Insurance

It seems that getting insured for a trip that is under 3 months is not a big deal. It is sometimes even quite inexpensive but just add a day or two to the duration of your stay and the insurance company hits a jackpot. Let alone a few months extra. So far the offers are about as much as a flight to Bangkok. Granted that I fly in July when I still get the youth price ticket (444-466e one-way) from Finnair, that is. And actually flying from Stockholm with Finnair would be around 371e. Including the flight from Arlanda to Helsinki-Vantaa and the same plane as the direct flight from here. Go figure...

Today I sent yet another message to my institution in Thailand requesting my invitation letter for my visa. Not a good first impression as I have been requesting it since April this year...

Troubling visa

I would be on my way already within a month should I have all the necessary documents to apply for a non-immigrant (ED) visa to Thailand. Now I am just waiting for an invitation letter from my university in Thailand but they don't seem to be replying to emails that actively. And I think I need to apply that visa for October and arrive there with a normal stamp-on-the-border 30-day visa in the beginning of August, then proceed to Cambodia, Laos or Malesia... And when my actual visa kicks in, then come back and apply for a longer, proper student visa. Because my studies will be starting in October but the trip hopefully a few months before. It just seems to be in my nature to seek the hardest possible way of doing things apparently.

Next trip

Okay, the next trip will be to Southeast Asia and I will be staying in Bangkok for 5 months during October 2009 - February 2010. Managed to squeeze myself in to Siam University for one semester exchange and before or after that there might be a good chance to tour around... So half a year in and around Thailand will be in my program in the upcoming winter. We'll see if I can get some summerjob in Finland or should I just escape there already in June. Would be cheaper to live there and if I don't have any income then it would be only logical to be there, right?

Merry christmas

As I mentioned earlier, I spent my gift budget already and won't be getting you any presents or "something nice" from India. Partially the decision grew because of the sheer misery and poverty there and the fact that people are really struggling for even the basic needs like clean water and everyday food. It might sound a bit pious but buying some useless crap that looks nice for people who already have everything they need to live a good and happy life just didn't feel right after everything I saw back there.

So I bought a camel.

Technically I didn't buy it but our host at the camel safari, Mega, did. He was born in the desert of Rajastan some 37 years ago and has been doing camel safaris for seven years. He is illiterate but has managed to learn english by speaking with the tourists and gradually building up his vocabulary. All this time he has been working as just a driver for other people and making really lousy money from it as they really don't have a concept of minimum wage in India. His greatest dream was to found his own company to be finally able to support his family and truly work for himself but for that he needed a camel first. He is very experienced in the safari business and the whole experience was really great by all the food he made and all the stories he told. In addition to that he came through as a very humble and true person so the idea grew up on me during the night in the desert. We had been talking about the cost of living and the amount he makes and what it costs to buy a camel and it turned out that for him, a camel is about half a years gross salary. Of course he has to use that salary to support his family and himself so he had calculated that after three more years of saving he might be able to get one. For me the amount was something I might have spent on christmas gifts for my friends or during a bit more expensive night out. So I gave him quite likely the largest tip he has ever received on one condition: he has to buy a camel. So now he is the proud owner of Tikku (not sure how to spell it but you pronounce it like the finnish word for splinter). He is a three-year-old male and needs about a year of training and growing up before being fully able to do safaris and carry people and goods. After that he should have at least 6 or 7 years of mileage left so hopefully your christmas present this year has changed one persons life completely for the better.

Mega with a camel.

Be grateful of everything that you have got. If you are able to read this text, let alone actually own the computer you are reading this with, you are amongst the wealthiest people in the world.

Safe and sound

Okay, it has been two days in Finland now and according to my expectations, the temperature was exactly the same on the day of return as it was on the day of departure. Now it is freezing and there is even a patch of snow in the ground. So a somewhat white christmas.

The Mumbai airport (the 5th worst place to sleep in the world according to Sleeping in airports) was indeed a heavily air-conditioned airport with no comfortable seats to be found anywhere. So two hours of on/off sleep during my 14 hours waiting time combined with the joys of economy class flying resulted in a rather sleepless 48 hours. Eventually I did reach my home town and been mostly recovering ever since. It is apparently christmas if I look at the gifts and christmas foods but still I'm not feeling the christmas magic. But I guess the main thing is that I'm back home safely.

City life

Panaji is actually a nice, quiet little city. Not too many tourists and a lot of restaurants packed by locals. And if you thought restaurants in the beach were cheap, try here... A veg thali can be bought for 25Rs. Crazy.

I've also tried to have a soft landing to the western civilization and went to see a Hollywood movie
to a local theater. Not that there's anything wrong with Hindi as a language, but when people are speaking in English it makes the storyline amongst many other things that much clearer. And an interesting fact was that they played the Indian national anthem in the beginning of the movie and everyone was standing up. Not wanting to be disrespectful I jumped up also and for the duration of the song, the theater was interestingly calm. Funny, can't really see the same thing happening in Finland for example.

The duration of my stay in India can now be counted in hours rather than days. Sad in a sense but actually I'm quite glad to go home for a while.

Damn Vasco

Frustration. That's the word.

I arrived to Vasco as intended but it turned out that hiring a scooter was nearly impossible in that god-forsaken part of land they so adorably call a city. Only ones available were around 500Rs but after driving around with a similar one for less than 200Rs/day the offer didn't seem that tempting. So I walked back to the bus station and took a bus to Panjim. Or Panaji as they like to call it nowadays. Could have taken the direct one from Margao if I only would have known. But now I'm living in a fairly nice two twin-bed room in a nice area for 400Rs/night. The second most expensive accommodation so far the most expensive one being in Colva for 500Rs. But since euro is now around 66Rs instead of the 58 it was on the worst days of my trip I can splurge the rest of my rupees in peace.

Two days left. And today was the first time I felt like starting my trip back home. I guess it is true that all good things come to an end.