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Published: October 18th 2007
Jaisalmer - Ahmedabad - Vadodara
The bus left Jaisalmer at 5.00pm to Ahmehabad hoping to arrive at its destination by 4.00am the following morning. Before we actually left the station we had the usual tourist con trick which is to charge us for storing the luggage in the boot of the bus (despite having paid probably way over the odds for a ticket in the first place). Normally the charge is only a couple of rupees per bag but it had steadily been climbing and now reached its peak of 20 rupees a bag! That's 50p for both bags! Doesn't sound a lot but a meal can be bought for that so its all relative and by now it's the principle that matters (especially as the government has imposed a foreign tourist tax just to enter Jaisalmer of 20 rupees each - how do they get away with such discrimination?)! A lengthy discussion followed in which we tried to ascertain the reason for the charge but the luggage attendant's English seemed to completely disintegrate! We got them down to 20 rupees for both bags and just hoped the bags would still be there at the end of the journey (a
Symonds (later subjected to racial abuse)
He went on to score a century in the next match and help Australia win the series - woo hoo!small victory to us - yeah!).
Bus journey was the usual story - bumpy, overcrowded and hot - although not late! So we were sitting in Ahmedabad bus station at 4.00am pondering our next move along with a small crowd of onlookers and large flying cockroaches. The original plan (not sure which one that was now) was to go to Diu from here which is a beach resort on a small island before heading to Mumbai to watch India v Australia cricket match on 17th October. However, in my broken Hindi (very little English is spoken in this area) I thought I had ascertained that the next India v Australia cricket match was being held later this very day (11th Oct) in a place called Vadodara (less than two hours by train). Tried to buy an English paper to confirm but none available. Rickshaw driver kept pestering us and we told him 'no English'. He turned out to be the most useful person there and advised us of the 5.00am train to Vadodara and also that it takes about ten hours to get to Diu (he also later told us that the match had sold out!).
So then,
a ten hour bus journey to Diu or a two hour train journey to Vadodara with absolutely nothing there of note and no guarantee we would get to see the game? On the flip side, if we did get to the game this would avoid the need to go to Mumbai (which I understand is utter madness and a tourist nightmare) and we could get to Goa quicker than planned sipping pina colado's on the beach before we knew it!
We were completely undecided until a bird poo'd mostly on Claire, although I got some afters. This was obviously a good sign so off we went to the station in search of some cricket (bird poo was really hard to get out of our clothes though!).
Boarded the train whilst it was pulling out of the station as we were told it was leaving at 5.00am when in fact it left at 4.55am. I told Claire to get on first as here was my chance to fake a fall and lose her but the draw of a cricket match was too much and I jumped on too - only joking Claire's family!
Arrived in Vadodara about 6.30am
Somebody order a coke?
The drinks break required a huge coke can fridge to be pushed on by more men than it would have needed to just bring the drinks on! and jumped in a Rickshaw which didn't take us to the hotel of our choice but to one of his instead. We therefore got out and walked back to the station without paying much to his annoyance. After losing valuable time (the match starts at 9.00am) we found a lovely place to stay near the railway station (by lovely we mean the worst place we have stayed in so far on our trip - although we had checked other hotels and there were worse!). Not getting into the cricket was not an option now as the alternative of spending any more time than necessary at the hotel was too much to bear!
Quick cold shower (despite the sign saying 24 hour hot water) and a chat with an Australian guy working for the press who gave us his number and said he would try and help us in. We got the slowest Rickshaw ride to date and got to the ground about 8.00am. Couldn't see the ground as there were four entry points (blue, green, red and yellow) all about 500m - 1km apart from each other. We tried the green, asking for tickets from anybody on the way,
Our 'lovely' hotel room with attached bathroom
Most hotels we stay in have western style toilets, this had the hole in the ground style - which we don't mind now and again but the stains are worrying ... then the red and then the blue. Then I thought we had the answer - an Indian TV crew came over and interviewed us so we basically asked the nation if anybody had two spare tickets! Surprisingly our hotel didn't have a (working) television in the room so we'll never know if we hit the headlines!
