A week in Cambridge

Cambridge from the river

I've been to Cambridge a couple of times and always wondered how fun it would be to study in a student town as pretty as Cambridge. Where there are people in the same stage of life all around, student related activities around the year and everything is geared to making the life of a student fun and comfortable. Its something I would love to experience this as my studying experience was different and I studied in much smaller campuses. I never got a chance to do it till now but this summer I was in Cambridge for a week on a work training. And I think I can say that it kind off did fulfil part of my wish;-).

While in Cambridge I stayed in Downing College which is located close to the city centre. All our sessions during the week were in their auditorium and we spent a lot of time in their grounds. It seemed like a pretty college with lot of green grounds and space to move around. It also had an interesting history of how it came into existence after tens of years of negotiations between the benefactor 's will and his wife's relatives:). But so do most of the colleges around:).

I have written about this earlier also that work travel isn't always the perfect way to explore a place and I felt the same even now. We spent full days in trainings with further events planned in the evenings. So we did not get any spare time to ourselves and I don't feel that I know Cambridge fully.

All our events were around the central area, in the Kings College, the Guildhall and nearby places. We spent all our time in this area but I did get out of the planned stuff a couple of evenings and spent time walking around which I really enjoyed. Of the 3 evenings I was there, I went out punting two of the evenings and walked around the colleges on the third. I wish the weather had been better but then its the UK and you can never expect too much:).

Punting in the river

Punting is something very specific to Cambridge - it is essentially boating on a wooden raft using a long punt instead of an oar. The punt is a huge long rod which is used to push the ground behind the boat and hence it is much slower and tougher than using an oar. Learning how to punt takes longer as you need to learn to efficiently maneuver the raft just by pushing it!! Also therefore punting can be done only in places with a shallow river.

It was all very very idyllic, the whole punting experience. With you drifting away between the colleges on both sides while the punter is telling you stories of a different era. And if the weather is great, this is an ideal way to relax and explore Cambridge.

The punt ride was for about 45 mins along the river Cam (that's where the name Cambridge came from!!) and the punters (is that what they are called?) give the tourists a history lesson on Cambridge. On both the punt rides we did, the stories were different, though not really inconsistent:-). The punters mostly told us about the history of the four main colleges on either side of the river - Kings College, Clare College, Trinity Hall and St Johns.

Cambridge was setup in the 1800s after a riot erupted in Oxford between the scholars and the local villagers. The Oxford scholars then came to Cambridge which was then a centre of religious studies and started the Cambridge university. Given their past history, they setup the university on the other side of the river Cam to protect them from the villagers:) in case more riots erupted in the future;-).

Stephen Hawking's office

There are some 30-40 Colleges in the University and all of them have a long and interesting history. They are all huge, with their own chapels, huge dining rooms, college grounds, student accommodation etc.. In fact, a lot of these colleges were used as sets for shooting the Harry Potter movies. Students get admitted to the University of Cambridge and then apply to stay in one of its many colleges. The Colleges are prestigious in their own rights as they have their own tutors who teach the students personally and are responsible for them doing well. No wonder, of the 90 Nobel prize winners from the UK, Cambridge produced 32 of them!

The punters shared loads of stories with us, some true and some not that much:). I will just mention the ones I found interesting.

Kings College: The Kings College is the prettiest of the colleges on the river and the most photographed one too. Its chapel and neighbouring buildings are typically used as the symbol of Cambridge. It has historically been where all the rich students used to study as its quite expensive. For a long time, it was a finishing College for the rich (especially students from Eton) but now has started admitting up to 60% students from public schools (Given that the national average for public schools is at 93%, it is still a rich man's college). We had our first day's welcome drinks in the open grounds of the College as well as our welcome dinner. It was the perfect introduction to Cambridge, starting at such a picturesque location.

Kings College

The Kings College also has an interesting part to play in some of the wars - it became the centre of the Civil War when Lord Cornwall used the cathedral for housing his horses and soldiers. And then during the World War, it faced a lot of bombing and therefore its stained glass windows were taken down and stored safely to keep them safe till after the war!

