So from delhi, much too early, we took a train to Agra. thats where the taj mahal is basically! pretty much a must-see. So arrived at our accommodation and there it was! from the roof top terrace you had an amazing view of it, it is really so amazing to see in real life and it is so beautiful. we'd decided to do yet another early start (cos i'm so good in the mornings) the next day as apparently sunrise is amazing time to view it. agra is quite small and nice to escape the vastness and chaos of big time delhi. headed to agr fort where the dude who built the taj lived and then was later imprisoned by his son. nice. so that was another cultural notch in our belt, considering i'm usually more concerned woith the food and shopping...
Talking of which, had dinner in place called taj cafe, of coruse ordered and ate far too much, but was family owned and mum was cooking and kids were waiting, just the nicest people and good home cooked food too! still loving that butter nan!
got up at 6am, headed down to th taj. security was tight and the security ladies (as i was in the womens security check queue) thought my mittens/gloves were very strange...
anyways walked through and sat and watched it get light around the taj. so so beautiful and peaceful (until toursit bus arrived) and just amazing to be somewhere you have seen so many times. is so big , considering is just a tomb for the dudes second wife, she died during childbirth of her 14th child (did she not think to perhaps give up after 13???!!). but is amzing has all these flowers on it, well can't explain, go see for yourself. in great condition considering from 1600's...everthing here seems to be in good condition...perhaps building with marble or soemthing?
went for a walk to the local village, away from the tourist routes, all nice normal people again so good to gt away from touts and remind youself of the normal everyday people.
rest of the day was a bit of a writeoff for me, as ate something for lunch which REALLY didn't agree and had to retire to bed (and bathroom..). first case of delhi belly!!! guttered.
Thursday 31 January 2008
27-28 jan
so my last post was done from the train. turns out the food we got was just supper and was then followed by a 3 course meal of soup and bread, an indian dish with naan and rice and 2 types of curries and then icecream, omg was SOO full by the time we got to delhi loved it tho! so arrived delhi, ripped off by a rickshaw driver (ok only like 20p but STILL it the principle!) and the place we booked was well...a dump. i know my standards are high but stil! yuck. anyways bunked down for the night and first thing got a nice new room WITH A HEATER and running hot water so that was lovely. Stayed in the tourist part of town and decided after a couple of hours of being hassled by touts, drivers, beggars and shop owners (what part of no do these people not understand we decided to head into new delhi to the shopping area. mished around there and was nice a peaceful, noone bothered us, all middle class people and also a lot less stares my way...ahhh peace! ended up having a great latte at one of the new age coffee shops gracing india...like indian version of starbucks. they are really keen to get themselves westernised. not really good shops, they are liking a lot of reebok etc and shoes are not good at all! dinner and died in our lovely warm room. i ad even done some washing!
net day we headed to old delhi and found the red fort, also a place where we just look like walking ATMs...
den led me on a wild goose chase to some ghats and we foind where gandi was buried, all closed and frankly v boring. arn had had enough. So tuktuk'd to the main bazaar rd in old delhi...never seen chaos like it! hundreds of people, cables and shit everywhere, tiiiiny lil alleyways for specific goods...we went down a camera one. really the place where normal delhites do this sort of shopping. den will have photos that explain old delhi better...can't put it into words...chaos and unbelievable. really was quite overwhelming. don't do this when you're hungry! (i should never do anything when i'm hungry)
net day we headed to old delhi and found the red fort, also a place where we just look like walking ATMs...
den led me on a wild goose chase to some ghats and we foind where gandi was buried, all closed and frankly v boring. arn had had enough. So tuktuk'd to the main bazaar rd in old delhi...never seen chaos like it! hundreds of people, cables and shit everywhere, tiiiiny lil alleyways for specific goods...we went down a camera one. really the place where normal delhites do this sort of shopping. den will have photos that explain old delhi better...can't put it into words...chaos and unbelievable. really was quite overwhelming. don't do this when you're hungry! (i should never do anything when i'm hungry)
Tuesday 29 January 2008
24th-26th jan
have had a few days off from the blog, mainly cos we've doing some cross-countrying and perhaps because i've been completely knackered as well!
