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Published: August 10th 2006
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We alighted from the coach ... still aching from Joe Camel and seeking solace in a new city, alas not! It was raining and we were mobbed from the hustlers. With rain and wind in my face I tried to shrug them off..you tend to get a bit aggressive after a while...zero tolerance creeps in. But my brave front was useless as I didn't know where I was. We asked the guy who was hassling us for three hundred metres did he know where an internet cafe was but he even failed to find that for us and as when it rains in India it can be pretty frightening, we booked into the first ok shabby hotel.
My impressions of Ahmedabad were that it was a noisy, polluted, congested city. We played it safe .. venturing around the corner from our hotel to the House of MG a well known restauraunt in the area to sample tasty Gujarat food and also over the bridge into the new city where modern restaurants and shops were located. Amy finally purchased a few tops after breaking shopkeeper hearts over India. Our decision to eat in McDonalds proved to be harder than I imagined
with one rickshaw driver travelling across the city in the wrong direction before we cut our losses and jumped out. As Sarah MacDonald pointed out in her novel 'Holy Cow" Indians don't like saying they don't know even though they don't have a clue what you're talking about.
In Ahmedabad or as I affectionately know it (I made the bed) we had a couple of good excursions. We spent an afternoon in Gandhi's Ashram, a location where Ghandi lived and communicated his beliefs to his followers. It was a very peaceful and spiritual place capturing the essence of the man. The Ashram detailed his history and the quotes from famous leaders and philosphers regarding Gandhi were fascinating.
The last day in Ahmedabad I was struck down by the Delhi belly (or perhaps just gluttony) so I was in delicate position while embarking on our 9 hour overnight train trip to Mumbai.
Our arrival In Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) was similar to Ahmedabad. We met a dubious driver who added a few people to our taxi after we negotiated the fare. Everything is a battle! We decided to stay in Colaba, the outskirts of Mumbai, by the
seaside. After seeing several 70's decor rooms we decided to go a little more upmarket for our accomadation. Mumbai is a different animal to other parts of India, the city is quite wealthy and this was reflected in the price of everything. People dress classier and there is a greater variety of food available, although Amy was fearful off the undercooked eggs again.
We went to the cinema to see the new Anthony Hopkins film, The Worlds Fastest Indian, which was surprisingly good, we were afraid our ears were going to been blown off as the volume was particularly loud and were highly amused by the recital of the Indian national anthem (which is merely a list of state names). We also visited St Thomas cathedral which was the first Christian church I've seen here. I discreetly said a prayer to fix my stomach, there were no candles to light though. We didn't venture too far from the hotel as we were both struck down by ill health, the only other place we ventured to was the Modern Art Gallery which was fascinating, Amy found the building's architecture more interesting!
On the Saturday we decided to head out
to the airport early as the hotel checkout was 12 and Mumbai was even more rain sodden than previous days, we were "convinced" that there would be lots of entertainment at the airport. Our flight was due to leave at 4.30 the next morning. Needless to say there was nothing there but a few tatty seats and a coffee stand and 15 hours later our ill health had nearly turned fatal! Nearing 3 am and still not seeing any sign of our flight we went up to the Air India counter to see if they had any information. We were shocked when they took our tickets and let us through. We couldn't believe it, as we were told on more than three occassions that we were not supposed to go to the counter. To add to our chagrin there were lots of activities in the other section of the airport, including comfy reclining seats, tv and a restaurant.
We felt like dummies...Ah well ...kind of sums up India. We escaped Mumbai before it became waterlogged and were grateful for that much.
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King Con The Swazi
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Yebo
Yo Yo Yo! Greetings from Swaziland. The travel blog is class, although i'm glad to hear you got Delhi Belly, you seem to be enjoying yourself too much, haven't seen any pictures of you smoking Ganj on the banks of the Ganjees (spelling might be a bit ropey here), will be very disappointed if you arrive home without a beard and beads. Connor