Trinity Hall: Apparently it is the richest college in Cambridge and owns lands across the world including in Wall Street. It was setup by the King Henry VIII of England when he decided to setup the Church of England. He wanted it to be a non-religious place of study and made it the biggest and richest in Cambridge. He even took aways lands from the Catholic schools to make it so. And that's the reasons that it till date has a deep rivalry with St Johns College which was catholic till a long time later.

Trinity Hall

Trinity Hall has one of the most impressive alumni list. Newton studied here as did Stephen Hawking,  Tennyson, Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi. Or for that matter, even Prince Charles. Though he came in with a letter from his mother to admit him to the College! Its said he was an average student and his bodyguards who also had to take the exam to be with him in the examination room got better grades that him;-).

We walked around inside the college too and it was grand and majestic from inside. When you enter, you see the grounds and all around the various halls and chapel - what a tranquil place it would be to study and think! Trinity Hall is also famous for its Wren library which houses Newton's first book, the first English published Bible as well as Shakespeare's hand-written books among a host of other rare books. We did not get a chance to see it but would be nice to see them. The British Library in London also houses some such rare manuscripts and would be nice to have a look at them too sometime!

St Johns College: Just opposite Trinity Hall is the St Johns College which I found the prettiest of them all. The College is grand from the outside almost looking like a wedding cake:). We walked in the grounds outside and found it very majestic. What fun it must be to study in a location like this:). The backside of the building is quite ugly though, made of bricks unlike the stone in the front as this was the part where all the servants used to stay. The College has now grown Virginia creepers all over the walls to cover the ugly backside.

St Johns

The College is also famous for its 'bridge of sighs' across the river Cam which students would cross to get their marksheets and hence the sighs. The bridge of sigh is present in multiple locations around the world like the original in Venice and copies each in Oxford, Venetian in Las Vegas and a prison in Pennsylvania. Also just behind the College is an addition to the college, a building which was designed by a computer and therefore so terrible, that its known as the Carpark building! The difference between the two is so stark, its not funny at all!

St John remained a Christian College and was the seat of religious learning for a long time. But then Trinity Hall took over some of the sheen from it;-). St Johns and Trinity since then have a lot of rivalry between them. In fact, in a sporting competition, the St Johns rowing team hit the Trinity Hall rowing boat with a spike to destroy them and have not been allowed to compete in sports since then. The punter also told some story on how something related to St Johns was the inspiration for the 007 books but I have forgotten what the logic was. Lastly a famous alumni of the school is Manmohan Singh, the ex Prime Minister of India (just felt like mentioning this random fact!).

Clare College: Next to Kings College is Clare's College. It was founded by a famous lady of the 17th century, xxx who was the richest woman in all Europe at that time. She had married three times to wealthy husbands and they all mysteriously died. So as they said, 'she bought her way into heaven after committing crimes in her life on Earth':). The College is again very pretty and its famous for its garden which has plants from across the world - including a banana tree - the only one in Europe and which has grown a banana only once (in 2008!).

Clare College gardens

On the River Cam is located a Mathematical bridge which apparently was built by Newton without using any nuts and bolts! And when others tried to take it apart and put it back together, they were not able to do it without bolts. Though the truth is that it was built by Newton's students many years after he was gone and the bolts were of such a colour that they were not visible because of which the story came about. And so its not true!

We also learnt two other random facts on the punt ride - Cambridge professors are the only ones in UK who can legally eat swans from the river other than the queen herself. Also the University library is quite huge and apparently holds every book published in UK ever! There were loads of many such random stories about Cambridge which the punters told us. To hear about them, you should try punting yourself some day:).

Anyways, for me the rest of the week was spent attending all the work events. We had dinners in the University Grounds, ate at Revolution Bar, Don Pasquale, All Bar One and where all, walked around the market square which offers good shopping and generally had a great time relaxing around. There were Shakespeare plays being enacted at a lot of places, lot of Churches around and so much peace and silence around - as I said, would love to study here sometime!