Writing this from the train today...omg i love our lil laptop! been great and i am actually starting to beat the computer in tetris now..
so anyways writing from the train...executive class no less! i know you're thinking that sounds pretty typical from arn! but honestly i just didn't want to travel with every mn and his dog on wooden seats and dirty toilets! didn't ACTUALLY know this was like first class type thing. however not complaining as have these massive seats that recline, just had ome supper served to us...includding a samosa type thing, chocolate bar, cashew nuts, a fudgey thing and some spicy mix thingy which was really nice! they also come through and hand out water to drink. oh the best part, with the supper of coruse you get offered some chai (tea) but you get this lil thermos full of hot water! to drink at your leisure i guess. i got a lil “tea pack” full of sugar, milk and teas. sooo cool, am loving this executive thing. i was born for first class, people!
So the last few days have been actioned packed, on the 24th we mished around Udaipur for our lastt few hours there. did some shopping too which is always up my street. that night we took a sleep train to Jaipur. Slightly bigger tain this time from our last sleeper, curtains in stead of cabins and you have 4 on one side and 2 on the other (bunked). top bunks again but thats ok, these ones actually had ladders which is nice for unco's like me. anyways fell asleep, all good, and then couple hours (if that) woke up to the most atrocious snoring you have ever heard and that wa pretty much the end of my sleeping that night. i was like, are you kidding me???!!! thats ridiculous. i am surprised their wives haven''t stabbed them in their sleep. i personally could have taken out at least one.
So arrived jaipur tired and VERYgrumpy, and after a few false starts we managed to find some available accom, which was a relief. Chilled out and i organised our next trains. during breakfast met these very full on canadian girls who invited us to join them (i was't grumoy anymore btw, a hot shower helps) on a tour of some temples and despite agreeing it turns out that auto rickshaws can't take 5 people which ended up fine since we would do our own thing. gt our tickets for the remaining of our “northern states” part and hired our own driver to go to the palace and fort. Palace was really great, some of it in the most amazing conidtion, considering it dats back to like 1600's or something. lots of original doors woith artwork still on them. then climbed like 500 ft or some stupid up to the fort which wasnt so amazing tho you got an amazing few of a town below. wanted to die my legs were so sore. london does't exactly have many mountians to climb, and thank god for that.
saw like the biggest cannon or something but i liked th camel oil carrier from the 10th century...like how old is that!!! pretty cool.
stopped off at a monkey temple on our way home, heaps of monkeys tho i don't like them getting too close! you always se those types of monkeys on like infection movies... but den got some good shots. got some amazing photos of a family living on the side of the road, you're sposed to pay them so not really begging but still always makes me so sad, life is so hard for them. Den had no small change, 5 rupees is about 6p or something, so den gave the mother 50 rupees which is about 60p, nothing to s but you can buiy a surprising amount for 50 rupees. anyways she was really amazed and pleased so nice to do soemthing good. lots of beggars here, and they are SO persistant, you have to ignore them for about 5 mins before tey go away. always find it so hard to turn away but you do know not to encourage them, since they often stop working and take their children out of school for it, but i do find it difficult to ignore.
so came back to our place that night, fell asleep for an hour, was completely spent! had a bit of a revival and headed out an got some food. ended up complety stuffing ourselves but damn it was good. nice to have some good cold kingfisher!
SO today we headed to the pink old city. its painted “pink” because i think the maharaja (like the king) wanted a pink city...its not really pink anymore, more like terracotta. so we walked around there and climbed this big tower thing for a view of te old city. i am getting tired of climbing things!
den got some good photos of some of the local commerical streets, think that jaipur is far dirtier than udaipur or mumbai. alley ways just full of trash and crap, ugh. makes for some bad smells! alnmost got runover several times, it gets quite tiring to dodge all the motorbikes and scooter, and cows, goats (saw one wearing a mans shirt today,classic), poo, piles of crap, piles of dust, people, rickshaws, autorickshaws and beggars. nice to sit down now and let someone else navigate for a bit! good for some R&R. and nice to ha no horns tooting at you.
