger.  He says why is it called a ‘ham’burger when it is beef?  We couldn’t even begin to explain that one although we did google it later (relates back to Hamburg, Germany for the curious).  An absolutely priceless moment!

 

Of course, we did enjoy some delicious Indian cuisine.  The hotel’s Shakahari restaurant is an Asian Vegetarian Restaurant with an extensive buffet featuring Indian, Jain, Marwari, Asian, Thai and Japanese food (that’s a mouthful to choose from).  The evening was memorable not only because of the food but also because we were pampered by ‘The Butler’ – a Manager whose background training is as a manservant.  We had him bring us all his favourite Indian foods to try.  I haven’t a clue as to the names of the dishes but we had no trouble packing it all in – everything was extremely tasty.  Except for the hot green chili disguised as a green bean to my untrained eye.  Since I had put it on my plate, the Butler encouraged me to give it a try.  So I bit in, sent a huge burn to the back of my throat, and immediately had to put (politely said as I spit) that bean in my hand – much to the amusement of all the staff who had gathered to watch.  I think they knew what might be coming.  But eating these hot chili’s with a squirt of lime juice is a must for many Indians.

 

Cricket is a popular national sport in India.  What luck – the Pune Warriors are taking on the Delhi Daredevils in the final game of the season while we are here.  We decided to go to the game and Gilbert buys tickets on line – securing us seats in the ‘Killer South West Stands’ (not possible to make that up). We hire a driver to take us there.  With cameras and backpacks in tow, we make it to the stadium, only to be turned away at the gate – no backpacks, no cameras allowed.  (In retrospect, what were we even thinking to bring this to the game).  We are told we can leave our items at a locker outside the stadium grounds and it is quite secure.  So we find the small concrete structure and wonder how safe will our valuables be when our bags will be just sitting on the concrete floor? (that’s as secure as it gets).  Our downside? – it would probably cost us $2000 in camera equipment if the ‘shack’ is not really secure.  We decide to risk it and leave our belongings with the attendant.  My faith in humanity is restored here in India – we retrieve our bags later, with our belongings intact.  Even my emergency 3000 rupee (about $60) which I forgot was in my bag is still there!  We were elated and felt remarkably unscathed.

 

And about the cricket match – it was fun to see but overall we don’t find it an exciting game/sport to watch, even if the crowd would disagree as they are constantly cheering and waving huge Pune Warrior Flags.  Entertainment includes 3 scantily clad, Caucasian cheerleaders (another aspect of globalization?).  But in all fairness – there are also 3 Indian cheerleaders in Sari’s that perform similar moves as their Caucasian counterparts.  Of course we don’t have pictures, our cameras being left behind with ‘security’.

 

We have managed to get out a bit in the city despite the extreme heat. 

Just down the road from the hotel is Chatturshringi Mata Mandir, one of the oldest Hindu temples in Pune.  We visited the temple on our first evening – at 6pm and we were sweating it up those steps, to put it mildy, although it was peaceful and calm once we reached the top.

 

So we ventured out early on the following Friday morning (8am) figuring we’d see the city on foot before the temperature became unbearable. 

As always, there are a few sites in which pictures speak a thousand words.  From our experience, Pune is a typical city in a developing country.  We lasted outdoors until about noon and then, beginning to melt, we hailed a rickshaw back to the hotel.

 

Hmmm - maybe seeing the city and area in the comfort of an air conditioned car is better.  We hire a driver on our last day and set out even earlier, 7:15 am (take a guess as to why).  Plan A – to visit Sinhagad, an historic fort dating back 300 years.  Round trip with time at the fort should take 3 hours including scenic views of the countryside.  Well, we did see a bit of rural India but as for the fort – it is closed for renovations. 

The closure saved us 100 rupees in nuisance fees (as the sign indicates).  And believe it or not, we almost missed seeing the countryside until we were finally able to convince our driver to ease up on the ‘pedal to the metal’.  He was intent on ‘bombing down’ the rural roads.

 

Plan B – the driver will take us to another scenic vantage point that he knows of.  So we continue (at a manageable pace) on a road that becomes a lane that becomes crumbling asphalt that I’m thinking may disappear all together when the driver suddenly admits he can’t remember where the road to the vantage point is.  Oops!

 

Guess what - we are on to Plan C (I didn’t even know one had existed when we started the morning) – visiting a few sights in Pune as recommended by the driver.  We head back to town arriving at the first one - the Parvati Hill Temples. 

The driver stops the car, points to the top and next thing I know, Gilbert and I are climbing up 108 steep steps in the heat with our driver remaining behind with the car in the shade on a cell phone.

 

Our next stop is the old, original part of Pune which we gladly enjoy from the comfort of the car and air conditioning.  A quick stop to see the beautiful Dagdusheth Ganpati Temple from the outside and Gilbert and I are ready to head back to the hotel.  However, our driver has other plans and so we visit the Shaniwar Wada, an old fortress like palace with only the outer walls remaining.  We stroll the grounds and fortress walls and then finally convince our driver we are done for today even as he is trying to entice us to see more.

 

We end our 2 week stay in Pune with another delicious meal at the aforementioned Shakahari restaurant minus the hot chili!

 

We have an early morning drive to Mumbai and arrive in one piece, all safe and sound at the hotel.  We don’t take this lightly as every day I would read the English newspaper in Pune and more often than not, it had an article about an accident (sometimes fatal) on this particular highway.  We’ve experienced crazy driving before and India is no exception.  It’s just a bit ‘white-knuckling’ being on a highway that is downhill with weaving drivers and dilapidated trucks that you’re never sure their brakes will hold or they will tip their load.

