India
Mumbai (Bombay)
Flight was very good, on time, and half empty, we had personal video and games machines, which passed the time away quite quickly.81/2 hrs later we arrived in Mumbai at about 11:35pm, pilot told us the temp was 24 deg, and the air was smokey!. And it was, it felt like we'd smoked 10 B&H before reached the terminal.
A taxi was waiting for us outside, and then we were driven to the hotel OH MY GOD! No road markings, no rules, no lights, 1000's of taxis, and it seems to be a rule to sound your horn every 20 seconds. But, we arrived at the Hotel safely.
The hotel is called the 'Harbour View' situated on the 'The Strand' near to the Taj Mahal. (see Hotels Used page). We dropped our bags in the room (very nice, air conditioned, fridge, en-suite, and a TV too.)and headed to the roof-top restaurant for a large, ice-cold beer, which was great.
March 17th
Temp 32 degs, breezy
Walked to the 'Gateway to India', about 5 mins from hotel, and full of beggers/ street sellers, a piece of wool and a red dot on Marias head cost us Rs100(1.20), which apparently was 10x the usual rate. Oh well, live and learn.
Gateway to India
Today is a public holiday, so tourist offices are all closed, we will wait until tomorrow to book a ticket out of here. Probably we'll fly to Dehli, as the xpress train only travels at 35mph (WOW!), the passenger train only goes 20mph.
We ate some lunch in an indian cafe, Maria said we should eat local food, so we had Cheese Toasties, and a cup of tea. Well the tea was indian!.
We had met a indian businessman at this point, and he was helping us to get around the town, and he said that maybe Maria and I should get a street manicure, so we did. A little Indian bloke sat in the street, used a 2inch blade to slice Maria and my finger nails off, he offered to do the toes, but we declined.
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The nail man
To round the day off we caught the ferry to 'Elephant Island', it took an hour to get there, and it was full of Monkeys, and no Elephants, I thought we should perhaps tell them to rename it, perhaps 'Monkey Island'.
Back at the hotel we took the plunge, and tucked in to some Indian quisine, sheek kebabs, veg bhati rolls, byriani, and chilli chicken, and as I am typing this the day after we obviously survived (excuse me). Another couple of beers and sleep.
March 18th
Temp 34 deg, calm
Sat on the roof eating local breakfast (toast, jam and tea). Maria was looking out to the hazy harbour, and pointed out that the QE2 was approaching, and indeed it was, apparently it comes into harbour once a year, on the round world trip.
It is now midday, we have found a cyber cafe, but they have no CD roms, so can't load the camera software. We have pictures, but they'll have to wait until we reach Dehli.
March 19th
Got up early and through the help of our mate, we got tickets to fly to Delhi for 1/2 price (Nice!)
Went to the airport early nd managed to catch earlier flight, nice 747 with Flock wallpaper (Indians really know how to bugger up a lovely plane). Landed in Delhi, and they must have known we were coming, with the streets all clear, and new road markings painted, and even loads of military on all the streets. Maria said it was because Clinton was there, but that's just pants, it was for us.
March 20th
Landed in Delhi, asked taxi driver to take us to Hotel Hans Plaza, cheap and nasty, but unkown to us there was anothe Hans Plaza on the other side of town instead of Rs800 (12 quid) a night, it was Rs 4200 (more quids) a night, but sod it, I waived the magic Visa card, and we were in.
India Gate (Delhi)
The view from presidents palace
Went to the in Hotel agents to book a train to Nainital
NO! - It was full
OK lets leave this hole and fly to Singapore
NO! - All flights are completely full
OK we'll book a bus ticket
NO! - You can't do that here sir (patronising ****)
We eventually found a ticket office in the street and booked a 'Deluxe Coach' to Nainital !.
9 o'clock we turn up for the coach, and at 9:30 it arrives. We get on. DELUXE apparently means it works. The lights don't work, the fans don't work, and it is filthy, but hey it's only a 9 HOUR trip. Oh and some seats are reclined others are bolt upright, and they don't adjust. We spent the next 2 hours driving round Delhi, picking up the 8 pains of India. Farty, Phlemmy, Snorey 1,2 and 3, and the world famous elbow brothers, and don't forget screaming child. Now the bus is full, or more accurate is over full by about 10 people. We start, the 8 are in good form and the smell, noise and screams are all in good flow. When we suddenly stop in atraffic jam, due to a broken down lorry. for FOUR HOURS, I am now ready to kill somebody, an the favourite is the elbow brothers behind us. The traffic clears eventually and we start off, only to stop for a tea break. The following 7 hours are without incident, apart from the most scarey mountain road in the world. Eventually after 13 hours we arrived at Nainital.
