Breakaway Backpacker

A stroll through Fort Kochi, India.

Jaime Davila — Thu, 17 May 2012 05:05:14 +0000

If you’ve been following along it’s no secret that I haven’t been the biggest fan of India. One of the things everyone has told me though is wait till I get to the SOUTH it’s so much better and different from the NORTH. After two months in the north I was ready for a change and excited to finally make it to the famous SOUTH (Kerala, Goa & Mumbai). Luckily Val & I booked a plane ticket from Kolkata to Fort Kochi early on. We had looked at the train option and it would have saved us about $90 each but taken us like 2 days to get there. So we splurged bought the $100 tickets and flew. It also worked out great because that is where Jessica and Dani from Globetrotter Girls would be arriving an hour later than us. Yup I am traveling with them again. Traveled with them for two weeks through Costa Rica & Panama and loved it. Now we are together again doing 5 weeks through the south of India.

We arrived on time got our bags and then waited for the girls. We happened to arrive before a huge thunderstorm and noticed that the girls plane would arrive late. We waited & waited and wondered where in the world is MUSCAT? So many planes were arriving from there and neither of us knew where it was. I thought Russia or maybe Saudi Arabia… come to find out the girls knew and well it’s in Oman. Now you know… in case you ever need to know that. The girls finally arrived and we caught a cab to our hotel… that cab ride ended up being the longest cab ride of our lives. 2 hours to get to the hotel that is only 30 kilometers away. Crazy traffic and crazy rain meant slow driving. We finally arrived and the hotel was amazing… it had free wifi and hot showers… something I hadn’t had in a long time.

The next 2 days were spent blissfully enjoying the beautiful town of Fort Kochi. We strolled around enjoying the town. I loved that it was different than the north. It was way more calm and aside from the few down pours of rain we managed to have a good time exploring the city. Here are some shots of what we saw and did there.

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I really liked Fort Kochi and wish we could have spent more time seeing more of it. I enjoyed watching the men catch fish using the chinese fishing nets, I enjoyed taking photos of the silly trash cans all over the city, I enjoyed watching the guys play cricket (a sport I still know nothing about), I enjoyed walking on the set of I have no clue what a Bollywood movie or commercial, I enjoyed the random street art and just really enjoyed the relaxed vibe that was everywhere. It was just what I needed after 2 months in the North. As for the rest of my time in the South so far… well it’s been filled with many highs & many lows… but more on that later.

The beautiful, bright, yellow & cute TAXIS of Kolkata, India in photos.

Jaime Davila — Tue, 15 May 2012 05:25:49 +0000

“IN PHOTOS” is a series I will use to share many of the hundreds of photos I have taken during my travels. It is a series I have thought about for a while now, but did not want to start until I got back home from my trip. However after spending a week in Chefchaouen, Morocco I couldn’t wait any longer. “IN PHOTOS” will not have a set schedule like my “MUSIC MONDAY” or “PHOTO ROUND UP” series. “IN PHOTOS” will be a post with several photos with no limit. The only restriction this series will have is that it must be about a certain subject or theme. I will write a brief paragraph or sentence describing the subject or theme of the photos and then post the photos. I will not caption the photos like I do on my “PHOTO ROUND UP” with my thoughts. I want to use “IN PHOTOS” to share my photos and let you come up with your own thoughts about the images and hope you share them with me.

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I have seen many TAXIS on this trip… in Panama City, Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, Istanbul, Cairo, but not once thought I would ever become obsessed with taking photos of them in any city. Okay maybe NYC, but seriously I arrived in Kolkata and it was love at 1^st sight. These cabs are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen in the world. I mean really they are so damn bright, yellow, clean and cute. I couldn’t help but go crazy photographing them. I didn’t think I was going to ride one because I honestly didn’t want to deal with fighting over a fair price. On the last day though we pre-paid to have a TAXI take us to the airport and guess what kind of TAXI shows up. YES A BEAUTIFUL BRIGHT, YELLOW & CUTE one! It helps that they are so photogenic. I must have taken over 100 photos of just the TAXIS alone. I went through all my shots and picked my favorite to share with you. I’d like to know if you agree with me or not. I mean come on aren’t they cute? I just love all the yellow in these photos.

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Hope you enjoyed the photos & I hope you share your thoughts below.

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PREVIOUS IN PHOTOS

Photo Round Up – Week 62 & 63

Jaime Davila — Fri, 11 May 2012 05:05:27 +0000

10 photo round up of what I saw/did these last 2 weeks.

Hope you all enjoy them

WEEK 62

Y'all know I am a sucker for random street art on anything and well while we were in Fort Kochi we passed this house that was tag with tons of words, names & random things. I had to photograph and in the end I really like the photo because I didn't realize the man in the center.

