Well, due to some problems in the field that required “modern” facility (electricity to charge laptop battery, first and foremost), I had to come to Wa, the capital of the Upper West region of Ghana from my survey community (just over an hour’s drive south from Wa on local transport). While at Wa, the best place to recharge the battery is obviously the internet cafe, and I’m making full use of this opportunity by posting this “update”. Well, I’m alive and well and enjoying the “village life” for the past week or so. We (my survey enumerator and I) have a room at a fairly decent house in the village, and the land-lady cooks pretty decent meals with the ingredients that we give her every day. Work is hard, especially counting trees on a hot day, but very enjoyable due to the hospitality of the villagers. Fried or boiled yam to eat in most of the farms where the farmers and busy harvesting maize or rice! I just wanted to mention two strange/funny things that happened today.
1. When I was at the internet cafe checking my email and charging my laptop battery, one man came in holding the base unit of a desktop computer. He came in to use internet with it, which I wouldn’t have imagined until he started arguing with the girl at the front desk because he wasn’t getting served while I was surfing the net with my nice white laptop. He asked if he was being punished because he came with that big thing while people with small laptops were being served well.
Continue reading ‘quick update from the field…’
Published 1 year, 10 months ago
in travels.
Warning: This post is over long, please continue only if you have lots and lots of time to spare, and a cup (or two) of coffee with you! It might make you feel sleepy too!
Connaught Place in Delhi…not a difficult place to go around (for its round!) but quite tough to find the places you want to find, especially when you are a visitor and have been there only once before. We took the wrong turn at first instance and just could not find the “Delhi Darshan” counter that we were after - to purchase tickets for the one-day city tour of Delhi. Asked a few “locals” and were pointed to certain directions, or “behind” certain buildings but to no avail. Finally we arrive in front of a tiny counter, the signboard reading “Delhi city tour, Agra and Jaipur tour”, etc. Ask the person standing outside about “Delhi Darshan” and he responds we arrived at the right place. This was the “Delhi Darshan” counter (which we later found out wasn’t really, but apparently they are all the same, difference only in their names!). Anyway, we were told the city-tour bus left just minutes ago, but he could call it back to pick us up if we want to go. We were charged 175 rupees each - 350 for two of us (50 rupees more per ticket than what someone we knew had paid the day before as we later found out - we didn’t bargain on the price that was written clearly on the price information…we should have!!) and we wait outside for the bus that has just been hailed back minutes after it started the city tour!
The bus arrives…it is coloured all white with “Sahara” written on the side and at the back in black letters. There is no sign to say its the “Delhi Darshan” city-tour - of course it wasn’t and we were just duped into thinking it was, and made to pay for it. We were not even fully inside the bus, it starts moving and we had to make our way to the back to find the only empty seats amid the bus’s twists, turns and sudden brakes in the Delhi traffic. We look around to see fellow “tourists”, all of whom were Indians except one poor guy with a Mongolian face, who turned out to be a Canadian (although rest of the Indians thought/believed he was a Chinese all the way)!
Continue reading ‘Delhi Darshan…an Indian City Tour, and “more”’
Published 1 year, 11 months ago
in travels.
Am just getting around writing about my “Delhi experience”…sorry its a bit late and a bit too long but just didn’t want to put it off any longer. Putting it off any longer would have meant not posting it at all, so for me its better than nothing! There are still stories about my “Delhi Tour”, which I’ll post as soon as I get those typed up as well! For now enjoy my “Delhi experience” if you don’t fall asleep reading this! - m.
Around October last year when I knew I would be going to Delhi in December for a conference, one thing that I started planning was about which book to read on the way, and while in Delhi. As the departure date came closer, I knew what I wanted to read - William Dalrymple’s The Last Mughal (have finished reading now and will write about it some other time!). The book had just been released in October and the price was still quite high for a student - 25 pounds to be exact. Just a couple of days before my flight, I checked on Amazon and they were actually selling the book for half price. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to buy it online and receive it using the cheapest postage option before I left. If I had chosen next day delivery, the total cost would have come around 20 pounds so still quite a lot. So, I decided to buy the book in India itself and planned to read it during my five days in Delhi. The recommended retail price for the Indian edition was only Rs 695 (8 pounds)! For my flight to Delhi, I bought and read Marina Lewycka’s brilliantly funny book A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian instead. It kept me laughing (smiling rather, as I couldn’t bring myself to laugh out loud in a crowded plane!) all the way to Delhi.
Continue reading ’surviving in Delhi…can we really?’
copylefT 2008
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