Writing this from the train today...omg i love our lil laptop! been great and i am actually starting to beat the computer in tetris now..
so anyways writing from the train...executive class no less! i know you're thinking that sounds pretty typical from arn! but honestly i just didn't want to travel with every mn and his dog on wooden seats and dirty toilets! didn't ACTUALLY know this was like first class type thing. however not complaining as have these massive seats that recline, just had ome supper served to us...includding a samosa type thing, chocolate bar, cashew nuts, a fudgey thing and some spicy mix thingy which was really nice! they also come through and hand out water to drink. oh the best part, with the supper of coruse you get offered some chai (tea) but you get this lil thermos full of hot water! to drink at your leisure i guess. i got a lil “tea pack” full of sugar, milk and teas. sooo cool, am loving this executive thing. i was born for first class, people!
So the last few days have been actioned packed, on the 24th we mished around Udaipur for our lastt few hours there. did some shopping too which is always up my street. that night we took a sleep train to Jaipur. Slightly bigger tain this time from our last sleeper, curtains in stead of cabins and you have 4 on one side and 2 on the other (bunked). top bunks again but thats ok, these ones actually had ladders which is nice for unco's like me. anyways fell asleep, all good, and then couple hours (if that) woke up to the most atrocious snoring you have ever heard and that wa pretty much the end of my sleeping that night. i was like, are you kidding me???!!! thats ridiculous. i am surprised their wives haven''t stabbed them in their sleep. i personally could have taken out at least one.
So arrived jaipur tired and VERYgrumpy, and after a few false starts we managed to find some available accom, which was a relief. Chilled out and i organised our next trains. during breakfast met these very full on canadian girls who invited us to join them (i was't grumoy anymore btw, a hot shower helps) on a tour of some temples and despite agreeing it turns out that auto rickshaws can't take 5 people which ended up fine since we would do our own thing. gt our tickets for the remaining of our “northern states” part and hired our own driver to go to the palace and fort. Palace was really great, some of it in the most amazing conidtion, considering it dats back to like 1600's or something. lots of original doors woith artwork still on them. then climbed like 500 ft or some stupid up to the fort which wasnt so amazing tho you got an amazing few of a town below. wanted to die my legs were so sore. london does't exactly have many mountians to climb, and thank god for that.
saw like the biggest cannon or something but i liked th camel oil carrier from the 10th century...like how old is that!!! pretty cool.
stopped off at a monkey temple on our way home, heaps of monkeys tho i don't like them getting too close! you always se those types of monkeys on like infection movies... but den got some good shots. got some amazing photos of a family living on the side of the road, you're sposed to pay them so not really begging but still always makes me so sad, life is so hard for them. Den had no small change, 5 rupees is about 6p or something, so den gave the mother 50 rupees which is about 60p, nothing to s but you can buiy a surprising amount for 50 rupees. anyways she was really amazed and pleased so nice to do soemthing good. lots of beggars here, and they are SO persistant, you have to ignore them for about 5 mins before tey go away. always find it so hard to turn away but you do know not to encourage them, since they often stop working and take their children out of school for it, but i do find it difficult to ignore.
so came back to our place that night, fell asleep for an hour, was completely spent! had a bit of a revival and headed out an got some food. ended up complety stuffing ourselves but damn it was good. nice to have some good cold kingfisher!
SO today we headed to the pink old city. its painted “pink” because i think the maharaja (like the king) wanted a pink city...its not really pink anymore, more like terracotta. so we walked around there and climbed this big tower thing for a view of te old city. i am getting tired of climbing things!
den got some good photos of some of the local commerical streets, think that jaipur is far dirtier than udaipur or mumbai. alley ways just full of trash and crap, ugh. makes for some bad smells! alnmost got runover several times, it gets quite tiring to dodge all the motorbikes and scooter, and cows, goats (saw one wearing a mans shirt today,classic), poo, piles of crap, piles of dust, people, rickshaws, autorickshaws and beggars. nice to sit down now and let someone else navigate for a bit! good for some R&R. and nice to ha no horns tooting at you.
Wednesday 23 January 2008
23rd jan
SLEEP IN! argh SOOO good. was soooo cold outside and we had all these open window/grating which using some kiwi ingenuity stuffed them with cushions and the bombay times. snuggled under our 5 blankets (tho no sheet...again. dennis is getting quite jealous of my pink sleeping sheet now..). 2 long sleeved thermals and my ridiculous (BUT WARM) hat (with ear coverings) seemed to do the trick for me and slept like a log.
