First stop in Asia: Thailand!

January 9 - 14

Our flight to Bangkok, Thailand, was looooonngg and drawn out. We knew of our connection in Singapore, but our flight details never mentioned about the preceeding  one and a half hour stop over in Hong Kong!! On top of it all, our flight from Hong Kong to Singapore was late and we had to rush to get to our connecting flight!

We were extremely happy upon landing in Bangkok and after taking a little time to obtain Rakesh's VISA, we were even happier to be welcomed by my friend, Julie (a friend who I have known since the age of 6!). Julie kindly offered up her apartment to us to stay in throughout our time in Bangkok. The apartment is in the middle of the city and in a very convenient location. After Julie dropped us off, she showed us around a little and then left to return to her house just outside of Bangkok.
Initially, it was difficult to figure out what to do. Not only were we a little overwhelmed by this big city, but we were exhausted from the long trip and overheated from the hot and humid weather. After wondering the streets for just a few minutes, we ended up returning to the apartment and quickly fell asleep in the cool, airconditioned room. We woke up later than anticipated and had dinner at a restaurant, nearby.

Day 2:
Unlike, our trip in South America, which was mostly about exploring nature, etc., we knew that our trip in Southeast Asia, would take on a slightly different twist- visiting LOTS of temples!! Our tour of some of these temples, began right in Bangkok's old city!

After a long local bus ride through thick traffic and bussling Chinatown, we arrived at our first stop - the Grand Palace. It was fun to ride the local bus and we were two of very few tourists on it. I was impressed by the bus conductor who walked up and down the bus to collect passengers money and give out tickets. He or she held a long metalic tube with a flap over the top. With extreme agility he/she opened/closed the tube with the same hand, while the other hand handled the money. The tickets were pre-printed rolls of paper inside the tube (along with coins) and cut using the flap of the metal tube. Paper bills were folded and placed between the fingers of the hand holding the tube, in a fan-like fashion! I was mesmerized! It's an art and I wondered how long it takes one to master it!! A little detail worth remembering :)

Once at the Grand Palace, Rakesh realised that he forgot to bring the bottom parts of his shorts (zip-ons). In order to visit sacred places of any sort, shoulders and legs must be covered. There was already a long line of people waiting  to borrow a sarong to cover up with. Standing in the heat and sun was unbearable and after 5 minutes, we decided to move on and return to the palace the next day.
We walked along sidewalks and a market crammed with people selling food or touristy items etc. and eventually we arrived at Wat Pho. Wat stands for temple. Wat Pho is best known for its Temple of the Reclining Buddha. This Buddha is 46 meters long and is covered in gold leaf. The feet themselves are 3 meters long and the soles are exquisitely decorated, with illustrations, in mother-of-pearl.

The complex houses two walled compounds. The reclining Buddha is located in one these compounds, along with the birthplace of traditional Thai Massage. It was interesting to see painted illustrations of human anatomy along the top of an interior wall. The were used for teaching Thai massage.

In the complex, there are several other temples of Buddha in various other positions, sitting, standing and walking. We enjoyed spending some quiet time in one of these temples, as there were fewer people around.  In several inner courtyards, the walls are lined with many replicas of a Buddha statue that were offered and paid for by various families.

The temples here, are beautiful and hard to describe. The prangs, are extremely colourful and covered with broken bits of tiles and porcelain plates which were pieced together to make rows of colourful mosaic-like flowers!! Stunning and very unique!

By the time we made our way around Wat Pho, we were pretty hungry. A restaurant we found listed in our guidebook was just across the road. Perfect! As we walked along the crammed sidewalk, attempting to locate the restaurant, the greatest hint of all was a bunch of westerners sitting at outdoor tables!! They, too, must have gone by a guidebook of some sort! I had my first Tom Kha Gai soup (coconut soup with chicken) since I was last in Thailand and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Next, we walked to the Chao Phraya river, a major waterway and transportation thoroughfare that runs through Bangkok. We took a 2 minute boat ride across, in order to get to Wat Arun, a temple which sits on the bank of the river. Wat Arun, means "temple of Dawn".

Wat Arun is also very ornately decorated with bits of porcelain, tiles, as well as intact colourful bowls. Nevertheless, it is quite different from Wat Pho and is a temple all by itself. Here, we climbed a couple of very steep staircases to get to the base of the central prang. As I was climbing, I wondered how I'd get back down, with my slight vertigo! While at the top of the temple, we walked around the central prang and took in the views of the rest of the temple site, as well as the river and city, beyond. When the time came to go back down, it was definitely a little daunting looking down, the almost vertical, staircase, but wasn't as bad as I thought!

We had our first long ride down the river to a stop, from where we could then take the skytrain back into the center of the city. Since the river Chao Phraya is a transportation route, the 'taxi' boat made many stops along the way. It was rush hour time and quite an experience. More and more people got on at each stop. At one point, the boat was getting pretty crowded and the boat conductor kept on yelling at us to fill up every nook and cranny in order to make room for more people to get on at other stops!! I don't think I've had that feeling of being 'packed like a can of sardines' on a boat before. I was quite glad once we arrived at our stop.

We took the skytrain to a connecting stop. We had to connect to another skytrain in order to get back to the apartment. However, due to the rush hour traffic of people attempting to get onto trains we decided to visit the "Paragon Mall" outside the station, instead of waiting in long lines for multiple trains to go by until we could get on.

Paragon Mall, is absolutely HUGE!! It's bigger than any mall that we've seen in the US!! Although, we are not big fans of malls, we were quite impressed by the design and decor etc. Very nicely done! We could see why it is a great attraction to people and a good way to escape the heat and humidity outside!!