Impressions of Brazil

I have wanted to visit Brazil for a long time (actually go to South America itself) and finally booked an 11 day vacation for summer this year. It was actually quite cheap (relatively!) to go there in Brazilian winter when supposedly its the low season. I wonder why that is so especially since the weather is quite comfortable and pleasant during winter. I would think summer would be worse with temperatures going up to 40 degrees but thats how it is. Anyways it meant lesser crowds and better weather for us and I am not complaining.

Where to go

When I started planning the trip, I realised that 11 days were not enough at all! Brazil is a huge country with diverse places across its length and breadth. The culture, landscape and weather varies a lot depending on where you go and hence you need to pick the right places based on your interests. My final itinerary was as follows, I picked up two very different nature based experiences which were specific to Brazil - diving and wildlife:

• 1 day - Rio de Janeiro
• 5 days - Fernando de Noronha (an island off the North-east coast of Brazil)
• 4 days - Pantanal (wetlands in South-west Brazil, an easier alternative to Amazon forest)

We also spent a lot of time travelling between the places as distances and flying times were quite long.

During my research, I read about many other places which deserve a visit if you are there longer. Here's my list:

• Near Rio - city of Paraty known for its colonial history and culture; island of Ilha Grande for relaxing on a remote island away from the city; Buzios for a fun relaxing seaside town about 2.5 hours drive from Rio
• Iguazu Falls - supposedly the best falls in the world and require a two day trip from Rio (potentially Argentinian visa too)
• North-east Brazil - Salvador, the African cultural hub of Brazil; Recife, a beach resort in the north; Olinda, another colonial town in the north
• And of course the Amazon forest, but that needs at least 5-6 days to make that trip worthwhile

Travel within Brazil

Throughout our travels we crisscrossed the country multiple times, landing and changing planes at multiple cities and seeing the changing landscape from above. We spent two days flying within Brazil and spending so much time in the air looking down made me feel I knew the country a lot more than just the three places we stayed in!

For our fight from Rio to Fernando de Noronha, we landed in Belo Horizonte first and then Recife. As soon as we left Rio, the landscape became green and mountainous, and had clouds trapped between them. From the top, it looked like cotton spread all around, and this view continued for a long time. And just before Belo Horizonte, we flew over wetlands where the rivers made funny shapes on the landscape below, like bows. When we landed at Belo Horizonte, the land became flat and we could see farmlands as far as the eyes could see.

Recife from the plane

From Belo Horizonte, we flew to Recife and I can’t forget the first view of the city. Emerald green waters all along the coast, white sand beaches next to it and the high rises stretching all along. And behind the high-rises, the city filled with slums till wherever you can see. The difference between the two faces of Recife was very stark! I have never seen so many high rises in a single city other than New York, but then behind them, 80% of the city was covered by shanty houses. Its a scene which I cannot forget. And you can see it only when you fly. For people visiting Recife, they will never get to see the real city, the 80% of the city. All they will see and know is the emerald green sea and the posh high rise hotels just next to them. But thats how it is!

Anyways, while flying from FDN to Cuiaba, we again stopped at Recife and then Campinas. We also had to stay in Campinas overnight in some airline hotel as our flight got late and we missed our connection. The hotel was outside the city, so we did not see anything there. Once we reached Cuiaba, we did get a chance to drive through its small streets and lanes and realised how terrible driving could be in Brazil:). When flying from Cuiaba to Rio we stopped only at Brasilia, the unknown capital of Brazil. Don’t remember much of it other than it was huge and you can see lights till wherever the eye can see.

We flew with Azul from Rio to FDN and then FDN to Cuiaba. I must say, we were very impressed with their service. Even with two very short transfers for each flight, everything was well managed and our luggage was duly shifted on time. And once when our connecting flight was getting delayed, we were again impressed by how they reached out to us, helped us change our tickets and then plan the whole change efficiently. The only not so great fact was that they don’t serve proper food on the flights. Only snacks - gummy bears, muffins, nuts and so on - irrespective of whether its time for lunch or dinner.