Bit of breaky on the deck, enjoying the sun and headed into town. Saw some more ghats and soaked up a bit of the atmosphere. found a cafe about 27 flights upstairs (k well maybe 6) and devoured some butter nan which as become staple part of my diet here, along with a chai (another staple), and some Puri Baji...potato curry things with this fried...bread...stuff. LOVE the food here! i'd come just for the food! and really are the most friendliest people here...sure lots of touts and stuff but the average person and child is just so nice and just really interested in you.Chilling out on the deck again, had our laundry done, which is good, cos SOMEHOW den managed to get cow poo on his t-shirt. they're everywhere and one took a serious dislike to den and his water bottle today. very funny. today (IN TOWN) saw lots of cows, a big fat pig, some monkeys, some goats, a bloody bloke on an elephant and several donkeys. who needs a zoo when you have India???
Bit of breaky on the deck, enjoying the sun and headed into town. Saw some more ghats and soaked up a bit of the atmosphere. found a cafe about 27 flights upstairs (k well maybe 6) and devoured some butter nan which as become staple part of my diet here, along with a chai (another staple), and some Puri Baji...potato curry things with this fried...bread...stuff. LOVE the food here! i'd come just for the food! and really are the most friendliest people here...sure lots of touts and stuff but the average person and child is just so nice and just really interested in you.Chilling out on the deck again, had our laundry done, which is good, cos SOMEHOW den managed to get cow poo on his t-shirt. they're everywhere and one took a serious dislike to den and his water bottle today. very funny. today (IN TOWN) saw lots of cows, a big fat pig, some monkeys, some goats, a bloody bloke on an elephant and several donkeys. who needs a zoo when you have India???
22nd jan
arrived in Udaipur early in the monring, half asleep. got to a hotel...discovered this place is freeeezing cold...like 10 degrees...and we are in our mumbai clothes (where its 28 degrees). brrrr. showered (yes hot water but ummm...no cold?) and then passed out shivering in bed under 5 blankets.
so once we surfaced we headed to the lake to see this palace some rich bugger built like 500 years ago...its takes up a whole island on the lake. all very nice, but lots of touts and more tourists than we'd seen in mumbai. in the lil town, there were ghats...basically steps leading down to the water where people do their bathing and the woman do their washing...they do use soap but tend to whack the crap out of their clothes with these big paddles. cool to see, like something out of a documentary. so wandered around the town, avoiding the cows and their poo, the tuktuks, the scooters, the donkeys and just so many people.
very proud of myself, we went to the train station (again) to buy our next sleeping train ticket to Jaipur. no tourist queue here so filled out my form (they love forms in India)all by myself and all correct with train details and got our tickets no probs! another top bunk but know what to expect this time at least! walked back along the road past s a very very poor family, dirty children, so sad. they obvisouly lived on the side of the road. The young kids had a go at begging from us, but when the realised they weren't gonna get anything just wanted to shake our hands which I did and had to shake all of them, even the little toddler. dirty but lovely smiling faces and they were so excited about it. most kids just want to say hi or have a photo or shake your hand, most of them don't want anything else from you.
chilled out in the warm sun on the big communial balcony and enjoyed a nice chai (tea) as the sun set.
so once we surfaced we headed to the lake to see this palace some rich bugger built like 500 years ago...its takes up a whole island on the lake. all very nice, but lots of touts and more tourists than we'd seen in mumbai. in the lil town, there were ghats...basically steps leading down to the water where people do their bathing and the woman do their washing...they do use soap but tend to whack the crap out of their clothes with these big paddles. cool to see, like something out of a documentary. so wandered around the town, avoiding the cows and their poo, the tuktuks, the scooters, the donkeys and just so many people.
very proud of myself, we went to the train station (again) to buy our next sleeping train ticket to Jaipur. no tourist queue here so filled out my form (they love forms in India)all by myself and all correct with train details and got our tickets no probs! another top bunk but know what to expect this time at least! walked back along the road past s a very very poor family, dirty children, so sad. they obvisouly lived on the side of the road. The young kids had a go at begging from us, but when the realised they weren't gonna get anything just wanted to shake our hands which I did and had to shake all of them, even the little toddler. dirty but lovely smiling faces and they were so excited about it. most kids just want to say hi or have a photo or shake your hand, most of them don't want anything else from you.
chilled out in the warm sun on the big communial balcony and enjoyed a nice chai (tea) as the sun set.