This mall has everything you can imagine. Shops, restaurants, a food court, a movie theater, cafés, an aquarium (!) etc.  When we visited, it even had a fairly big car show of lotus cars!! And...show rooms displaying lamborghinis, maseratis and rolls royces!!! I'd say that this mall completely outdoes any mall we've seen in the states (our opinion??). Even though, there were a lot of people in this mall, it looked like the majority were in the foodcourt and restaurants!! It seems that eating out and socializing (mostly, in bigger groups) is an important part of Thai culture. Easy to do, as food is pretty cheap in Thailand!! We loved this aspect of the culture.

We grabbed some dinner in the food court, as Julie had mentioned that it was a fun experience. An interesting system, you purchase a meal card for an amount that you decide on. You then use the card to purchase food at one or more of the food counters. That way you can have a selection. Rakesh and I, however, ended up with one dish each and that was plenty! You can then give the card in and whatever money that wasn't used is returned.

Day 3:
After a slow start to our morning, we took the skytrain back to the Chao Phraya river boat in order to make our way up the river. This was our longest ride up the river. A little too long for my liking as we were heading to meet Julie for lunch and we were getting short on time. We found our way to the Bank of Thailand to meet Julie, but was pleasantly surprised to be welcomed by her brother, Jan, first! I had completely forgotten that he was also working at the same bank.

They took us to a small restaurant that served Northern Thai food. We let them decide on what to order and all was delicious. Fried chicken, papaya salad, sticky rice, tofu dishes and more.... Some were pretty spicy, but I devoured them, nevertheless. This was probably one of our best meals in Thailand. It always helps to eat out with the locals!!

After lunch, we ventured down a nice pedestrian road that Julie pointed out. It's more of a touristy area, but quiet and shaded. We were on the way to finding a taxi to drive us to the Grand Palace. This time, we were prepared with the appropriate clothing!

It could easily take half a day just to visit the Grand Palace!! The complex is huge and houses all sorts of temples, halls and museums. Again, all buildings are exquisitely decorated inside and out. The palace buildings are more of European style (except for their roofs) and not as ornate as Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha). The palace is no longer used as a royal residence or administrative seat of the government, but continues to hold ceremonial events.

In the evening, we went back to the Paragon Mall in order to see the movie, "Life of Pi". Fabulous cinematography and visual effects. We loved it!

Day 4:
In the morning, we made our way to a huge, and I mean HUGE, market called Chatuchak market. It's so big, that they even provide maps of the place. Here you can find mostly western and Thai style clothing, but also produce, crafts, arts and more! We spent a good two hours or so getting lost around this market. I bought myself a wrap-around skirt with Thai motifs on it and a pair of colourful baggy pants (which I later found out to be very popular, especially among  tourists!). Rakesh bought a nice cotton shirt, hand stitched and designed by the stall owner, himself.

We were keeping track of time, as we had planned to meet Julie near the apartment and didn't want to be late (again)!! Little did I know that my watch had slowed down, however, which lead to us meeting up with Julie 45 minutes after the planned time! We didn't know until started we chatting to her! I felt bad, especially since her parents and Jan were waiting for all of us at a Chinese restaurant!!! Very embarrassing!

It was great to see Julie's parents again, especially her dad who I have not seen for many years! They invited us out for a delicious Chinese lunch inside a hotel. During lunch, Julie's dad recounted the way in which Julie and I became friends (at the age of 6!). It was fun to hear, and neither Julie or I had any recollection of this. Apparently, her dad and my dad got chatting in a bookstore of another school (International School of Brussels) and found out that Julie and I were in the same school and class. From then, we were invited to one another's house to play etc. and it's been history, since that time on!
After lunch, Julie, Rakesh and I made our way to the Erawan Shrine, which is located on the corner of two busy streets near Paragon Mall. The shrine, a four-faced Brahma god,  is actually of Hindu origin  and attracts hordes of worshipers. Both Thais and foreigners come pay their respects to the shrine. It is here that many people's wishes have been granted and as a result continues to be a popular site for prayers. There are also traditional Thai dancers that dance to music upon request and when an offering is provided by one or more people.

Rakesh, Julie and I also partook in purchasing some goods to, each, make an offering. It involved praying and placing a garland of flowers and an incense stick in front of each one of the four heads of the Brahma shrine. We'll see if our prayers come true!

After that, Rakesh and I ventured around the area. We ended up in "mall land"! Although, Paragon mall may be one of the biggest malls (I don't actually know), there are at least 3 other malls around. What's crazy, is that one doesn't even need to touch the ground in order to get from one mall to another. As long as you know the correct exits, you can find yourself walking along a 'skywalk' which interconnects the malls and one or two skytrains in the vicinity!! Quite a sight to see!

We somehow ended up in another mall (Central World), where we sat at "Coffee World" and, unlike the name suggests, had some tea! We then ventured over via skywalk to Paragon mall where we ended up having dinner at a Northern Thai restaurant. We were hoping to have similar food to that which we had with Julie the day before, but were a little disappointed. Somehow, the food was very different.

Day 5:
We had hoped to go to a floating market in the morning, but due to our lack of knowledge of how to get there (we had a hard time accessing wifi and our guide book did not have enough detail) it did not pan out. Instead, we made use of our time by  getting a Thai massage! Julie had told us about a place called Healthspa, which was a short skytrain ride away from the apartment. The massage was definitely not the most gentle!! A very interesting experience, however, and during which we had to remind ourselves of the motto "no pain, no gain!". We definitely felt the ensuing "gain" - a state of total relaxation!
Following our Thai massage, we made our way by skytrain to meet Julie and her husband, Alex. They picked us up from the station and drove us to a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch. Another delicious meal and all dishes were ordered by Julie and her husband.