As we wandered through Fort Kochi we also came across this beautiful Street Art. I just love it. I love the color... I love the faces... I love it all. It reminds me of something I would find in Central America or Mexico. Very Mayan & Aztec.

I have seen many mosques as I have traveled around the world, but never a lime green one. I walked forever to get to this thing and was obsessed with it. I love that it looks like a big lime lollipop... I just wanna lick it. Oh I do hate that the clouds are gray

While visiting a temple in Varkala, we came across this huge tree in the middle of it that was filled with like a million dolls like this just hanging. They looked so creepy... we ended up photographing it a lot until we got kicked out. Apparently newlyweds buy a doll together make a wish and tie it to this tree to make it come true. Found that very interesting, but the dolls so creepy. I do love the color in this shot.

Sunset at Varkala Beach. Okay not quite sunset, but almost. I like this shot because I was able to capture a women caring a baby run from a wave, while a friend tried to get the stroller all while a profesional photographer was trying to capture that same very shot. I actually talked with the photographer for a bit and he even took a few photos of me. It was fun.

WEEK 63

Spent 3 days on a houseboat exploring the Backwaters of Kerala, so the majority of these photos are from that experience that I can not wait to write about. This is my favorite shot of them all... this is what we looked at the majority of the time as we made our way through at a slow pace. I was able to get this shot while we docked for the night. I love the perfect reflection of the far side of the photo obscured by things on the near side of the photo.

Beautiful sunset in the Backwaters of Kerala.

I used Dani's glasses to add an extra shade of brown to the photo. This is another houseboat that was passing us by at the time... You can see how peaceful this experience is. It's just you a few other houseboats and the endless rows of palm trees.

Evening time when the boat is docked. Nothing amazing but a for some reason I like this photo a lot.

Oh don't even get me started on this. We went to 3 of the most amazing days in my life... to 1 of my worst. This is a shot of what the entrance to the train looked like after we got out of it. For 5 hours we were crammed inside like fucking animals. No where to move, no where to escape if an emergency happened. I prayed and prayed and prayed the entire time. Not once in my life have I felt like this on any type of train ride. It was a nightmare. Not sure if I am going to write about it.

THIS WEEKS UPDATES

SATURDAY – 04/28/12 – Oops… I applied for a job in Cairo.
TUESDAY – 05/01/12 – The worst toilet experience of my life (so far)!!!
THURSDAY – 05/03/12 – Darling Darjeeling!
TUESDAY – 05/08/12 – Darjeeling Zoo & Botanical Gardens in photos.
THURSDAY – 05/10/12 – A mall, a sperm donor & a sinking ship!!!

PREVIOUS PHOTO UPDATE

A mall, a sperm donor & a sinking ship!!!

Jaime Davila — Thu, 10 May 2012 05:05:09 +0000

You probably clicked on the title and thought WTF? I am sure that happens many times when you click on one of my blog post. The titles are always a hot mess… well bare with me because this post is amazing. I mean really what could I have done to make this a title to a blog post. Well I did what I hadn’t done in a very very long time… I had a mall/movie day!!! I know GASP I am traveling the world and am going to a mall & watching movies. Well yup we did just that. I mean why can’t we long-term travelers have some fun too???

Val & I have been traveling now for what seems like ages in India and well we both thought we deserve to feel normal for a day. You know go to mall do some window-shopping watch a movie or two and eat fast food and popcorn. So we did just that. I mean come on after a while going to see a fort, museum, temple or blah blah blah gets kind of boring. Lucky for us a mall and movie theatre was a short walk away from our hotel. By short I mean 45 minutes… lol. Yeah we walked there, because we are both over dealing with tuk tuks, or cabs in India.

When we arrived we knew we wanted to watch HATE STORY a Bollywood movie we had never heard of but have seen posters for the movie all over the city. With the tag line “LOVE KILL HE SOUL HER BODY SEEKS REVENGE…” how could you not want to see that I mean come on that sounds like a fucking classic. We also knew we wanted to watch TITANIC 3D. Okay not WE I knew I wanted to see it & well I kind of dragged Val into watching it with me. From the moment they announced they were going to rerelease that movie I knew I had to see it again in a movie theatre. I mean come on we all know we love that movie. It’s a classic and you know it.

We made the long walk to the theatre and walked up to the ticket booth asked for tickets to HATE STORY and the guy behind the window said it was not a good movie and should watch VICKY DONOR instead… I had never heard of it, but when I turned to talk to Val I saw a poster to it right next to HATE STORY. When I saw the poster and the tag line of “I AM A SPERM DONOR” Val & I both knew that would be our kind of movie… why lie y’all know it was meant to be…lol!!! Both of them were going to be in Hindi anyways so it’s not like it mattered. So we got two tickets to VICKY DONOR and two tickets to TITANIC.

