Mumbai

Our flight to Mumbai felt like luxury, compared to the trains and buses we had travelled in previously.  

We arrived at 3:30pm and thought we would have time to walk around in the late afternoon and find some dinner. Little did we know it would take two hours just to get to our hotel from the airport and then by the time we checked in it was nearly 6pm so we ended up not exploring any parts of Mumbai and having dinner in the hotel restaurant. The two hours travel time from the airport is 'normal', as in there was no accidents or other hold ups.  Just the heavy amount of traffic in Mumbai makes the journey time so long. I have to remember 18.4 million people live in the city. Of that figure, 40% live in slums. That's more than the entire population of New Zealand living in slums. We read that some people who live in the slums actually have white collar city jobs and choose to continue to live in the slums with their families.

In Mumbai we found there wasn't too much to see and do.  It is known for its British influence in its architecture so we followed a walking guide from the lonely planet and walked to the main buildings/sites. The photo below is of the CST - a train station!!

This is us at India Gateway - built to commemorate the visit of Prince George (I think he was King by the time it was finished):

Our biggest achievement for the day was finding a bar that was able to play the All Blacks game for us.  We walked for ages looking for the Sports Bar, and eventually asked somewhere it was and they said it had closed down.  We were gutted so went back to a lonely planet recommended cafe that we had walked past. At Leopalds we asked them if they knew of anywhere that might play the rugby and they said they had loads of channels upstairs and to take a look. Bingo! We hit the jack pot. At the end of the day we ended up at the beach side which wasn't overly nice so we taxied back to our hotel for another rooftop dinner.  

Our second day saw us take a boat from India gateway and head out to Elephanta Island to see the caves.  The boat trip took an hour each way and was so damn boring.  We were navigating our way through the moored up ships in the boat channel.  I was counting to see how many life jackets there were on board as the boat was a heap of shit.  The locals were loving being on a boat and acted as though it was Christmas. Once we got to the Island it didn't take Nath and I too long to look through the caves.  I don't think it was worth having to endure the boat for.   However, they are a UNESCO heritage site and perhaps I am not giving them enough credit. They were created between AD 450 - 750 and contain India's most impressive temple carving.

 

After arriving back on the mainland we had lunch at McDonalds (needed some western food!) then headed to a Mexican restaurant advertising 999 Rs (£10) cocktails - all you can drink between 3:30-7:30. Too good an offer to turn down. While they weren't the best cocktails ever made, they were drinkable and gave us something to do for the afternoon.  We ended up having Mexican for dinner before crashing out for the night.  

The next day we had our flight to Goa, where we are now, so I will write a blog in a few days to let you know what we've been up to in Goa. I a nut shell the view from our window looks like this (not ideal when you're at the beach):

Varanasi

My mission on earth has been completed and I got a photo of a baby wearing eye liner! It was towards the end of the day so much of the eye liner has worn off but you get the idea.  To get the photo I was asked to have my photo taken with two kids and then I noticed their baby sister, so I said yes to my photo being taken as long as I could take one of the baby.

Also, every room we have stayed in has a bucket in the shower/toilet room.  What are we supposed to do with this bucket? We have no idea what it is for and so sometimes it gets water in it from the shower and I just leave it there.  Any suggestions???

Ok, on to Varanasi.  It was nothing like we expected.  We had read that it was full on with touts and expect to be bombarded but actually we thought it was no worse, and certainly better, than some other places we had visited.  We arrived after a horror night train.  Nothing bad happened, just sleep didn't happen either.  We were allocated beds in the first bay through the corridor so all night long we had: a) light streaming through the window from the corridor making it far to light to sleep & b) people up and down all night either going to the bathroom or getting off at their stop.  