We then went to Julie's house on the outskirts of Bangkok, yet in a neighbouring district. She and her husband designed the house and had it built. Wonderful! The bonus is that they also got a dog with the house (a cute story of how a stray dog ended up with them) and now a friend to their second dog.
It was lovely to hang out with Julie and Alex. We also discussed with them, our plans of going to Chiangmai, in the north of Thailand. Julie kindly called and reserved bus seats for us over the phone. Alex, got in touch with his friend, Chang, in Chiang Mai and connected us with him.

Day 6:
Since our bus to Chiang Mai wasn't until the evening, we had just enough time to visit the Teak Palace. As the name implies, the building is built from Teak wood. It is actually known as the Vinmamek Mansion and used to be the royal palace by King Rama V. It is the world's largest teak wood palace, consisting of 72 rooms!!! Many of the rooms now showcase furniture, paintings, photographs, pottery, rifles etc, all of which belonged to King Rama V.

After visiting the mansion and some of the grounds, we took a taxi back to the apartment and shortly after left for the bus station.

A short break in California

January 1-7

Originally, our plan was to fly direct from Chile to Southeast Asia. However, the travel agent could not find a way to make this route cheap enough for us. Instead, we got a great fare for a round-trip ticket back to the US. Since we were to return to the US, Rakesh suggested we take a week off from traveling. With some convincing, I agreed.

Our round-trip multiple flight ticket terminated in Los Angeles. We had bought a separate flight ticket to get us back to San Francisco. Since I wasn't sure how reliable the the flight from Chile was going to be, I made sure that the time of our flight out of Los Angeles would accommodate for the possibility of a flight delay. I, clearly, gave us ample time, as the flight from Chile was on-time and, thus, we ended up with about 7-8 hours to kill!!

So...our travels continued into Los Angeles. After having a hard time trying to figure out a way to store our backpacks at the airport ( a couple of people told us it would be impossible due to the fact that the airport discontinued baggage storage services since 9/11) we found a kind lady who informed us that there was a way... We had to call for someone from a storage area (outside the airport) to pick-up and drop-off our backpacks, all at quite a price. It was better than sitting at the airport for so many hours!!
Getting into and out of downtown Los Angeles was pretty straight forward (just a 30 minute bus ride). Luckily, it was New Year's day and hence a holiday. Downtown, ofcourse, was pretty dead.

Nevertheless, we were given a recommendation to go to a Mexican Pueblito (of all places...haha! We felt like we were visiting Mexico!!). The place consists of a pedestrian area lined with shops/restaurant and in the middle stalls selling touristy items. We had some lunch at a Mexican restaurant and then walked around the deserted town.

We arrived in San Francisco in the evening and was picked up by Rakesh's cousin, Balu. Since we were (and still are) "homeless", we stayed with Balu and his family for a few days. The rest of the time we spent in San Francisco while pet and house-sitting for our friend, Nancy.

After lack of computer and internet use in South America, we were hoping to catch up with our blogging during this in-between period. However, everything else seemed to get in the way, including catching up with a few friends/family (very much appreciated), buying a much needed and cheap laptop (mainly for blogging etc. during the next part of our travels) and, least and worst of ALL....battling with traffic!!! Nancy and Balu kindly let us borrow their cars, but we completely forgot what it was like driving on the roads in California. Unfortunately, we lost track of the time one day and ended up on the highway in the middle of rush-hour....baaaaadd mistake!!! [Rakesh writes:  We never kept track of time during our travels and this was a major handicap in the US]. It was, especially, during our time on the roads when Rakesh and I wondered why we ever decided to come back for this little break....A break that ended up being a little stressfull!!

By the end of our break, we were happy to continue on our travels. This time, to Southeast Asia and to our first destination, Thailand....

Pictures: Santiago

Unfortunately, our selection of photos of Santiago is a little pitiful....

The immaculate conception.

Plaza des Armas.

La Moneda. The palace.

Rakesh trying Mote con Huesillo.

Santiago, Chile

December 29 - 31

By the time we arrived in Santiago, it was early evening. We found our way to our bed and breakfast from the bus terminal by metro. We came to an apartment building in the neighbourhood of Provedencia. The bed and breakfast was run by a Chilean lady in her ground floor apartment. It was a great recommendation by another person in Chile.

After a very thorough welcoming and explanation of various things inside and outside the apartment by our host, we ventured out to a neighbouring 'barrio' called Bellavista. This neighbourhood is known as Santiago's bohemian quarter. Many artists and intellectuals, now living there, followed the footsteps of Pablo Neruda who owned, another, house in the same neighbourhood. The house is called, La Chascona. After visiting 2 of the poet's houses, in and around Valparaiso, we decided that was more than sufficient, at least for this trip!

While in Bellavista we, briefly, took in an outdoor market, selling crafts, clothes etc. Next we walked the circumference of a very large block, containing restaurants and bars along its perimeter. The block, inside was also built-up with outdoor/indoor restaurants/bars and even boutique shops. The latter, is known as "Patio Bellavista" and is very popular among locals and tourists, alike. We on the otherhand, were a little overwhelmed by a) the number of people and b) the choice, that was waaaaayyy to big. Had we done some online research for reviews, beforehand, we would have been able to find a restaurant a lot quicker. Instead, it took us at least an hour and a walk around this area one and a half times, in order to pinpoint a restaurant that we both agreed on (not hard, as we usually agree to the same...most of the time :)  ). 

I can't remember the name of the restaurant, but it was quite atmospheric inside and had two levels. We sat on the upper level and while the food was fair, the mixed juices we ordered we great! During dinner, we also experienced our first power-outage during our travels and so were forced to eat under candlelight for the majority of our time there...very romantic :) and something we did not mind at all, as the fairly loud music inside, had to come to a stop! 