 

We are now awaiting a 2am flight to Cape Town, South Africa and will pick up our journey from there.  And good news - Gilbert is finally on vacation for a few months!!

 

Vancouver to Pune, India - May 2013

First stop Mumbai.  Do you think it is ever possible to have a seamless flight? Not in my lifetime.  Gilbert and I arrive at the airport for our flight to Frankfurt from Vancouver feeling fairly confident that all should go well – we are flying Lufthansa instead of our nemesis Air Canada.  Instead, what do we get – a 4 hour flight delay which will cause us to miss our connecting flight in Frankfurt on into Mumbai.  We are being rerouted via Dubai, adding 13 hours in the process.  I’m still convinced the Fick name is synonymous with ‘airline flight problems’ in the worldwide reservation system.  But truly, Fick means f_ck in German which gave passport security in Frankfurt a field day.  We went along with the humour although if we told them to ‘Fick-off’ they might not have been so jovial.

 

Our brief stop in Dubai has convinced me I don’t need to visit there anytime soon.  To me, it really is a remake of Las Vegas minus the casinos but with a greater price tag.  Shopping galore and all the themed entertainment one can think of - including snow skiing and ice skating.

 

We did finally make it to Mumbai and did our best to recover before continuing on 2 days later to Pune.  Pune is situated in the Western Ghats (mountains) about a 3 hour drive away.  The maximum speed limit is 80 km/hr and if our driver exceeded that, an automated voice told him to slow down and obey the limit – he laughed, we laughed - but there was no getting around the speed limit

 I do feel like we have arrived in Pune to a comedy of a situation.  The hotel we are at is lovely but was jam-packed with people.  Turns out, there was a wedding party going on (the final day of the usual 3 day festivities, complete with a groom on horseback). 

Virtually impossible to use the guest elevators so they took us behind the scenes and we used the staff service one instead.  The hotel’s apology for the inconvenience was chocolates sent to the room later in the evening when, of course, we were sleeping – so yes they woke us up with a phone call and knocking on our door but the gesture was appreciated.

 

And the lecturing Gilbert is suppose to do for 2 weeks?  Let me see – when we were still in Canada we had conflicting reports of the number of students; 25, 8, 40.  Gilbert meets with the school officials when we arrive and the magic number is a whopping 2 students.  Not only that, they can’t make the first day of his lecture as it is a Hindu religious holiday.  So instead, Gilbert is spending his first day with the school officials ironing out the details as to what is our fate for the next 2 weeks.  Our first reaction is that all his hours of preparation were for naught but we will just have to wait and see.

West Glacier, Montana - May 2013

Now that Gilbert and I are truly homeless and he finished his teaching term in April, it was time to hit the road.  We began our journey with a brief stop in Kelowna to set the building of our house plans in motion.  Then it was on to Calgary for a few days to visit with Dusty and Jay.  I think the timing was perfect – Calgary is booming so we had an opportunity to check out numerous show homes for decorating ideas.  The kids were also exvellent hosts – treating us to dinner and a Calgary Roughneck Lacrosse game.  It was a quarter final game in the season playoff which they won – Yea! (but lost in the semi-finals the following week – Boo Hoo!).

 

From there, it was on to West Glacier, Montana for peace and quiet (and unfortunately, work for Gilbert) at Jim and Sandy’s place.  My brother and his wife just bought a lovely A-Frame house located outside the National Park so the setting is conducive to some real R&R.  Driving there from Calgary should be a short 5 hour jaunt unless you experience winter white-out conditions, which we did.  I had a fleeting moment where I thought we should just turn around and head back to Calgary but Gilbert’s expert driving saw us to our destination safe and sound.

 

We spent a week in West Glacier, waking up to cold and snow for 2 days but the weather gradually improved daily.  I mentioned Gilbert working – he will be lecturing in India for 2 weeks so had to put his nose to the grindstone in preparation.  Fortunately, one cannot work 24/7 so we did have a chance to enjoy a few activities –riding bicycles to nearby Lake Macdonald, jostling along a dirt, washboard road to try out some goodies at Polebridge, a remote summer mountain outpost, and accompanying Gilbert while he played two 9-hole rounds of golf – right out the back door, no less.

 

Of course, delightful events happen when you least expect them.  We met Gail, a nearby neighbor and local writer and discovered that she had written the cookbook I had given to Sandy as a housewarming gift.  She is originally from Boston and settled in West Glacier in the 1970’s with her husband when they were one of only 3 houses in the area.  She is a wealth of information and interesting stories of the area as is their next door neighbor. Teri.

 

Another ‘neighbor’ we discovered was in the adjacent empty lot.  We happened, by chance to come across a bird that appeared to have a problem with its wing and could not fly.  I followed it for a bit and then left it alone as I didn’t want to distress it.  Walking back towards the house I stumbled across a camouflaged nest in the ground with 4 perfect eggs.  Putting 2 and 2 together, it was the mother bird doing her ‘broken wing dance’ to lure me away from the her nest.  It was effective although we did come back another time to take pictures.  We were not lucky enough to to see the babies hatch but we will visit the area again and I’m sure experience more wonders of nature.

 Our week in Glacier came to an end too quickly but we will pick up the stories from India.