Again the train was running late.  We were an hour past our arrival time.  About 500m from the station the train stopped for no apparent reason.  The train man told me it stops here sometimes for 20min, or an hour or two! It had been about 20min when we started to think like locals and get off the tain and walk the last 500m. Luckily as we were gathering up our bags the train started moving again. We were then looking for our hotel pick up but he could not be found.  I asked some other hotel if they know where the hotel alka pick up is - he pointed out our man. Our man did not have a sign because "I have the names written on my hand and I know who I am looking for".  Ummm clearly not buddy.  I said that is ridiculous as we don't know who we are looking for.  With no sleep and no coffee this man got the full force of my teachers voice!

By the time we got to our hotel and had checked in it was 12:30 and breakfast and lunch time rolled into one! We just chilled the rest of the day in our room, sleeping, and watching TV.  I wasn't feeling well so we didn't even venture out for dinner - we just ate at our hotel restaurant which had a great view of the Ganges. It is a grotty looking river and it shocks me that people swim, fish, do laundry and bath in there! 

Day two in Varanasi was more action packed.  We had arranged a walking tour with a guide to take us around the old town and to the ghats.  As Varanasi is a holy city there are many temples dotted around the old town dedicated to different religions.  There was even a Nepalese temple!  We saw the cremation ghat.  Firstly we walked past piles of wood.  There are different wood varieties with varying prices and sandalwood is the most expensive.  Families pay for the amount of wood needed to cremate their relative, and then this cremation takes place in public, on top of a concrete slab.  For obvious reasons no photos are allowed.  If you get close enough you are then asked to contribute to the price of wood.  We were advised by our guide not to talk to anybody while we were there or else we would be asked for money.  

Further down the river I was taking a photo of a temple and next thing I felt some one push me and then got a sharp jab in the ribs which I thought was an elbow.  I spin around to see a cow! The elbow was a cow horn. And then two seconds later a big raging bull was heading our way so we had to literally jump out of the way and hug the wall to avoid being trampled.  Certainly keeps you on your toes.  Nathan now has to be lookout while I take photos.

In the afternoon we took ourselves down South to Assi ghat - the largess of all the ghats. This one is a hang out place, particularly in the evenings, where locals gather to listen to music and eat together.  As it is monsoon season Varanasi has had a lot of rain and the river has been in flood.  Lots of Assi ghat was covered in mud.  Also the full river meant no boat ride down the Ganges as it is to dangerous.  Nine locals drowned the previous week so all unnecessary travel on the Ganges has been halted.  

Walking around Assi ghat I spotted a hair dresser and Nath inquired if he had an electric razor.  Soon enough Nath was getting a road side hair cut (complete with cows walking past) as the rain started pouring down. Nath asked for a number 3, but I'm sure he got more like a one!

 We jumped in a tuktuk and went back to the old town.  We stopped in at the blue lassi shop and had a mango and chocolate lassi which was very filling.  Tonight we ventured out for dinner to a restaurant which did meat dishes.  We had eaten quite a lot of vegetarian meals and wanted meat.   We both got some form of chicken curry and went to bed with tummies full of meat (sorry Kara!)

In the morning we had an early start as we had our flight to Mumbai.  I am not going to go as far as to say I enjoyed flying, but it was preferable to taking long trains to get there.  I have never been in an airport as empty as this one.  It was eerie.  Also, there was only one shop selling food and I really missed not having a weatherspoons, M & S or Pret on hand to buy some breakfast.  

Khajuraho

We have had two lovely days relaxing in our hotel in Khajuraho.  The town is famous for is temples built in Indo-Aryan architecture in AD 900 -1050.  The temples have artistic carved stonework around the outside and some of them are very sexual indeed! It was good to come here as it broke up the journey from Agra to Varanasi and it gave us some chill out time, because other than the temples there is nothing else to see.  This is a small town of 20,000 with about 20,000 tuktuk drivers! The main road is just a dusty dirt road.  Feels like a beach town in NZ minus the sea, but with cows and tuktuks.

We only managed three hours today walking around the temples as it was just so hot.  Temperature had a real feel of 44 degrees! It was just so awful to be outside as we were sweating bucket loads. The a/c hotel room was a welcome respite from the heat and we stayed there for the rest of the afternoon. We have ventured out for dinner and went to a recommended Italian restaurant as we were ready for a change up of cuisine.  