The next morning, we were greeted with the best breakfast, ever (since our travels). Not only did we have a choice of cereals, but also had freshly toasted buns, slices of avocado, cold slices of turkey meat, a selection of delicious jams and a very light, soft cow's milk cheese. Our host told us that they have the cheese along with some jam, on the toast....hhmmm! I thought it was a delicious combination. During breakfast, we met another couple from Norway. They were heading off to Valparaiso that morning. When we told them that we had just come from there and the lady started asking us questions about the beach etc. It seems that they were actually going to stay predominantly in Viña del Mar. She especially seemed to be anxious about being able to spend time at the beach and swim. We were, maybe a little too, honest about the fact that the main beach of Viña del Mar, was not very conducive for swimming (and mentioned about the signs, stating so). She appeared to get a little worried but intermittently repeated that there was a "pool at their hotel", as if to console herself, and that  "that would be fine"....We did, however, mention that there were possibly better beaches fairly nearby, further up north. I seriously hope that they were able to find a much nicer and calmer beach than the one we went to (maybe there are such beaches...but we missed out on seeing them). We also shared our story about traveling for a number of months and that Rakesh had to quit his job in order to do so. In response, the Norwegian girl remarked, "you're kidding, right?"...she really thought Rakesh was joking!! [Rakesh writes: The girl told me that she manages to get 7 weeks of vacation every year in Norway....if only that were true everywhere].

After breakfast we started our day by heading out to the Museum of Memory and Human Rights. The museum was inaugurated in 2010 and as you can imagine it reveals in depth information about the Pinochet dictatorship and the resulting atrocities. Since most of the museum's documentation was in spanish, I decided to get an audio guide in english. Due to limited time, I could not listen to the whole audio guide and at times had to skip over bits that were way too graphic for me to listen too. The museum definitely highlights a very disturbing and dark period in Chile and does a very good job of it!!  By the time we left the museum we were, ofcourse, extremely moved and depressed.
[Rakesh writes: The worst experience for me was seeing the video of survivors who described the torture they endured.  This was horrific and tragic. ]

In order to reflect a little, we took a short stroll and sat down in a park next to the museum. We needed this short period of time get ourselves into another frame of mind so that we could move onto the next part of our day. 

Our next visit was to the Pueblito Los Dominicos, a handicraft village. It was a place recommended to us by our B&B host. Just visiting this place was interesting in that it resembles an old colonial village situated in the historical neighborhood of Los Dominicos. The village is enclosed by a wall and is filled with all sorts of boutique-like shops that sell anything from copper utensils, wool clothing to jewelry  It was a feast for the eyes and that was about it. Unfortunately, or should I say, fortunately most of the goods were way out of our budget. I say fortunately, or else we would have been tempted to buy a lot more than we did. I end up with a scarf...not very expensive, due to the fact that it wasn't handmade, but nevertheless, colourful. We also bought a couple of rudimentary clay bowls, similar to those that we ate out of during our stay on the island of Amantani in Peru. We enjoyed eating out of these bowls and thought we should keep up the tradition, even in our own home. Oh, I almost forgot about the tiny Lapis lazuli studs... Lapis lazuli, is a semi-precious stone that is only found in two countries: Chile and Afghanistan. It is a fairly dark and intense blue stone. I was told that it brings good-luck and prosperity. Since it is pretty expensive, I settled for some studs inlaid with tiny lapis lazuli stones, just to have something that may bring me good luck and prosperity :), but also something quite typical of Chile. I guess we didn't do so badly, after all!!

Ok, so, I was also in search of some pants that I found to be very popular among tourists and locals, too. Since I did not find these in the Pueblito, we headed over to another market which is a lot less expensive. Here, I found my pants, but upon looking at the label, I saw that they were made in India!! Not in Chile! As for many of the other products in this market, one could not be sure if an item was from Chile, or some other part of South America. Rakesh looked at a bamboo pipe and found out it was from Indonesia!!!  It was near closing time, so we scouted over the market but to avoid making any hasty purchases, we decided to come back the next day. 

We had heard about an up and coming area known as Lastarria, which was just a few minutes walk away from the market. While there, we could see the gentrification that's taken place in the area with hip restaurants and cafes etc. We sat in a cafe to have some homemade icecream and then made our way back to the B&B, about a 45 minute walk. 

As soon as we got to the hostel, we turned around and went back out to find the local grocery stores. We  bought a bottle of wine and some ingredients for a pasta dish. Soon after we started cooking, at the B&B, the owner,Maria, walked in. We invited her to join us for dinner and she gladly accepted. We sat out on her patio area and enjoyed our delicious pasta,wine and great conversation. 

We spoke about Chile and learned about its current political situation. Somehow, due to the fact that we mentioned we had been to the Museum of Memory, we ended up touching upon the subject of Maria's life during the Pinochet regime. Our conversation lead to this subject naturally, however we were hesitant as to whether it would be too sensitive of a subject for her. Maria didn't seem to mind speaking about her experience and we, on the other hand, were quite astounded by what she told us!! Briefly, since her father worked for the government her family was completely shadowed from the atrocities and the rigidness of the regime. She mentioned that after graduating from highschool, she and a friend went travelling in Europe. When others found out they were from Chile, they were surprised by the fact that they were allowed out of the country and spoke about all the genocides etc. that they heard about on TV. Maria mentioned that this was the first time she had any knowledge of such atrocities!! Our whole conversation about past and present Chile was definitely a mind opener!

Although the next day was our last in Santiago, we had quite a few hours to kill before our night flight back to the U.S. of A!! We first found our way to the Cerro San Cristobal, a hill on which a statue of Virgin Mary is located. A Virgin and not a Christo, this time!! It was our first Virgin statue that we saw and knew of, in South America. The statue is approx. 22m tall and is very well done. It sits above a nice plant filled ampitheatre where we saw people sitting to pray.