History and culture

Brazil has a very interesting history. It is the only Portuguese speaking country in South America, sharing its border with old Spanish colonies. An interesting part of its history is that when Napoleon had attacked countries in Europe, the Portuguese king had shifted his capital to Brazil, to Rio!! So for 13 or so years, the seat of the Portuguese empire, was not in Portugal but in Brazil! I haven’t heard of any similar situation in any of the other colonies.

Everyone in Brazil speaks Portuguese, but apparently its different from the original Portuguese and its tough for one to understand the other. Also, English is not spoken widely and this can be a bit of a problem for tourists. Brazil was ruled by the military in the 60s and the 70s when they had banned learning any language other than Portuguese - this could be one of the reasons for that.

People in Brazil are quite mixed. People who are white (from Italy, Germany, Portugal and so on), the African slaves who were brought from Africa and then people of all shades between the two:). I don’t think I can guess looking at someone if they are Brazilian or not. It made it very easy for us to blend in too, we were not that different from all the others around:).

The biggest wave of immigration happened about 450 years ago when Germans, Italians and the Japanese shifted here. They all got free land from the Portuguese government to come to Brazil and start agriculture here. Most of the whites settled in the south of the country which is less “warm” in more ways than one than the rest of the country. The Africans who came here mostly settled in the north which is warmer. And hence within the country you have two different cultures, the warmer culture in the north and the whiter colder culture in the south (or so I heard).

Overall, Brazil felt much more developed than India. It got a head start as it got independence in the mid 1800s and has moved fast since then. I did feel that the culture was a bit lacking - I did not see anything which I felt was different about Brazil. Maybe its because of the places I visited, which were not really the culture capitals but more the nature capitals. But still I felt it the entire time. Maybe its the fact that everyone here is from elsewhere that might have contributed to it. But Brazil is definitely not a Mexico or Tanzania or Vietnam with deep centuries old history of its own.

Other random titbits

• Getting a visa for Brazil is easy - it had a relaxed visa process and not too expensive either (other than if you are an American, and I can’t say I find any fault with that;-) )
• Winter is a great time to visit Brazil. The weather is quite warm, always above 20 and mostly above 30
• There are 4 time zones within Brazil and its a good idea to check before flying or making any bookings:)
• Like the US, food portions are generally too much, so you need to be careful when ordering!
• Mangoes are common here and apparently they were imported years ago from India
• You need to be careful with your cash and cards. Cash was taken out using our debit cards, even though we used them very carefully and only at safe locations

Other articles on Brazil:
Rio de Janeiro
Fernando de Noronha
Pantanal

The party city - Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

Rio at night
(with Christ the Redeemer statue)

During our trip to Brazil, we flew in to Rio from London and stayed there only for a day. Initially, I was a bit unsure about that as everyone I have met has loved the city, and I thought one day might be too less for it. Though now, I think that was more than enough. I haven’t figured out why there is so much hoo-hulla about the city - its definitely pretty, has nice beaches and all, but other than partying, I don’t see much you can do there for long. And given that that wasn't what we were looking for, it was the right decision to not stay there longer.

We took the official taxi from the airport to the hotel, which cost twice as much as the regular ones you can take from right outside the airport. And that was true for the rest of our time there too - we were quite cautious in Rio because of its reputation as an unsafe city and so ended up overpaying almost all the time.

View of Rio from afar

Rio is famous for its beaches, the most famous of which is the Copacabana beach. And then there are the less famous ones of Ipanema, Leblon and so on. Most of the tourists stay around these beaches and so the hotels here are quite pricey. We stayed at the Mar Ipanema hotel, which was a relatively cheap option. It is in the Ipanema area and I would totally recommend it. Its 5 mins walking to the beach, has good views of the beaches, lagoon and the Statue of Christ, and is of good enough quality.

Ipanema beach

We spent half of our day on the Ipanema beach and the other half visiting the famous tourist spots around. The Ipanema beach was pretty, it was sunny and warm and looked like everyone in the city was out in the sea! The water was clean green, and quite warm; enough to enjoy the water with the waves providing extra fun. The weather was perfect for the beach too, 26 degrees (and that too in winter)! There were also helicopters circling the beach areas to ensure tourist safety.