Tonight we have a night train to Varanasi - one of the seven holy cities and the river Ganges is sacred. The train ride is an 11 hour trip if it's running on time.  This is the last of our long journeys in India.  After this we have a flight to Mumbai, then a flight to Goa, and finally a flight to Bangkok.  We only have three more stops left in India. 

I am a bad ass Indian.  I wear shorts and now even singlet tops as it's to hot for anything else, and I have short hair.  All women here have long hair and are supposed to be covered up from shoulder to knee.  In some parts of India it is more liberal, like in Delhi and I'm assuming Mumbai, and women do wear Western clothing but it is a minority number. 

Agra

Ok this is the big one - the Taj Mahal! But I have to write in order of the things we did and we didn't see the Taj until day two of our stay in Agra.  Firstly our train was ment to arrive at 9pm, but it arrived at 10:30pm. By the time we got to our hotel and checked in it was 11pm.  Our hotel recommended getting up early and being at the Taj by 5:30am so we decided to postpone our visit until day two as it was already late at night.  

That meant our first visit was to Fatehpur Sikri - nicknamed the ghost city as nobody lives there anymore.  Emperor Akbar built the city on this site but only lived there for four years as it was not close to a water supply!  During those four years it was the capital of the Mughal empire.  After Fatehpur Sikri was abandoned the capital returned to Agra. The victory gate is 54m high and a very impressive sight.  The gate leads through to the mosque.

We then went and saw the Baby Taj (Itimad-ud-Daulah). It is an exquisitly detailed tomb built on the banks of the Yamuna river.  This was the first Mughal structure to be completely made of marble.

Our driver then took us to a work shop where they were creating marble inlay works.  Nath and I were really keen to buy a marble coffee table (well just the top) and spent the next day shopping around to find a good price and a design we liked.  However, sensibility prevailed and we did not buy ourselves a marble table. 

The 5am alarm was not a welcome wake up but it was for a good reason - we were finally going to see the Taj Mahal.  The previous day 80,000 people had visited so we had to get there early to avoid crowds.  It has been a long holiday weekend with Independence Day on Friday and Vishnu's birthday today (Hindu God) so many Indian tourists were in Agra to see the Taj Mahal.  We got to the entrance gate before it was even open so I could of spent an extra 10 minutes in bed! There were only 10 others in line so when the gates opened we were able to take photos with no people in the back ground.  The first sighting of the Taj is breath taking - it is beautiful and much bigger than I imagined.  We took loads of photos and also went inside to see the tomb of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan (who built the Taj as a memorial to Mumtaz and then was buried beside her when he died). After we sat in the grounds watching the sun shining off the precious stones laid into the marble and just taking the whole thing in. For India it was a very peaceful place to be.

We went back to our guest house for some more sleep and breakfast.  We then continued our search for marble goods before checking out our last fort in India.  The Agra Fort is made of sandstone and white marble.  While it probably was impressive we just scooted around it.  Mainly because it was hot, and we couldn't get audio guides and the written information points were fairly minimal. We have seen so many forts that I am quite over them.

 

Our hosts at our guest house cooked us a lovely vegetarian meal of vege biryani and vege kofta with a red sauce.  I loved the biryani so I will be sure to order it at restaunts.  We left Agra that night at 11:30 on a night train to Khajuraho, which was supposed to arrive at 6:30am but didn't get in until 7:30am. India efficiency is a beautiful thing.

Jaipur

We had an incredibly busy two days in a Jaipur which is the capital of Rajasthan. We predictably started with a visit to the Amber Fort. The fort is massive - it is very impressive and has some beautilfy detailed buildings.  As the fort was on top of a hill you could pay for an elephant ride to the top, which we didn't do, we walked up.  We spent ages at the fort exploring all the rooms and taking in the views.  