March 21st - Match 26th (Summary time)
Nainital was a nice place, a large lake surrounded by small local businesses, with a 'Shanty' town at each end. We booked into a hotel for 1 night, (cos it was horrible) but we were tired. We did find anothe nice hotel later on, and we moved there the next day. Ont he first night we met Ray, Cathy and their 3 year old daughter Shannon, they were travelling round the world also, and had been to Turkey and Syria before meeting us. We had a great night, and agreed to see them the next day. We spent the next couple fo days with them, we took a tour to the top of the hills behind the town, and saw the Himalayas, nice sight (I have a picture, and I promise to post when w get to a civilised country). I ordered a beer in one of the cafes, and the bottle came wrapped in a tissue, and so did the glass!, I assume cos it was a muslim establishment. Anyway, with the altitude, the lack of drink, and the fact it was 8%, and almost a litre in a bottle (i had 2, cost about 2 quid)I got slightly tipsy, which was a nice feeling, and I slept well. After acopule fo days our friends left to go further North, we agreed to meet in Sydney, and said goodbye.
There is a zoo in Nainital, an although I don't agree with them, there wasn't a fat ot else to do. So we went. It said Tigers, Black Bears, Leapords, Deer, Monkeys, exotic birds, and all sorts of animals. We saw 8 or nine bedraggeled monkeys, which as it happens live wild in the town anyway, and often come to share your food (uninvited). The tiger was 'out', the bear was 'out', and so were most of the other animals. The only impressive animals were the leapords. and they were 8 in a fairly small bare cage. One was walking the perimiter, obviously bored and came acroos to see us, then he/she turned away and promptly peed all over Maria. Which was hysterical, well for me anyhow. Maria was more worried about where she could wash her hands, clothes etc. Noting much more happened and we passed the time, looking in the shops. Oh yeah, there was a small open fronted shop in the shanty area, that was offering to inpect your Sputum (not too bad), your urine (a little weird) and your stools (What in a bag or something!). We left without investigating. On the last day we went to the lakeside and hired a pedlo. Yes in the middle of the Himalayan mountain settlement, with some awfuly poor people, and poverty, we hired a large Blue Fibre glass swan , and peddled around the lake for an hour.
Ray, Cath, Shannon and Maria
The view of the Himalayas
Fairhavens Hotel in Nainital
Maia and Kevin outside Fairhavens
And then it was time to return to Delhi, ah yeas you all cry the Bus back. Well we arrived at the pickup point at 8:45 as told, and the bus promptly arrived at 9:40, we boarded, and found our allocated seats. There was no (I mean NONE WHAT-So-EVER) leg room, MAria had to sit with her knees up on th back of the seat in front, and I put mine in the aisle. Marias seat also had no cushion, not bad for a 9 HOUR trip. We had the usual crew of farters, belchers and snorers, and we set off, with about 15 more people than seats. Not too many traffic jams this time, and we reched the outskirts of Delhi in about 8 hours, then a BANG, a CRUnCH, and STOP. The gearbox had gone. Swear, swear, swear, swear alot more, get off the bus, swear some more. Hail down Auto-rickshaw and take 1/2 hour drive into City, at 5:00am, after no sleep, and finally arrive at the hotel.
Tomorrow we leave India, and go to Singapore. When I look back and see the spiritual gains from visiting this old country, and the lessons learnt I will say to myself ARSE, the place is a nightmare the people all stare, they try to con you all the time, and they have managed to turn a nice solid passtime into a liquid one (if you know what I mean). UUURrrggghhhhhhhhhhhh
March 27th - March 28th
We slept for a few hours on arrival at the Ajanta Hotel, then passed most of the afternoon away in 'Steves Cafe' on the Internet. We had a great dinner that Maria seems to be getting quite good at choosing. Butter Chicken, Veg pakora, Rice, Nans.
We then returned to the Web cafe to add pictures to or site, which proved quite a task, and took about 3 hours.
The room was hot (no windows) and only a fan to keep us cool, but we both slept fine.
We have packed our bacpacks once again now, and have returned to the web cafe to get some information on Singapore, and to finally update this site with this info. On the way here we were in hectic traffic, and when one rickshaw driver stopped his bike, he was beaten with a 3ft pole by one of the traffic police, then our auto-rickshaw driver got into an arguement with the police, and they almost came to blows, but we arrived safely.
We shall be logging off very shortly, and making our way back to the hotel to collect our luggage, then off to the airport to catch our flight to singapore.
Just as I footnote as Kev seems to be dominating this web page, I have actually quite enjoyed India. The cities are not so pleasant but once you get out there are some beautiful sights and the people are friendly, so anyone reading this who plans to travel to India just be fairly open minded and head North as quickly as possible. Maria
So this is it for India
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