We decided to spend the rest of our time walking around the city center since we had not been to that area yet. We saw pedestrian roads lined with shops, street food carts, the usual, but different, Plaza des Armas, a cathedral and, last but not least La Moneda (the presidential palace). After this already long walk, we ended up going even further in order to return to the market we visited the day before. There, I bought a bracelet to add to our collection [we bought bracelets in every country we visited, as a cheap souvenier]. Rakesh bought a number of leather strings, in different colours and made his own bracelet (I assisted). I tried on those popular pants I mentioned earlier, but then decided that I wasn't taken by them and saved ourselves a little money...it was just as well, since they're not even made in Chile!

Before returning to the B&B, I had a bee in my bonnet to try a very intriguing drink that Rakesh and I first encountered in the hands of locals on the island of Chiloé. Although, I was tempted at that time to just get one, I was held back by the fact that it look somewhat unappetizing. However, on our last day in Santiago, I noticed an english-speaking Chilean drinking the same. I dared to ask him what it was. He said it was delicious and a popular refreshing drink consisting of a whole dehydrated peach, peach juice and some barley!! The drink is called Mote con Huesillo. At the market, I asked where we could find one of these drinks and we were directed to a street cart, near by. I actually enjoyed it. The dehydrated peach becomes rehydrated in the peach juice and is actually pretty good!! Ah! I was satisfied after finally being able to try this drink that I was so curious about!!

We returned to the B&B, by foot, in time to shower and head off to the airport...

It was our last day of our 3 month stint in South America and we were ending it with bang...a flight to Los Angeles on the 31st of December. Another new experience! New Year's eve on a plane!! It was surprisingly quite special...the cabin crew poured out glasses of champagne and at Chilean midnight, the pilot announced the New Year!! We heard various people clinking and cheering. It doesn't end here...We had a stopover in Lima, Peru during which we had to remain on the plane. In the meantime, we looked out the window and saw fireworks as we coincided with Peruvian midnight!! Not so bad...New Year's eve with champagne and fireworks...all while on/from a  plane!!!

Pictures: Valparaiso

View of Valparaiso hills.

Fabulous artwork on exterior wall of house.

Typical corrugated iron facades.

Artistically presented delicious brownie. Cafe in Cerro Conception.

More colourful houses, Cerro Conception.

Rakesh walking up steps, behind woman.

"Waiting" (first image of photographic movie Rakesh created). Cerro Conception.

More art, outside a hostel.

Museum patio and view from Pablo Neruda's house, La Sebastiana.

More corrugated iron facades....

View from Pablo Neruda's house, Isla Negra.

Pablo Neruda's house, Isla Negra.

And...more views of Valparaiso.

Top 3 pics: Views from Cerro Artillaria.

One of many, colourful, asencores!! We took this one up to Cerro Artilleria.

Valparaiso and more, Chile

December 26 -29

After an overnight bus ride, from Chiloe, we arrived in Santiago. From there, we had to find our way by metro to another bus terminal, where we bought tickets and, immediately after, boarded a bus to Valparaiso. It was great timing! We had another 2 hours to go until we reached this oceanside city.
Valparaiso has one of the country's most important seaports and was once known as the "Little San Franciso". I do remember that we compared it, a little, to San Franciso, only because  much of the city is built up on many different hilsides. From the flat city center, the buildings (mainly resisential) up above, look like they're built right next to, and on top of one another and many appear to be clinging to the edge of the hill. Many of the facades are made from corrugated iron and painted in bright colours. The result - a hodgpodge of colours covering the hillsides!! Such wonderful sights and so many kodak moments!! Another aspect I liked was that the city still has much of it's "old" charm and one feels very laid-back here.

After checking into our hostel, we moseyed along the streets of Valparaiso toward Plaza Sotomayor, where the Monumento a Los Heroes is located. The monument is built over a crypt and pays tribute to heros that died during the war against Peru in 1879. From there we began our ascent into the neighbourhoods of Cerro Conception and Cerro Alegre.

We walked up narrow and windy streets and at times took steep staircases that lead between houses, including many art galleries. People actually have open doors into their house, so you can view some of their art work in the front rooms of their home. We went along on a whim. It was like getting lost in a maze, though we still had a map with us just in case and especially since these roads often lead to 'nowhere'. Turning a corner sprung up a new surprise. We would stumble upon incredible artwork along various walls, or a view upon the city and ocean down below. We then came to a commercial area of Cerro Conception where several restaurants and cafes are located. We were drawn into a cafe which served homemade icecream. While I got the icecream (delicious), Rakesh got hot chocolate and a brownie (also delicious). Next we continued along into Cerro Alegre and then started to make our way back down. At some point we made a turn and ended up in one, of many, funicular stations. This city is also known for its very old funicular system (dating back to 1800s). Like, colourful wooden boxes, pulled by cables that ascend and descend on steep inclines. We thought we'd give our feet a little rest and try out our first ascensor! It was short and sweet!

As we headed back toward our hostel, we walked into a music store. I can't remember what exactly attracted us to go into that music store at first, but while we were there, I thought I would ask some people at the desk, whether they could point us in the right direction for some live music, later than night. Rakesh and I felt, that once we left Brazil, our desire to hear some good latin music went by the way side (mostly because we were either sick, or too busy to seek it out). We felt that it would be our last chance to do so in Chile. Sure enough, a young lady gave us all sorts of information about various music venues. One of them, was "El Gato en La Ventana" (The cat in the window), a very low key bar with a small stage.

After buying some ingredients for dinner and cooking at the hostel, we made our way out toward "El Gato en la Ventana". Earlier that day, when we had passed by the bar, we were told that the band (playing all different South American songs) would not begin until 10:30pm. Since we had some time to kill after dinner, we walked around a bit and came across a pool joint. We spent some time playing a couple games of pool, the worst and most tedious of all our pool games, and then made our way to the bar.

