26 hours on a sleeper, meeting up with my Dad, countless security searches and it being a Dry day when a session was needed !!

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Days 231 – 234 (Fri 26^th – Mon 29^thApril) Mumbai



So Friday morning I had the pleasure of walking up knowing I only had a few hours before a mammoth 26 hour train journey to Mumbai to get. I headed out to get some money and plenty of snacks and drinks for the trip. I know that people constantly roam the aisles selling stuff but a lot of the time there English isn’t great and I’ve even had them ignore me so to not have to deal with me, and this is when I’ve only wanted a bottle of water or something so I made sure I went prepared for this today.

I headed to the station a good hour before the train as I know the things are huge, like 12-18 carriages long and can take a while to walk up the platform to the correct spot. I got onto the train and went to my ‘sleeper.’ It was only midday but I figured as I’d bought a bed I’d have a bed. Not quite how it turns out. There are 3 bunks to each side of the sleeper but the middle one isn’t in situ. It sort of hangs down as a back rest so the 3 people can sit upright instead, totally defeating the idea of a sleeper. If I’d wanted to sleep straight away that wasn’t happening. It was midday so wasn’t a problem. 3 people are supposed to be on each side so 6 in total, we had 8 and 4 people on the 2 the other side of the aisle. I hate it when things are overcrowded, I really don’t like crowds. I just sat by the window staring out for hours on end listening to my ipod. I had no intention of talking to anyone around me and they were all playing cards and eating every 30 minutes anyways, pretty much 100 percent of the time with their hands which is revolting.

One of my pet hates about this country is the hygiene. Indian people will not let a plastic bottle touch their mouths, making taking a drink a funny thing to watch, especially on moving transport as a jolt means it goes everywhere. They do this because it’s dirty, yet the same people throw all these bottles out of the window with every other bit of rubbish they have and eat from dirty plates with their hands. Surely that is way more unhygienic than drinking from a bottle. It really annoys me every time I see it. Plus most the time they are sat there picking their feet and then happy to tuck into food straight after. To me it just seems dirty and wrong, and the littering is plain lazy.

Anyways around 8pm I was getting sick of this, I sort of edged more and more into a horizontal position to point out I wanted to lie down. I got the middle bunk set up so I could take my bottom bunk. This was sort of pointless as one of the guys ended up sleeping on the floor next to me, about 6 inches away, he snored, he stunk and his arms and legs were constantly flailing onto my bed. I was not a happy bunny and on a few occasions accidentally woke him up by shoving his body parts away from me or shuffling around in my bag. At least that was safe as no way anyone could steal it with a fat lump lying in the middle of the bunks.

The morning cam and everyone was awake at 6am, marvellous. They wanted to put the bunk back as a back rest, I didn’t and held out until well gone 8. Then I spent the remaining 5 hours sat upright dozing and staring out the window wishing I’d get there. The trip took a mere 26 hours and I hated every single minute of it.

On arrival at Mumbai CST I got the usual every taxi driver in town offering me a lift. I just got in one and was scammed as always. I was told it was a long way and it was busy as it was Saturday and he had to take a different route etc. I know this was a lie as shortly after checking in I walked it and it was no distance at all. I probably paid 5 times the amount I should if not more. I got to the hotel anyways and met up with my Dad who’d flown in from home for a week’s holiday and some IPL cricket as well as to see me obviously.

We had to head straight out and fetch our tickets as we had a game that night. We found the office and it was a little small place with 3 girls on computers in a building that was either being done up or knocked down. It was a strange spot to have the only ticket counter in town and was incredibly hot. The humidity here is horrendous and first notice. We relaxed for the afternoon, got some pizza and then headed to the ground where to get in we were searched at least 5 times, got stuck in a huge queue, ended up in a crush on a bridge over the tracks to get in and finally got in 20 minutes into the game. It was an absolute joke and I decided I would email them and complain about it, this has not happened yet however. After the match we found a little restaurant where we could get a beer so ended the night relaxing with a Budweiser.

The following day we headed over to see the Gateway to India arch and the Taj Mahal hotel next to it. Both very impressive structures but the amount of touts and people offering stuff there makes the experience unpleasant to say the least. My dad got attacked by a bloke trying to put something in his ear as well as a pet monkey on a lead. Good start to his holiday. We wandered aimlessly around town for a bit to see what we could find and more importantly find a bar. This did not really happen but we did eat in a very local restaurant, my dad’s first experience of proper Indian food. It was really good and very cheap considering it was in the Causeway area of South Mumbai where things are normally more expensive.

