Blogs from Maharashtra, India, Asia - page 145

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Asia » India » Maharashtra » Aurangabad March 19th 2005

We arrived in Aurangabad fairly early, around 6 a.m., that’s why we had some problems finding a hotel room. In the hotels we had foreseen there were no rooms free yet, due also to the Indian system of 24-hour checkout. This means that you have to check out 24 hours after you checked in, or earlier of course. Up to now, this system had been to our advantage, but that very day it turned into a disadvantage. The idea of having to check out at 6.30 a.m. did not really appeal to us. Bout of course our rickshaw driver had a friend who had recently opened a hotel. We had resisted his offer before, but now we gave in. In the end, the hotel was not bad, close to the train station, a more bustling region ... read more
Kailasanatha Temple
Elephants
Other caves

Asia » India » Maharashtra » Pune March 14th 2005

Hey folks! now I'm in Poona, again staying with relatives anmd having a very relaxed time,- we should be taking a tour to see the Osho ashram and other sites tomorrow - like the tourists we are! Aurtangabad was amazing,- seeing the rock carvings at Ellora and Ajanta - which we hadn't on our schedule in Britain, but were so close to our relatives in Nasik that we stayed 3 days in Aurangadbad as a base... You canfind good pictures of the rock caves and carvings online, and we're set to enjoy Poona, Panchgani, Goa and so on to the south coast... Please contact me with details of friends in India - because we've really enjoyed staying with relatives, but have none from Poona onwards. Tell me who they are and give phone/e-mail contacts. I'll be ... read more

Asia » India » Maharashtra » Mumbai March 14th 2005

We arrived in Mumbai with only two full days left in India. After the standard process of bargaining with a cab driver and having to force him to take us to the hotel we requested, we stepped out onto the amazingly clean streets of Mumbai. We had heard horror stories about the extreme amount of people in the city, but we were quite suprised to find that it wasn't very crowded. The traffic almost seemed to have some sense of order to it. I think one reason it was like this is because the city has laws that prevent rickshaws within the main city area. This left only cars and taxis on the streets, and it left us with an uncanny feeling that we were back in the US of A. Mumbai is definitely the wealthiest ... read more
Cityscape
Gandhi's bedroom
Taj Mahal Hotel

Asia » India » Maharashtra » Solapur March 12th 2005

We arrived in Solapur, a city of about a million southeast of Mumbai, early yesterday morning. Raju, the sister of my friend Mahesh, and his father picked us up at the bus station. They immediately put us up in a nice hotel, probably the nicest one we've stayed at in India and took us out for breakfast. Mahesh's cousin, Rani, also joined us for breakfast, too. Raju and Rani were our main hosts and the showed us around the city and introduced us to many of their friends and family. They treated us to some wonderful home cooked meals and we ate until our stomachs couldn't take anymore. Raju knew english very well so we mainly had to communicate through her. She was a very lively woman we spent a lot of time talking about the ... read more
Shiva forehead marking
Sunflowers basking in the evening sun

Asia » India » Maharashtra » Mumbai March 9th 2005

After visiting relatives in Bombay for a whloe week - I've discovered another ,even more distant set of relatives in Nasik - east of Bombay. I arrived here yesterday morning - after travelling by train and bus from 5am, and have already been deep underground in a Hindu temple, surrounded by musicians and dancers in a street festival, and confounded to find the Baha'i community in India online... all I want to do is celebrate Naw Ruz in goa on 21st March! i'll keep you posted on this and all other developments. lowri is really enjoying india, and is a lot less sick than myself with the pollution of bombay air and water. Luckily we had a dancing contest with my cousins last night, which got a lot of the pollution out of my system...... read more

Asia » India » Maharashtra » Aurangabad January 16th 2005

So much has happened over this last week that I'll never be able to write it all down so I'll just give you a rough outline of what I've been up to. I had a fantastic time in Bombay! As soon as I stepped off the train I loved it. Unlike most Indian cities, which tend to be just a polluted urban sprawl, Bombay has character! Indeed with its red double deckers and colonial architecture I almost felt like I was in London! I spent a few days there and in that time I had a look at the ruins on Elephanta island, saw the amazing dhobi wallahs (washer men) at work, went to see Shar Rukh Kan's new film Veer-Zaara (the best bollywood film I've ever seen!), was proposed to on Chowpatty beach(!!!!), and became ... read more

Asia » India » Maharashtra » Pune January 7th 2005

Hey! Well its been a while since I last wrote in here so I'd better say what I've been up to oh and yes Leky I'm OK - I left Chennai three days before the tsunami hit! Apparently StG's and the children are all fine, its only the coastline that was completely wrecked. It was still rather scary though! After a few days in Goa I got so very sick of it so I decided to escape from the ravers and package holiday lot and get back into proper India. New years was spent in a fantastic little town called Hampi, which completely looks like something out of Indiana Jones with its hindu ruins (complete with elephant and monkeys) and breath taking landscape. I stayed in a hut up on the mountain side to get to ... read more

Asia » India » Maharashtra » Mumbai November 7th 2004

Right before I start let's get one thing clear... I TOTALLY DESERVE THIS HOLIDAY!!!!!! I booked it in the middle of my Christmas leave last year and I ain't had a full week off work ever since! So the next three weeks are exclusively me time and I make no apologies for it! To the uninitiated, (i.e. those of you who've never had one of my travel blogs foisted upon them before... and there are a couple), a quick explanation. These are always long winded, self indulgent and involved emails. Partly cos that's just the person I am, and partly cos I'm out by myself on the other side of the planet and as much as I'm now getting fairly experienced at doing this, I do find it kind of comforting to think that maybe I'm ... read more
MUMBAI SACRED COW
INSIDE VT
At the Gateway to India

Asia » India » Maharashtra » Pune February 8th 2004

No, pa sem se odlocil, da obiscem najverjetneje najbolj znan ashram na svetu. Ustanovil ga je guru, Osho, ki je s tem ful obogatel. Baje je imel zbirko Rolls Roycev itd.. Napisal je tudi veliko knjig o meditaciji in podobnih zadevah. Zakaj je obogatel, pa ni tezko ugotoviti. Za dva dni sem placal 1000 rupij samo za vstop in rdeco obleko, ki jo moras nosit, da se uspesno pomesas med ostale ovce. Pa se to je s popustom, ker sem pod 25. V glavnem folk na veliko placuje, da lahko tukaj meditira. Skupinsko ali pa posamezno. Aja, pri vstopu je glavni del stroska HIV test. Lahko imas kolero, sifilis, SARS in ebolo, pa okuzis vse kar se premika, a te bodo vseeno spustil noter. Samo da nisi HIV pozitiv. No jaz sem.... Kaj so mi ze ... read more

Asia » India » Maharashtra » Mumbai November 29th 2002

When arriving in Bombay, it was very difficult to get around in the big city, so after a quick McPaneer near the huge railway station we caught a night bus down to GOA. ... read more




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