It was more like 11:30pm by the time the band started to play.  There were in fact two locals bands playing that night. The first was pretty good, with 3 members playing, whereas the second had a whole troop. We enjoyed the first group, as they were a little more on the traditional side. We stayed for a couple of tunes played by the second band and then decided to call it a night (it was close to 1:30 am).

The second day, we walked back through many of the same roads as the day before. Our first destination was to one of Pablo Neruda's houses, "La Sebastiana", which I believe is in the neighbourhood of Cerro Alegre. It was a fair walk, in the heat and beating sun and up into the hills, but nevertheless very enjoyable.

We had an audio guide which took us through Pablo Neruda's house. A wonderful house, as you might imagine and a very interesting tour. He was definitely a "lover of things". These "things" were often given to him or bought from flee markets. It was a friend of Pablo Neruda's who found the house for him. The attraction was that the house, overlooks the city of Valparaiso and the Pacific ocean. Quite the view!! It was fun to go through the house and learn about Pablo's life as a poet, politician and social host!

[Rakesh writes: The best part for me was looking at the old maps that were hung in the house.  In the collection was one particular map that stuck in my head.  It was from England(Duke of Glouster I think..).  It was a mix of geographical and historical map.  The Duke had written brief blurbs about each country in South America.  The regions were demarcated completely differently.  The colonial mindset of exploitation was vividly evident from descriptions such as "Peru: a land to find gold and other treasures" and "Brazil: made up of barbarious nations who maintain their freedom" and so on........ ]

After a bite to eat, near the museum, we ventured back down a different route. This time, our aim was to go through the "open sky museum" or Museo a Cielo Abierto. This lead to a group of streets from where one can view more artwork painted on exterior walls, as well as some installations (i.e. colourful benches). Somehow, we were not as taken by this artwork compared to that which we had seen the day before. Still, they were interesting and unique.

By mid afternoon, we had made our way to the train station in order to get to the neighbouring region of Viña del Mar. During a stop over at our hostel, the owner kindly gave us a card that we could use so that we would not have to pay to get on the train. We were very thankful to her, as we got a free train ride to and from Viña del Mar.

Viña del Mar is another ocieanside city, but unlike Valparaiso, has many beaches. By the time we arrived, the sun was still blaring. We got a map from the visitor's center and made our way to a nearby Parque Quinta Vergara. It was the best choice ever, as we sat on a patch of grass and under the shade of a tree. We were just one couple or group of people, doing the very same thing.

After some time, we began to make our way through the streets of Viña del Mar, toward the main beach. This city is of stark difference from Valparaiso, as it is much more developed and westernized. Still, the city is quite pretty.  On our way, we stopped by an empanada place that was mentioned in my guide book. A place which sells all sorts of weird and wonderful empanadas with fillings of all kinds. For example, goat cheese and sundried tomatos. Definitely, not very typical, but pretty good.

It was close to sunset, by the time we arrived at the beach. We had a nice long walk, mainly on the sand and partly on the long boardwalk filled with stalls selling food, clothes etc. Definitely, another tourist destination. Unfortunately, the ocean here is not a very swimmable. In fact there were signs along the beach, discouraging the act of swimming. Also, much to our dismay, the beach itself was pretty dirty (though, having seen other such beaches along our travels, this needn't have been much of a surprise!).
That evening, we thought we would end up at another music venue, however, by the time we got back to our hostel and had dinner, we were pretty tired and the thought of going out, again, was no longer appealing to us. Instead, we had an early night's sleep.

The next day, we got up fairly early to catch a bus to a region, south of Valparaiso called,  El Quisco. We were, in fact, heading out to another one of Pablo Neruda's houses, Isla Negra. Unlike, it's name suggests, however, there is no island involved. The house, supposedly is named this way because of the black rocks on the beach in front of the house, and for Pablo Neruda's feeling of being on an island (for all you can see in front of the house is the beach and the ocean!!). The Isla Negra house is one of his most popularly visited houses. After seeing "La Sebastiana", we also understood its popularity. His Isla Negra house is a lot bigger, has a different architecture all together and sits right above a beach. The majority of his collections in this house have some relationship to the ocean: parts of a ship, seashells, sailboat etc., navigation maps etc. Much of the house is built to resemble a ship with low ceilings or doorways etc.  A section of the house was even made to look like a ship cabin (all in wood). However, despite his love of the sea, Pablo was not very keen on sailing. He had a beached boat on the premises. He would sit in the boat with his friends, drinking wine and talking politics.

Both, the surroundings and Pablo Neruda's house are magnificent. The audio tour, was very fascinating. As with the previous house, the guide gave a good overview of Pablo's life and personality, through the collections and architecture of the house.  Going through his house and surroundings was like living his poetry. It is here, that Pablo Neruda and his wife were buried. A highly recommended place to visit.

Outside the museum, we asked for a lunch recommendation from one of the locals. We were directed to the main street of El Quisco, to a very nice restaurant, where Rakesh and I shared a salad and another congrio, eel fish, dish. Very good and fresh!

After JUST missing our bus back to Valparaiso, we had to sit/stand/dance/jump around at the bus stop for a half hour or so before the next bus arrived, as there was not much else to do around. A test of patience! Once we got back to the hostel, we had a little time to rest, make dinner and then head out to a concert!! Briefly... upon arriving in Valparaiso, on our first day, I noticed several posters on billboards advertising for an "Inti-Illimani" concert that Friday. I did not know anything about this group, other than that they are from Chile, but had previously heard about them through my chorus leader, Lichi. Since we both wanted to get saturated with live music before leaving South America, we inquired about tickets the day before the concert. Since the seats were decent and the price was cheap, we decided we had nothing to lose.

