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Published: March 26th 2008
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So after the highs of Varanasi we did it again - we went on a pointless journey to perhaps the most rotten town in all of India - Bhopal.
Bhopal is a "supposedly" beautiful town set around 2 lakes where the wealthy Indians come out to play in their speedboats.
Either we badly misinterpreted our guide book, or the town has dramatically changed since the authors visited there last. What we found was a town full of revolting, sexist young men, who whistled, leered and hassled us at every turn. We couldn't walk 5 meters down the street without someone saying something sleazy to us, or feeling like we were walking naked through a blokey construction site. To enter the street required nerves of steel and a bravery never before known to us. Unfortunately we were trapped in this hell-hole for 3 days as the trains out were totally booked. 3 days of this hell on earth proved too much for poor little Soph, and a serious meltdown of her mind occurred one day on a public bus involving tears, yelling and throwing of luggage - you could call it a tantrum, Soph prefers to call it a minor hiccup
of behaviour. Luckily we found a posh hotel later that day that served red wine - or else our sanity may not have remained intact.
For the first time in our lives we truly hated India and all things Indian.
India had to pull out something pretty impressive for us to find the love again.
True to form, India did just that.
Our next stop was Ajanta Caves. A world heritage site where 30 Buddhist cave-temples were cut into the steep side of a rock gorge with mini little chisles and hammers, dating back centuries, and the walls painted with scenes of local life at the time. They were amazingly elaborate on the inside and have been preserved remarkably well. This helped us start to forgive India just a little for its previous indiscretions in Bhopal.
We then went to another bunch of caves a few days later - Ellora caves, yet another world heritage listed site. These are far more impressive as they are larger, more intricate and are to this day still function as temples for Buddists, Hindus and Jains.
The main cave-temple there is absolutely enormous! Perhaps as big as the MCG one
Hairdresser Elise
Turns out this was NOT a good move, but we needed something to do other than head out into the street. Indian said (we're sure its not quite that big, but we smiled and nodded and gasped in amazement at this "fact" anyway). Our photos don't really do it justice at all I'm afraid, you just have to take our word for it. It's one of those things that need to be seen to be appreciated.
By this stage we were in a new town, Aurangabad. A MUCH nicer town than Bhopal (not that that would be hard!) and our faith in the friendliness of Indians was beginning to be restored. Only one Indian bloke hassled us (he grabbed Elise's arm as he flew past on a motorbike), and the rest were totally friendly. Perhaps India wasn't so bad after all we were thinking.
We then headed to a town called Nasik, and India was again the apple of our eye. Nasik is on the banks of the Godavari river, one of the holiest rivers in India (yes yes I know, there are many of them) and thus the town was full of pilgrims coming to bathe in its holy waters. Nasik was a lot like Varanasi really except that the people are not as used to tourists so
there was no-one trying to rip us off or scam us out of rupees (except of course the rickshaw drivers, but that goes without saying really) so we could freely sit by the water and watch and take photos as we pleased without having to make a "donation" to anyone.
The other GREAT thing about Nasik was that 10km out of town was a winery!! A winery in India we thought! The first tasting room EVER in India! Surely it couldn't be! India only does beer and whisky doesn't it? We were anticipating a bamboo shack with plastic tables and chairs and dirty old alcoholic men. But in actual fact, this winery was every bit as good, if not better than any winery we have been to back home. Classy setting, western music in the background (although it was 80's hits but we're not complaining), good tasting wine and a cheese platter to top it off. The trauma of Bhopal was fast becoming a distant memory at this point.
And just to finish off our thoughts of Bhopal completely, and have it wiped clean from our minds, we went to Mumbai to visit Daws, Harps and their two
boys Charlie and Eddie, in their 5 star serviced apartment. Complete with pool, chefs, cleaners, drivers, people to open the door for you, people to then close it again, people to call you "mam", people to hold your drink for you, and even people to towel you off after a swim - it was just what the doctor ordered after 3 months of travel and tantrums on the road. We watched Charlie play cricket, read stories to Eddie, lazed around the pool, went driving around the town (Daws spends half her day doing this the traffic is so bad), looked at luxurious carpets (only to get Daws' driver Raj a commission for taking us there - as if we could fit a carpet in our backpacks, but Raj now has a new pair of pants courtesy of our efforts!), slept in, and generally had our weary souls recharged with some fantastic hospitality.
And the tuna mornay Daws cooked for us was like heaven on a fork after months of rice and vegetable curries!
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Kate Guggs
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winner!
I declare the winner of the find the face game.....Sophie! Sorry Elise, can't see what he F--k you are talking about! xox