21st jan
21st jan
Well our train ride was today and really was an experience in itself. Mumbai central train station wasn't as chaotic as you'd imagine but people were quite keen to talk to us. den had a somewhat silted conversation due to our complete lack of any Hindi, with a bloke from the army. he wanted to lift and see how heavy our bags were, nd it seems he was reasonabley impressed. a woman came pas sweeping the floor =, he told us she only earnt about 3000 rupees for the entire year...thats about..£37. i gave him a busines card and he was pretty pleased with that.
So our train came about 40 minutes before departure, bit complicated to find what carriage to get onto when its your first time, but got there in the end, and OMG the most chaotic scene ever on our carriage...mostly in respect to putting bags on the racks. anyways we found a space for ours and all was good. but then ended up getting into a fight with an old woman who was to sit next to me. She had brought her poor son on to load up her luggage and was telling him to take our bags off and put hers up. Anyways i defied all aspects of seniority and made it quite clear i wasn't having a bar of it. had a swiss couple next to us who seemed to be vetrans at this...they said sometimes physical fights can break out. wasn't sure if ii REALY should b fighting with someone who i'd have to sit next to for 8 hours but there you go. Seemed all was forgiven in the end when she offered me some of her food. she did do the biggest burps ever, the whole way there, which was quite amusing. offering of food seemed to be the norm and i sampled lots of tasty snacks! they all seemed pretty keen to see how i would react to the food. we sat opposite a couple with an 8 year old daughter who were relly nice. MUCH different from englnd where nobody talks...everyone is talking and sharing and laughing, was nice atmosphere. anyways arrived in ahmedabad at about 9pm, where we had a couple of hours to kill, crusty station with lots of homeless people sleeping inside and no chairs ANYWHERE..except in this small takeaway joint. found our sleeping carriage, we ended up sharing with this older couple who were ok...no burping or farting this time! got given blanket and sheets so made our beds...me and den had the top bunks. toilet was VERY ancient on this one. The last train was nicer and newer...but you basically still pee directly onto the tracks....very odd and kinda drafty. so lights out and discovered the aircon blowing direct onto my face and this annoying BLUE night light, hoodie up over my eyes and bundled under the covers...ended up quite cosy and did get some shut eye. poor den who didn't QUITE fit in the bunk, had a bit ore trouble getting cosy :P
Well our train ride was today and really was an experience in itself. Mumbai central train station wasn't as chaotic as you'd imagine but people were quite keen to talk to us. den had a somewhat silted conversation due to our complete lack of any Hindi, with a bloke from the army. he wanted to lift and see how heavy our bags were, nd it seems he was reasonabley impressed. a woman came pas sweeping the floor =, he told us she only earnt about 3000 rupees for the entire year...thats about..£37. i gave him a busines card and he was pretty pleased with that.
