Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Greetings,

My life in Asia may not always be comfortable, but it’s always interesting
and sometimes exciting. Of course, it is a matter of choice that I take the
crowded, hot, and bumpy public bus instead of the air conditioned taxi, or
the regular “sleeper” train instead of a short flight. It’s not just a
matter of expense, but of wanting to be with ordinary people and to know
what daily life is like for them in their own country. But I see plenty of
extreme cases that I prefer to forego - people working long hours in
oppressive mid-day heat doing hard physical labor, living in thatched huts
with dirt floors and no running water, or sleeping in the streets. One needs
to learn to look past the many beggars that haunt the cities and are
especially numerous and persistent in tourist areas.

Current Itinerary

The main thing I want to share is my revised plan. I’ve postponed my return
to the United States until late November. The current plan is this:

On Friday Sept 14, I’ll fly to Malaysia, then go to Thailand for a while,
then to Bali. My objectives in Malaysia and Thailand are to experience some
other parts of Asia where the living seems to be easier and more pleasant
than in India, and to take a little break from my regular work schedule and
enjoy the beaches. In Bali I will be doing some work with another of my
colleagues who has, for the past 10 years, been helping to organize
complementary currencies and exchange systems in that part of the world. We
will put some serious effort into developing sources of grant funding and
investment capital to support the kinds of exchange options that are
becoming increasingly urgent as the global regime of money and finance
become ever more oppressive and unstable.

I’ll return to Auroville in late October to continue work with our project
teams here, then fly to London on November 12. I’ll have a 2 week layover
for visits in the UK and Europe, then fly to San Francisco on Nov 26.


Other News

Toward the end of August I took a journey of exploration toward the west
coast of India. I started with an overnight bus from Pondicherry (now
officially, “Puducherry”) to Bangalore. There are many private companies
that provide intercity transport. Most intercity runs are made overnight, I
suppose to avoid both traffic and daytime heat.

My coach was a sleeper bus, reasonably comfortable but not air conditioned.
The layout has bunks above and regular coach seats below. There are no
toilets on these busses. Fortunately, about the time my need to pee became
urgent, we pulled off the road for our mid-trip stop. To call the place a
“rest area” would be misleading. There was a little tea stand and snack bar
beside a big parking area, and a concrete building labeled “men” and “women”
at either end, which unfortunately was padlocked. There was no choice but to
follow the lead of some of my fellow passengers to the muddy field at the
edge of the parking lot. There were a couple women on the bus, but I have no
idea how they managed their necessities.

The main problem with this mode of intercity transport is that you get
dropped off in some side street in a strange city, in the rain, and have no
idea where to go. Fortunately, there’s always a swarm of motorized rickshaw
drivers eager to take you somewhere. My greatest need upon arriving in
Bangalore was to find a toilet, then a café where I could get a cup of tea
and bite to eat, and take some time to get oriented and plan my next move.
My driver proved to be helpful in finding the former but not the latter.
Being still early morning, I had to wait for a café to open.

Bangalore showed little to interest me. Like most Indian cities, it’s
crowded, noisy, dirty and, if you don’t know your way around, expensive. I
ended up paying far too much for a very ordinary hotel room in a bustling
part of town close to the bus and train stations, an area that seemed like
one big bazaar.

I decided the next day to catch the train for Goa. I’ll not take the time to
relate the details of that part of the trip, but just to summarize, I found
the Goa beaches to be a bit of a disappointment in comparison to those in
Carolina, Florida and California. I’ve heard that there are some nicer ones
toward the south of where I stayed, which I might explore on another
occasion. It did not help that it was still rainy season there, so outdoor
activities and time on the beach were limited. The four month long monsoon
(June through September) causes everything in Goa to be covered with some
combination of moss, mold, and mildew. One café owner told me that
everything must be repainted after each rainy season.

The most pleasant and relaxing part of that trip was the three days I spent
in Pondicherry prior to my return to Auroville. After 24 hours on the train
from Goa to Madras (now officially “Chennai”), I caught a public bus back to
Pondi where I managed to get a room at the Park Guest House, which is
operated by the nearby Sri Aurobindo Ashram and is located right on the Bay
of Bengal. For less cost than anywhere else I’ve stayed in India, I had a
clean and bright second story room overlooking the garden and the sea. The
one minor drawback is the 10:30 curfew, but that was no inconvenience in my
case.

Understand that Pondicherry is divided into two sections. Pondi was formerly
a French colony and the eastern part toward the sea, the most desirable
part, was laid out along traditional European lines. The “French quarter” is
cleaner, prettier, quieter and less crowded than the rest of the city, and
is a place that still offers some escape from the frantic pace that is
characteristic of India cities.

There’s much more to tell, but that must suffice for now.

Warmest regards to all,

Tom


To follow all of Greco’s travels and musings, see “Categories” right-hand column, and scroll down to “Tom Greco.”

Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
P. O. Box 42663, Tucson, Arizona 85733
520-820-0575. 0091 93 454545 55 (India, mobile)
thg@mindspring.com
www.Reinventingmoney.com
Blogs: Beyond Money: http://beyondmoney.wordpress.com;
Tom’s News and Views: http://tomazgreco.wordpress.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 9:50 am and is filed under Tom Greco. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.