The road next to the beach had been turned into a pedestrian zone for the day, and you could see everyone walking around, taking in the views while the hawkers were trying hard to sell their wares. The whole beach was lined with high rise posh hotels and then on the other end of the beach was a favela. (The favelas are the famous slums of Brazil, made famous for their drug business in the movie City of Joy). An interesting thing was that this favela did have one of the best location in the city - located on a hill, with a view of the Ipanema beach, the sea and the mountains beyond! Not bad at all. Also, this whole area reminded me a bit of Bombay, there was just so much similarity between the two.

The city and cathedral

For the second half of the day, we took a guided tour in a mini-bus for about 4 hours to cover the main tourist sights of the city. It felt like quite a relaxed tour and we figured out that timing wasn’t of any importance to anyone, given how behind time everything was running! The tour started with a visit to a modern cathedral in downtown which was definitely missable. Then we stopped at a place where the Samba schools practice for the Carnival which was again missable. On the way, we drove by the bay area, where all the boats are parked and the river comes inland. It looked like one of the more up-market areas of Rio.

The next stop was the statue of Christ the Redeemer or Corcovado. The statue is located on top of the mountain and is visible from many places in the city. Its covered by the Tijuca rainforest all around (Rio is one of the few cities with a rainforest in the middle of the city!). Not sure if there is anything to see there though, other than some wildlife like monkeys etc..

Christ the Redeemer

When on top, you need to go up some stairs to reach the statue. To be honest, I had expected the statue to be bigger than what it is. Its majestic but not as much as I had expected and I was definitely underwhelmed.

The view from the top though was impressive. You get a 360 degree view of the city - its hills, the airport, a lake, bridges across the sea and the neighbouring city of Niteroi across the bay. The whole view was a little misty though given the time of the day - might be because of pollution. Its a very impressive view and a must. Very few cities in the work could boast such a view. Though when on top you can see the high rises interspersed with the favelas - it brings to mind immediately the inequalities of most of the developing countries in the world. But still, its a definite must see.

Sugar Loaf mountain

After that, we went up the Sugar Loaf mountain, which is one of the iconic features of Rio. To reach the top, you have to take two gondolas - one to the top of the smaller mountain and then another to the top of the one behind. From the top, you get a similar view of Rio as Corcovado but since we went there in the evening, we saw the night view. The twinkling lights especially around the beaches was picturesque. But it was still missable. Going to just one of the two places is enough in my view.

Copacabana beach at night

We also realised how much your photographs depend on the lens that you use. We were using our recently bought zoom lens and it changed the look of all the photos we took. And then one of our fellow passengers took a picture of us with his own lens - it was completely different from what we had been taking till then. Totally convinced my that buying the right lens is most important to get good photographs.

It was easy to get to all the tourist places, as they weren't crowded. Apparently in the summer its the opposite - queues and queues everywhere. Overall, people felt very chilled out too, all were dressed in relaxed and colourful clothes. Women overall seemed quite healthy, and not like the hot women they show in Rio movies:).

We ate dinner near our hotel at a restaurant called Viasete, it was nice. There were a couple of very nice restaurants nearby but we had read so much about the city being unsafe, that we did not venture out much or explore anything on our own - maybe that might have brought us more in contact with the real city but we missed it.

The next morning we were to fly to Fernando de Noronha and realised when in the taxi that we were going to the wrong airport! We figured that out soon enough, so was good. We also did our first successful haggling with the taxi guy, very proud of it:). One caution though - be careful of using ATMs in Rio airport. We used our debit cards there trying to take out cash and got none. And then a couple of days later, fraudalent transactions had been made on those same cards.

Overall, I must say that Rio did not feel like something to write home about - it was just a normal city with a beautiful location. It did have a mixture of old colourful Portuguese buildings and gothic churches peeping out from between the high rises and the favelas. But overall as I said, we were underwhelmed by the city.

Other articles on Brazil:
Fernando de Noronha
Pantanal
Impressions of Brazil