So our train came about 40 minutes before departure, bit complicated to find what carriage to get onto when its your first time, but got there in the end, and OMG the most chaotic scene ever on our carriage...mostly in respect to putting bags on the racks. anyways we found a space for ours and all was good. but then ended up getting into a fight with an old woman who was to sit next to me. She had brought her poor son on to load up her luggage and was telling him to take our bags off and put hers up. Anyways i defied all aspects of seniority and made it quite clear i wasn't having a bar of it. had a swiss couple next to us who seemed to be vetrans at this...they said sometimes physical fights can break out. wasn't sure if ii REALY should b fighting with someone who i'd have to sit next to for 8 hours but there you go. Seemed all was forgiven in the end when she offered me some of her food. she did do the biggest burps ever, the whole way there, which was quite amusing. offering of food seemed to be the norm and i sampled lots of tasty snacks! they all seemed pretty keen to see how i would react to the food. we sat opposite a couple with an 8 year old daughter who were relly nice. MUCH different from englnd where nobody talks...everyone is talking and sharing and laughing, was nice atmosphere. anyways arrived in ahmedabad at about 9pm, where we had a couple of hours to kill, crusty station with lots of homeless people sleeping inside and no chairs ANYWHERE..except in this small takeaway joint. found our sleeping carriage, we ended up sharing with this older couple who were ok...no burping or farting this time! got given blanket and sheets so made our beds...me and den had the top bunks. toilet was VERY ancient on this one. The last train was nicer and newer...but you basically still pee directly onto the tracks....very odd and kinda drafty. so lights out and discovered the aircon blowing direct onto my face and this annoying BLUE night light, hoodie up over my eyes and bundled under the covers...ended up quite cosy and did get some shut eye. poor den who didn't QUITE fit in the bunk, had a bit ore trouble getting cosy :P
Sunday 20 January 2008
Day 2 - 20th Jan - Mumbai
so I'll start with last night and move on into our Sunday chowpatty beach was brilliant, lots of music and l these hand powered rides...including a small ferris wheel...looked quite life threatening so stayed away from that. what would OSH think?? so had a bite here, was told to try bhel puri which apparently must be what ALL the tourists do cos they kept on yelling it at us. damn lonely planets. Anyways it was worth the touting and the suspect cleanliness of the outside table cos it was FAB. its all this crunchy stuff with onions and fried stuff. Google it ok? then mished to the festival which was PANTS. so we left that in a hurry and found a eaterie and had some Thali...which is kinda a Indian version of tapas...bits of this and that. well good. so this morning we were heading out in one of Mumbai's classic cabs (think...1950's, stick shift...with black light inside and tinted windows...and constant use of the horn) and got a txt that my opa passed away on Friday. so well fucking life's a right bitch sometimes. Thank Christ that massive sunglasses are in. Just all so weird and surreal to be in that total madness...talk about making you feel a damn long way from ANY home! at the train station den found a place of familiarity amongst the chaos... mickey d's and being the good boyfriend who knows me well...brought me some fries. Also, as a side note, we DID try to get a hamburger...yeah they don't eat cows in India..mc donalds is ALLL chicken, baby. so that was my morning...i've had better. just like to say am not one of those awful tourists who only go to mc donalds and KFC...perspective please! (oo i might be a bit grumpy..) apparently you have to be some sort of genius to work out the train system but ended up going to a different train station to the "tourist office" where a very nice, if somewhat abrupt woman helped us book our tickets. she was most concerned that we might have to upgrade (ooo thats my favourite word!!!) to first class since there were no shoddy sleeper seats or second class seats. it costs us about ?4 more and the total for 1 day train and 1 overnight train...?16 each. Hell i'm going first class everywhere!!! so got some lunch and headed out to Dharavi...which in the nicest terms is the slum. so bit of an eye opener. didn't smell as much as i thought despite the gutter clearly (and i mean CLEARLY) doubling as the neighborhood toilet. discovered how celebrities feel so people accosted us EVERYWHERE but they were so nice and friendly. the kids were the best, just big smiles and lots of giggles and thy love it when you take their photo. watched a game of something that is like pool...but with checkers..don't know the name, got offered food and drink and suff. awesome people. only issue was for me (not for den at all) was the guys (ALL the guys young and old!) have eyes for Christmas. clearly their mother never taught them it was rude to stare. and i had covered up pretty good. no hotpants for arn. pervy boys.still bit weird to come back and tho our room is NOT flash at ALL (a nice hovel would be my choice of words) but to have a bed and hot shower and tv, it did feel quite luxurious. and makes you feel very grateful. have never ever seen poverty like that and never seen such low standards of living...it really was like it was out of tv. and so many people all so crammed! and i guess they are the lucky ones, they have a place to call home ...the worst off are the people who just sleep on the sidewalk. hundred and hundreds of people just have blankets on the footpath, unreal. some have lil shacks set but a drive through the outskirts of Mumbai at night is a very very humbling thing. well...got a bit serious there. gonna eat some crisps now.
Day 1 - 19 Jan - Mumbai
19 jan 2008
So Mumbai....