The concert was fabulous!! Much of their music is influenced by  a ex-Chilean musician and political activist, Victor Jara. The instrumentals and the voices of the members of this group were incredibly moving, in all ways. For the most part ofcourse, we had no clue what they were singing about. However,  I was pleasantly surprised when the group sang a song, that I learned in my chorus. After being out of practice for a while, I could somewhat follow along (quietly!) :)

The next day, was our last in Valparaiso. Nevertheless, we spent some time in the morning heading to a part further away from the areas that we had already explored. We had been told to go to an area called Cerro Artillería. We took it slowly and even loitered around an open market, in Sotomayor plaza. There, I bought a magnet (adding to the collection of those I bought in Argentina, Peru, and Brazil).
In order to get to the top of Cerro Artillería, we took another (our second) ascensor. This time, the ride was longer and the cable cars were beuatifully painted in all sorts of bright colours. At the top, there was a lookout from where we had the best vista of the city. We took some pictures, as best we could, considering all the other people around doing the same. Other than that, there is a naval museum there, for which we did not take the time to visit and a bunch of stalls selling the typical tourist "stuff".

Instead of taking the cable car back, we took an easy stroll down. We then headed back to Cerro Conception to an area we hadn't been before. It was by the Bellas Artes museum (unfortunately, we did not have time to visit this) which is located in a nice square and the building itself is very insteresting. From there, we ventured back to the area of restaurants and cafes, in that same neighbourhood, where we sat down and had another nice lunch. Our last, in Valparaiso.

After picking up our backpacks from the hostel, we walked back to the bus terminal where we left for Santiago. Again, our timing was impeccable. As soon as we bought our tickets, we boarded the bus (we had no previous idea of the bus schedule, though knew that the buses were frequent). Perfect!

Pictures: Isla Chiloé

Colours, colours everywhere!! Even the ferry and the buses are colourful!

This is how our hosts were drying their clothes! 

View of town of Castro and hills beyond.

Ship yard.

Palafito houses, Castro (above 2 pics.).

The most brightly coloured church we've ever seen. Main square of Castro.

Could not believe the size and height of these leaves!!! Chiloé National Park.

El Tepual trail. Viewing Chepu tree covered with moss. 

A very tropical feeling. National park.

These beautiful yellow flowered shrubs were everywhere!! National park.

The pacific ocean by the National park.

Isla Chiloé, Chile

December 22 -25

The next day morning, we took a early bus to Puerto Montt. When we had arrived in Puerto Montt, we had pre-booked our bus to Castro on the island of Chiloe and then to Santiago from Chiloe.  We would be spending Christmas in Chiloe. Chiloe was an island Nicole had heard from one of her friends at the chorus.  This was also the trip where we knew very little about the place we were going to and did not know what to expect.

The bus ride to Chiloe was  approx. 5hrs and involved a ferry crossing.  We saw many pelicans making a flight across the straits and it was a really nice sight.  Once in Chiloe, we went directly to a tourist office to inquire about the various activities.  It was here that we found out about the rain that was expected for the next couple of days!!

We walked along the road where there were many hostels.  Most of them looked empty. We went into one and found it to be fairly nice and decided to stay there (its amazing how quickly  decisions get made when one is lugging a 50 pound backpack ).  The room though turned out to be very small, but we managed.  It was a strange arrangement, where we had to go through the house of the owner to get to the kitchenette where we could cook.  We felt some discomfort barging through other peoples house, but there was no other way to get there. [Nicole writes: what made it worse, was that out of 17 rooms in this hostel/private house, we were their only customers there during our entire stay!! The reason why we felt uncomfortable intercepting the owners, was because they weren't the friendliest of people! Can't have it all...].

On the first day, we walked around to find some food and had a veggie chacarero at a local bar.  This was a very big chacarero and very good.  For those of you who don't know, chacarero is a chilean sandwich which is made with avocado and some spicy chilean peppers.  Our first exposure to this sandwich was actually in Boston.  10 years ago, the sandwich shop called chacarero was a hole in the wall establishment on the corner of the Filenes basement/Macys store on Washington st in downtown  Boston.  We've been hooked to this flavourful sandwich since then. Coming to Chile, we were looking forward to trying the real deal.  Even though the one at the bar was really big and looked sketchy, we could not stop eating it once we started.  It was really really good!!

After lunch, we walked around town. We went to the supermarket to buy supplies for the evening.  We tried to buy some yoghurt and had an experience similar to one in Argentina.  Lots of sweetened yoghurt, but no natural stuff.  We ended up asking a local family regarding this.  She pointed out one brand which makes natural yoghurt.  We started reading labels and started smiling at each other.  The "natural yogurt"  was made with gelatine and milk powder.  Go figure that one out.  Anyway, we bought it anyway as it had been many days since we had dairy and I was craving some raita.  Fortunately, the veggies and fruits in Chiloe are really good and the cilantro made an excellent raita from the fake yogurt we had (this may sound very finicky, but at the end of three months, I was really missing Indian food).

The next morning, we were not sure if it was going to rain or not, so we decided to walk around the town of Castro, visiting the palafitos (or houses on wooden stilts).  We also walked around to the local market where we had a very unique experience.  We saw many varieties of seaweed that is consumed by the locals in full display.  The garlic that grows here blew our mind.  Each clove of garlic was as big as the biggest shallot you have ever seen.   The town also had a very nice lookout and the view would have been very nice if not for the rapid development taking place.

That day was a lazy day and we spent the evening going to the local art market.  We stayed in that evening and ate inside.