It was lunch time and we had the best lunch at a vegetarian restaurant called LMB.  I am hooked on malai kofta now!  Nath likes to gauge a restaurants authenticity by seeing how many locals are eating there - LMB was full of locals so we knew we were on to a good thing (& thanks to lonely planet for the recommendation).

After restocking energy stores we went to the magnificent palace of the winds (Hawa Mahal).  It looks amazing from the outside looking up from the road.  It was built so women of the city can look out the windows of the palace and watch street parades below without being seen by men. As you wind your way closer to the top the passageways get narrower - to the point that at the top my shoulders were to wide and I had to walk sideways. 

Day two of Jaipur sightseeing included the city palace, which was not as cool as the fort, but still worth seeing. 

We then went to an observatory called Jantar Mantar but neither Nath or I were impressed with it as we are not into astronomy and star signs.  We axed the observatory for a nice restaurant where we had some cold coke and curry to celebrate Nath's birthday.  As it was India's Independence Day we were not allowed to buy beer! From here it was a short train ride to Agra (6 hours!).

So far we have not had much luck with transport arriving on time.  The last three trips we have taken have been an hour to an hour and a half late, even though they mostly departed on time! Luckily all our hotel pick ups have still been waiting for us but it makes us feel that we need to tip them extra for waiting. 

We have moved east across the country and the weather is getting hotter - 38 degrees today!

Bundi

Bundi was a little stop over on the way to Jaipur. We had a crazy arrival in Bundi. As we were pulling into the train station I could see a lit platform on the left, about 30sec later when the train came to a stop it was pitch black and we had to jump down off the train into darkness, not really being able to see how far we were jumping down.  Walking along the station was only possible by the light from the train.  As we exited the train station there were massive flood waters which we had to walk through and it came up to our ankles.  The tuktuk ride to our guest house was very bumpy as the rainy downpours had created massive potholes in the road.  Definitely needed a sports bra for that journey! We had planned to do a day trip into the country side with a local guide Kukki who has discovered some cave and/or rock paintings.  I am a little sceptical and wonder if he painted them himself and then 'discovered' them in order to create a wee touristy business for himself.  However, Bundi has received a lot of rain and the roads out to the country were flooded and we couldn't go.  This meant our time in Bundi was very much chilled out.  We walked up to the fort but thought it looked rather run down and not as nice as other forts we had visited so we decided to skip the fort visit. Instead we hung out at a few different restaurants and in our hotel room.  Bundi is a town of 100,000 but it was so empty.  I don't know where all the people live & work because as we walked around we saw a lot of cows and monkeys but not many people.  A lot of houses had to have their roof top terraces fenced in so the monkeys cannot jump on to their terraces. A few times we heard a thump on the roof as a monkey jumped on it.  The best thing about our guest house was its Italian cuisine - it made a nice change from Indian food.  We also tried a dessert called 'hello to the queen' which is crumbed biscuits with butter, then chopped banana, nuts and raisins with a scoop of ice cream on top finished off with chocolate sauce.  Sounds totally random but tasted pretty good. 

To get from Bundi to our next stop of Jaipur the easiest option was to take a government (read public) bus.  That meant no air con, and loads of people jammed in, with us being the only white people which made us fun to stare at. It also meant that instead of a 4.5hr journey it took 6 hours.  Might be best to stick to private buses from now.  Also the fact that the government buses are really run down and there was a rock holding a seat in place made me think it wasn't the safest form of transport.

Two things that continue to perplex me about India:

1) Mothers put eye liner under their babies eyes as a way to ward off evil spirits and bring good health to the baby.  I think it makes the baby look creepy. I will try to get a photo on show you all.

2) The first time we got laundry done it came back smelling like food (not overly strong but enough that we noticed it). The trend has continued each time we have got clothes washed.  In our cooking class Meenu told us that nothing goes to waste, and even the oil is kept and made into soap to clean clothes!!!!!! That explains the food smell - so gross.

Also a big happy birthday to my Nana who turned 90 today!!  It's Nathan's birthday tomorrow which will be celebrated by looking at Jaipur city palace and then taking a train in the afternoon to Agra.