REALLY gotta stop reading blogs of stupid people cos Mumbai has been pretty ok! a few touts, a few beggars, some interesting smells to say the least but not really the hellhole described by some (ok so they WERE dutch twitchers so what did i expect..). arrived at some ungodly hour last night, bout 4am by the time we got to sleep in our clean tho somewhat cockroach prone room. den was pretty efficient at killing the buggers. saw the biggest rat ever.
anyways mished out this morning to gateway of India which was nice to see the sea and local hangout but somewhat not as impressive as i imagine cos of the scaffolding,.. had a look around colaba, all this colonial architecture which is pretty cool and somehow even cooler since its all rundown, Heaps of trees which is super for the shade...tho not tooooo hot pretty bearable. Found ourselves wandering a it of neighborhood market thing, all very local veges and buyers. dried fish anyone? but such nice people without any agendas...kids waving and one grandma proudly showed us her beautiful lil granddaughter. NO idea what she said but she seemed pleased with the noises we made.
stopped and got a bite at some local place....wasn't quite ready for a full 0n curry (first meal of the day people!) so had a naan with butter and a chai tea thing...which was weird but really nice. everyone drinks it here instead of coffee. damn lot of sugar in it and milk that tasted whole or powder. anyways was good and see myself having lots more of that. mm so much for the diet...
and the naan was heavenly.
we headed back along colaba and found the infamous leopolds cafe! (anyone read shantaram??) so will have to go back there and have a drink.
walked back along the promenade and got asked to have a photo with a bunch of youngish guys. being the cynics that we are thought it was some sort of scam but turns out they were on holiday from a small village and never saw white people...either that or a photo of my white legs will be making the rounds in some pervy village, but they seemed nice!
went to the oval maidan and watched some cricket in the shade which was pretty fun. a few guys playing seriously for clubs all decked out in their whites and lots of locals having games...all VERY serious tho! they're SOOO into it here, always a good line to say we're new zealanders cos they just rattle off players and umpires,..
(which obviously to me, being the cricket fanatic that i am, is a great conversation starter...)
heading out to chowpatty beach tonight where all the locals hang out in the evenings and you can get some great food. and then to gateway of India where a big festival on...apparently the best Australian hiphop group is playing.
Australian hiphop???
So Mumbai....
REALLY gotta stop reading blogs of stupid people cos Mumbai has been pretty ok! a few touts, a few beggars, some interesting smells to say the least but not really the hellhole described by some (ok so they WERE dutch twitchers so what did i expect..). arrived at some ungodly hour last night, bout 4am by the time we got to sleep in our clean tho somewhat cockroach prone room. den was pretty efficient at killing the buggers. saw the biggest rat ever.
anyways mished out this morning to gateway of India which was nice to see the sea and local hangout but somewhat not as impressive as i imagine cos of the scaffolding,.. had a look around colaba, all this colonial architecture which is pretty cool and somehow even cooler since its all rundown, Heaps of trees which is super for the shade...tho not tooooo hot pretty bearable. Found ourselves wandering a it of neighborhood market thing, all very local veges and buyers. dried fish anyone? but such nice people without any agendas...kids waving and one grandma proudly showed us her beautiful lil granddaughter. NO idea what she said but she seemed pleased with the noises we made.
stopped and got a bite at some local place....wasn't quite ready for a full 0n curry (first meal of the day people!) so had a naan with butter and a chai tea thing...which was weird but really nice. everyone drinks it here instead of coffee. damn lot of sugar in it and milk that tasted whole or powder. anyways was good and see myself having lots more of that. mm so much for the diet...
and the naan was heavenly.
we headed back along colaba and found the infamous leopolds cafe! (anyone read shantaram??) so will have to go back there and have a drink.
walked back along the promenade and got asked to have a photo with a bunch of youngish guys. being the cynics that we are thought it was some sort of scam but turns out they were on holiday from a small village and never saw white people...either that or a photo of my white legs will be making the rounds in some pervy village, but they seemed nice!
went to the oval maidan and watched some cricket in the shade which was pretty fun. a few guys playing seriously for clubs all decked out in their whites and lots of locals having games...all VERY serious tho! they're SOOO into it here, always a good line to say we're new zealanders cos they just rattle off players and umpires,..
(which obviously to me, being the cricket fanatic that i am, is a great conversation starter...)
heading out to chowpatty beach tonight where all the locals hang out in the evenings and you can get some great food. and then to gateway of India where a big festival on...apparently the best Australian hiphop group is playing.
Australian hiphop???
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