The next day was even more lazier.  It was the 24th and we were warned that everything would close early.  It was raining in the morning and we just stayed in the hostel sleeping in.  By the time we decided to go out, it was late and all the restaurants were closed!!! We made a mad scramble and bought some pasta from a local store for the evening.  That evening was also interesting.   Our host family celebrated their Christmas eve. with a fairly loud party into the night (accompanied by a TV program that played all the popular songs).

Christmas morning, we decided to venture out.  We had been in Chiloe for three days and had not seen much due to the unpredictable rains.  Our desire had been to go to the town of Ancud and make our way to the Penguin island, but that idea along with the others was washed out. On Christmas day, we took the local bus and made our way to the national park on the other side of the island.  Surprisingly, the park is open 365 days and the bus services run all days. We calculated that we would have about 3 hours in the park (taking into consideration the travel time required, and the fact that we had to leave for Santiago in the evening).

We were both glad that we made this hike to the park.  The vegetation here is very very unique and it is nothing like anything we have ever seen before.  We went through a walk where the trees were growing through the swamp and were completely covered with moss.  We had to walk on a boarded walkway and you could not even tell that there was any water around.  Such strange plants and trees, we had never seen before.  We even walked a bit to make our way to the ocean and had a great view of the park from there.

We returned to our hostel, picked up our bags and made our way to the bus station.  This was another cool bus ride in South America.  Wifi on the bus!!! our first time.....nevertheless we hardly used it.

Pictures: Puerto Varas

Saltos del Petrohue in Parque Nacional Vicente Perez Rosales.

Beautiful waterfalls and blue coloured water against black volcanic rock.

Fantastic combination. Top 5 pics.

Saltos del Petrohue waterfalls with cloud covered, 

snow-capped volcano "Osorno" in the background (above 2 pics).

A better view of Osorno volcano from Llanquihue lake. 

Photo taken by the town of Puerto Varas.

Puerto Varas, Chile

December 20 - 22

The flight from Puerto Natales to Puerto Varas was exciting.  The winds were howling at the Puerto Natales airport.  We were very convinced that the flight would be cancelled as the plane was 45 minutes late and were surprised to see the plane touch down from Punta Arenas.  Even getting on the flight was rough.  I mean the winds were really really strong.  Inspite of this (and to our surprise), the take off and the flight was really smooth.  Maybe the pilots deal with this everyday.
Once in Puerto Montt, Nicole and I bought our tickets to the island of Chiloe and to the bus from Chiloe to Santiago. Then, we took a local bus to Puerto Varas, the more picturesque neighbour of Puerto Montt.  By this time I was ready for the usual.  Throughout our travels we had found that we would read about a place and get excited, but then getting there we'd find over/unplanned development; which would completely destroy the image in our head.  Fortunately, Puerto Varas, even with its development was a decent town (a huge lake next to the city helps a lot).

We arrived without any reservation. We walked to 2 hostels and they were too pricey, and/or did not have availability.  The owner of the second hostel pointed out another hostel.  we found the place but, initially, there was no one who answered the door and we kept walking up and down the premises to see if there was another entrance.  There had been 2 teenagers in a car parked next to the house, but they just looked at us and didn't say anything for 5 minutes.  Only after we hung around for a while, did one of them step out of the car and ask us if we were looking to get into the house.  We told him that we wanted a room for the evening.  He turned out to be the son of the lady who ran the place.  We were wearing two large backpacks each, tired like hell and had the backpacker look, but I guess the teenager brain works differently. Anyway, we really liked the room (probably the best we had in all of South America).  We cleaned up a bit and went out for dinner at a local restaurant.

The next day, we went around to the local information desk to inquire what was around.  The lady told us about the local bus we could take to the base of the volcano Osorno.  We could not see Osorno at the time.  It was supposed to be visible across the lake in Puerto Varas.  Nicole and I walked around the streets of Puerto Varas, got a couple sandwiches to go and went to the local bus station to catch the bus to this beautiful park at the volcano base called Saltos del Petrohue.  Before we started, I saw some people eating from a local stall. Since we love street food so much, we grabbed this fried bread from the stall.  The fried bread was being eaten with a garlic aoli sauce.  The combination reminded me of eating puri with garlic coconut chutney in India......yummy.

The bus ride took us about an hour, when we drove along the lakeshore and then into some really pretty green territory.  Again, the landscape and the rainy environment and the clouds created beautiful vistas.
After buying tickets and making our way through the touristy shops trying to sell Peruvian/Andino goods, we came to the beautiful outlook at the Petrohue falls.  The falls themselves are very small, but the turquoise/blue color of the water and the volume of this glacial water over black volcanic rock created an awesome scenery.  Nicole and I went into this camera crazy mode.  We were trying so hard to capture what we were seeing, but the settings were just not right and I hope we have some pictures to give a sense of this place.  Anyway, after spending sometime at the falls, we walked around the park.  The feeling during this walk was weird.  We were still at a colder latitude (Puerto Varas is halfway along the length of Chile), but the rich volcanic soil had given rise to this incredible vegetation and it felt like a rainforest.

We waited impatiently for quite a while before we could board the bus back to Puerto Varas.  On the way back, we witnessed a fire that had engulfed a house in a small community.  Our driver stopped and a few men from our bus actually got off at the stop, to help out.  Our driver actually made a call to the popular radio station to report the fire.  It was quite incredible (we were inside the bus, seeing him talk outside the vehicle and hearing him through the radio).  The radio host actually told that he would make a call out to the authorities.

10 minutes later,  as we were driving back, we saw a firetruck pass us by.  It probably takes a while for word to get out, and in these cases, locals are very helpful to one another here.

Once back in Puerto Varas, the clouds had cleared and we had a view of the Osorno volcano across the lake. More Kodak moments.

We rested for a bit in our hostel and took a cab to a restaurant out of town to a popular local joint. We thoroughly enjoyed the local fare there and were infact a little stuffed at the end of the night.