We found a place to go back to in the evening to watch the football on the tv and get some food and finally somewhere serving Kingfisher at a reasonable price. In the afternoon on heading back to the hotel we took a wrong turn and ended up going north and not west. We ended walking past an incredibly poor area of town which wasn’t pleasant. The market looked like a bomb site. There are a lot of people here living rough, too many for the government to be able to do anything about it I imagine.

Monday was spent pretty much lounging around during the day and then at the cricket at night. It was around 90 percent humidity most the time so not pleasant to be out and about in. We did go out and wander along Marine Drive and then south Mumbai for a bit, checked out CST station so we knew where to go in the morning then wandered back again to spend the afternoon in the comfort of an air conditioned room.

This time we headed to the cricket earlier to make sure we didn’t miss it. Dad got turned away for bringing his camera and had to leg it back to the hotel to drop it off. He managed to make it back and only miss the first 5 minutes. This time we got searched 7 times before being let in, in total. It’s crazy how worried they are about their cricket grounds.

We then headed back to the place we found a couple nights ago and went inside the bar this time, and had a few scoops before heading to sleep with an early train in the morning.



Days 235 – 237 (Tues 30^th April – Fri 3^rd May) Pune



The morning saw and early start followed by a 4 hour train to Pune. The trip itself I quite enjoyed, about half way through you end up in a huge valley with large canyons either side. It’s very picturesque and I thought it was lovely. It was obviously uncomfortable and hot as Indian trains always are and we were in second class seating (cheap seats).

On arrival in Pune we had a google maps of where the hotel was. After 30 seconds I wanted to walk, dad wanted a auto-rickshaw. After a bit of a tiff on the side of the road we got in a rickshaw. This proceeded to take an hour and cost way more than it should have done. We also clocked 12.5km in the auto and on arrival at the hotel and checking google myself it showed the hotel was only 500 metres from the station. The driver had no clue where it was, we drove around for ages in 43 degree heat, it was stupid really. I then walked to get our tickets while Dad relaxed in our very nice executive business hotel room.

We realised the ground was 25km away which is a problem as there aren’t any public transport links to it. We decided to get tea anyways and have a couple beers, being Kingfisher strong at a healthy 8 percent strength. 2 off those and a curry and we headed to train station to find a cab. Managed to get one to take us there, wait and bring us back. It took around an hour to get there, traffic chaotic as always, then getting into the car park was a nightmare. We missed a good 30 mins of the match, it did give us an insight into how early we needed to leave next time.

Wednesday was a write off really. We had nothing to do, it was hot and it happened to be the state ‘Dry Day.’ Dad was especially not happy about this as he’d wanted to get on the beer as had I. There really isn’t a lot to do in Pune so we checked out a shopping mall, which was pretty poor by malls in Asia standard. We went to pizza hut for tea and had a big feast as there is a lack of places to eat in Pune also. There are plenty of road side stalls but with the dirt, flies and pollution in India not a chance I’d risk from eating at one of them. We watched the IPL on tv and the Champions League footy and that was that.

Thursday we looked for somewhere to get a drink for the afternoon. We found the Hard Rock Cafe which was surely the strangest one in their franchise. It’s impossible to find and in a very odd location in Pune. It was also quite large with loads of staff and about 2 tables of people in there. Spent the afternoon supping and then headed back to get a taxi to the cricket, which was slightly more straight forward than Tuesday night. We actually made the start of the game for once. Got back to the hotel around half 12 and I watched some Europa League footy on the tv this time. It’s been nice in India with the time difference being able to watch the European football for a change.

Friday all we did was get some food and hang around until our train back to Mumbai. Once again I enjoyed it as the views are impressive. I had the other side of the coach this time so get the best of both with the trips to and from Pune.

The evening was spent in a restaurant we frequented a couple of times when we were in Mumbai 4 days ago. We got a monster tower of Kingfisher, some food and settled in the for evening with the cricket on the tv and the lovely air con keeping us cool. The place was called ‘Mocha’ and probably the nicest little place in South Mumbai to get good food and have nice surroundings. Makes you think that there aren’t people sleeping on the pavement outside. You could be anywhere else in the world in there and not realise you’re in Mumbai or India.

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