Blogs from Maharashtra, India, Asia - page 122

Well, our plane was 1.5 hours delayed but the flight was very painless and despite the 9 hours Virgin Atlantic made us very comfortable. First time I managed to fall asleep for a bit on the plane on a long distance flight. So landed at 2pm yesterday afternoon and then got a cab from the airport to our hotel in Cobala. Took over 2.5 hours from the airport to get to Bentley's Hotel although the distance is not far. The traffic is an absolute nightmare. WE moved a few meters and the stood still for 15 mins. Quite a lot to take in when you first arrive. All the movements, people in colourfull saris working in their stalls or doing their washing on the pavements or having a nap, smells of cocking or spices as well ... read more

Predvcerom sme zacali nasu strastiplnu cestu domov. Kedze odlet do Europy sme mali z Mumbaia a samosebou sa nam nepodarilo zohnat priame letenky Kathmandu - Mumbai, rozhodli sme sa letiet cez Kolkatu a stravit tam aspon jeden rychlikovy den. Po divokej ceste z Pokhary do Kathmandu (ten autobus o perovani ani len nepocul, po piatich minutach sme si chrbtove platnicky mohli skladat jak puzzle..) a po prijemnom veceri nas uz cakal odlet naspat do Indie. Preslaveny Nepalsky pristup nesklamal a samozrejme sme museli absolvovat sialene predletove kontroly. Dvakrat nam vysypali prirucnu batozinu, otvorili dokonca aj balene plagaty a mne vybrali baterky z fotaku a vysypali do rupsaku. Vraj sa nemozu vozit pokope. No zahada.. Let uz tradicne meskal a do Kolkaty sme sa dostali az za tmy. Zobrali sme pre-paid taxi a nechali sa zaviezt do ... read more

hello, i'm getting a bit slack keeping up with this blog, i'm just going to briefly summerise the last week, so that i can catch up to where i am now! i'm sure the photos will speak much better than my words (and spelling) anyway! so after agra we were driven back to delhi by our stressy driver. i'm so relieved to be rid of him and to have our freedom back. we head north on the overnight sleeper to shimla, an old british hill station in the foothills of the himalaya. have to change trains at 5 am to a 'toy train' that snaked around the mountains and hills on a narrow guage track. this was spectacular, the train was old, but would have been really splendid in its time. you could imagine all the ... read more

Mumbai - India’s filthiest city. Pintos Story In the midst of searing 30 degree heat along the tourist centre of Mumbai - the Colaba causeway we meet Pinto the taxi driver who refreshingly speaks english very well and like us is not big on haggling. Although we have now learnt that haggling is a must. So a short conversation later and a few exchanges of “do you think this guy is ok” between Mel an myself we decide to enter this taxi on what is the start of another incredible human journey. Included in our 300 rupee fair is a visit to the “must see” hanging gardens of Bombay with a view across to the Tower of Silence, more about that later. As we stroll around these immaculately manicured gardens which have been set out as ... read more

Pune is a University town southeast of Mumbai. The first thing we noticed when we got off the train was that it was so much cooler here, still hot but bearable. Once we got ourselves to FC road we decided that this was much better, we were able to walk for more than 100 m without being hung onto by beggers or invited to look at every single stall (all selling the same stuff) that we passed. Big sigh of relief. Moved to a cheaper hotel on the friday as we could't afford to stay in the clean place we bagged after getting off the train. The cleaner was in our new room when we checked in but we haven't been able to figure out what he was doing, it certainly wasn't cleaning the bathroom with ... read more