Things not looking good. We then spoke to someone who said he could get two tickets for 2000 rupees each (face value being 200). Surprise, surprise he turned out to be talking bullshit. In desperation I rang the Australian guy and he said if we could get to the media tower by 8.55am he would let us have two passes to get us through. Sounds easy right! Well, it would be if the Indian guards could make up their minds where the media tower was! It was now after 9.00am and we were feeling utterly deflated. As a final shot we checked out the Yellow gate. "Sorry, no tickets left". We had to resort to pleading now. We pretended we were Australian and had only just arrived in India and how it would really help India/Australian relations (pulling at straws now). He said
to wait a couple of minutes and he'll see what he could do. Hang on, our luck may be in - was beginning to think we got poo'd on for nothing! "Ok, in you go" he said, we had to ask him to repeat himself and then thanked him and asked him for his name - Halpret Singh - you are a legend (and we got in for free)!
We pretended we knew which seats were ours and sat down. After about 20 minutes someone claimed our seats so we moved a couple of rows forward - I think most people at this point worked out we had no tickets. Anyway, game was poor. India bowled out for 148 off less than 40 overs (they were already 11-2 by the time we got in). Australia took about 25 overs to reach their target for the loss of just one wicket. Despite that it was a great experience as I was given an Indian flag to wave when they got a rare boundary and we told as any people as possible we were English and not Australian. It was immensely hot and we drank so much that day and ate several ice creams. However, we couldn't buy food of any substance as it seems you get a free lunch with your ticket (which obviously we never had).
The day turned very sour though once it became clear that the Australians were going to win with ease and the jovial Indian crowd turned exceptionally hostile. Plastic water bottles were thrown on the pitch and racial abuse in the form of monkey chants were aimed at the only black Australian player (Symonds). The match was temporarily halted as the bottles were cleared off the pitch and the incredibly inept and slow guards threatened the crowd with their batons.
The crowd then started to 'mockingly' cheer the Australians and it was quite visible the Indian players were bowling so the Australians could win as quick as possible. At one point the Indian fielders fielded right by the crowd just to try and stop more bottles being thrown. After the inevitable victory chairs were then thrown (seating was in the form of plastic garden chairs) and we were enemy number one as we were clearly Australian. We then became quite fearful and would be glad to get back to the worst hotel room in the world in one piece. It was a very sad scene and reminded me of a Millwall match from the 70s/80s. It wasn't an isolated section of the crowd either - racism, chair hurling and general abuse at us was widespread and those that weren't actively involved seemed strangely amused by it all!
We tried to hang around the armed guards as long as possible and it was a nightmare trying to get a rickshaw as for once it seemed Indians were putting their materialistic instincts temporarily behind them. After much abuse (some in English) we got a Rickshaw to the railway station to book the next train out of here to Goa. It turned out to be 1.30pm the next day.
To top matters we discovered that our wonderful hotel had a 24 hour policy, in other words you check out 24 hours after checking in - 7am in our case with a 30 minute lee-way only! Spending any longer in there than we had to was likely to severely damage our health and we think was responsible for Claire's temporary dodgy belly so it was just as well. We therefore checked out at 7.30am and went to a posh hotel (posh for Indian standards that is) just down the road. They looked after our luggage until we left for the station and we had breakfast there (I think they thought we had stayed there).
Goa here we come!
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Boon
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I've spread the word!
'ow do! I've spread the word of Halpret Singh around Portman Travel! Everyone here thinks he is a true legend too! Three cheers for Halpret! Hip Hip... Can't wait for the photos of the dodgy hotel. I'll advise our clients not to book there lol! Sounds like you is having fun! Main moaned at me for not leaving a comment on your blog yet so here it is! Did I do good?!