We had two hours to kill before VICKY DONOR was going to start so we had lunch. Oh yeah a very local kind of lunch from a small Indian chain called PIZZA HUT and then walked around the mall for a while.

We then went and got our seats and sadly ate our popcorn and drank our soda before the movie started. I hate when that happens… womp womp. The movie started and Val & I were both excited. We didn’t understand what the actors were saying but were happy that a few of the times they would speak in English. That helped us understand the main plot. Over all though we were able to understand the whole movie and in the end loved it.

The movie was about a beautiful guy VICKY whose mother was pushing him to make more money for the family (go figure). In the mean time a sperm donor doctor was looking for a candidate for a few of his patients and found VICKY. It took the doctor a while to convince VICKY to become a donor, but when he finally did he found that he had like GOLDEN SPERM. He had very potent sperm and got many women pregnant who needed it. In the mean time he made a lot of $$$ and was able to buy just about everything he wanted. Then he starts falling for a girl he meets at the bank. They end up falling in love and getting married. In a very ironic coincidence the wife can not get pregnant (I didn’t see that coming… I couldn’t believe it) and makes things hard for them, but they manage. Then a while into the marriage everyone finds out what his real job is a SPERM DONOR and is shunned from the family and his wife leaves him for a while. In the end the wife comes to her senses and realizes that he was just helping other families who couldn’t have babies have babies. In the end they end up back together and end up adopting a beautiful lil girl.

Val & I both liked the movie a lot. Even though 98% of it was in Hindi we were abe to follow along very easily. We were both thankful a few of the times they did speak English. Only thing we both didn’t like was that when every one would laugh we would have no clue unless it was because of an obvious action. We then had about 2 more hours to kill before Titanic started. So we did what we do best… eat. I bought my self a huge ice cream called BIRTHDAY TREAT. I thought it would taste like BIRTHDAY CAKE REMIX that I used to get from Cold Stone at home and well it didn’t. I then had dinner some chicken chow mien.

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Finally TITANIC started and I was so excited. We had our rocking 3D glasses on and watched the movie. I have probably seen this movie more than like 25 times in my lifetime and love it every time. No it’s not my favorite movie ever (that is Mean Girls), but I just love it. I mean come on… who doesn’t love a tragic love story that takes place on a sinking ship??? I won’t explain what this movie is about because I hope everyone that reads this blog has seen this movie and if you haven’t you should go out and watch Mean Girls (yes Mean Girls…lol). I honestly thought though that this time the ship wouldn’t sink and that Jack would survive. I thought they would give us the ending we all wanted, but nope even 15 years later the ship still sinks & Jack still dies. Watching the movie again at a movie theatre reminded me of watching it in a movie theatre ages ago in 1997. Crazy it’s been that long since this movie was released. Time just flies by!

After the movie we had a long walk home… as we walked home we saw a huge poster for VICKY DONOR and loved it. Jaja it’s such a cute poster & the movie is even cuter. If it was 1997 I would give the OSCAR to VICKY DONOR though…lol!!! On our walk home the Jaime you know kept asking VAL a million questions like: If you were on the Titanic do you think you would have survived? What if it never sank… would it still be this famous? Do you think Rose & Jack were really on the Titanic? How cold must of the Atlantic Ocean been that night? If you had a penis would you donate your sperm? Would anyone want my sperm? Does donating sperm really make you that much money? Maybe I should donate my sperm to pay for my travels? I wonder what my sperm count is? And many many other questions! In the mean time I will let you answer any of the questions I asked or just let you comment on our amazing mall/movie day.

Darjeeling Zoo & Botanical Gardens in photos.

Jaime Davila — Tue, 08 May 2012 05:05:10 +0000

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Established in 1958 to help study, conserve and preserve Himalayan fauna Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park in Darjeeling is described as one of India’s best Zoo’s. Val & I thought we should check it out for sure. We both were a bit nostalgic because it had been years since either of us went to a zoo and were both hoping it would be a bit like home. We reminisced a bit about our Zoo experience when we were younger. Darjeeling also has a botanical garden that houses a collection of Himalayan plants. We were excited and made one of our days in Darjeeling a Zoo/Botanical Garden day.

We made the twenty minute walk down hill to the Zoo early in the morning and were quite surprised to see it was very clean and very pleasant. It took us a little over an hour to make the walk around the small Zoo. It was interesting to see some of the animals… the most exciting was the Red Panda. One of my dreams is to hug a panda one day. It doesn’t look like a normal panda, but it is still very damn cute. We then made our way to the Botanical Garden and enjoyed a nice walk down hill seeing many plants from the area. To be honest they all looked like plants I have planted at home. Even still it was still nice and we both enjoyed a day surrounded by nature. Through out the day I managed to take about 100 photos and thought I would share with you some of my favorite. Oh & yes that includes a photo of a kitten we saw outside of the zoo and of a human being taking photos with her iPad.

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