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Published: December 9th 2006
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Hello!
Well we arrived in India safe and sound on the 6th. We got a bus from Bangkok to the airport that we were told would take 2 hours and cost 35 baht. Half an hour later we arrived at the airport two and a half hours early. Feel rather superior to all the tourists who shun the public bus and pay 150 baht for a coach that takes longer. So we left south east asia and the lands where a nod means yeas and a shake means no and landed in the head wobbling chaos we call India.
I had prepaired myself for tottal mayhem, rediculous heat and inedably hot food. I have been nicely suprised by the lack of mayhem the nicly spicy but not too hot food and the pleasent heat that only get sweaty at midday. Last night I actually ended up wrapped up in a blanket. However we are in the middle of the country so anywhere south will probably be hotter but it's a good beggining.
We we got to Mumbai we got a taxi to the Hotel at about midnight (the flight kept on being put back). The next day we
decided to just go for a walk and book some train tickets. Booking train tickets is harder than it sounds. First we had to find the right station (this involved walking half way across Mumbai) then get hold of a train timetable, then find a for and wok out how to fill it in, then find the right counte which was in a completly diffeent building to the rest of the station. It was all rather fustrating but we got there in the end.
After that we decided to wind down by going to one of the several hundered cinemas in Mumbai........to see James Bond. Ok so not very Indian but it was good. Before the film there are lots of adds warning about terrorism and telling people not to litter, then trailers for bollywood films, then you have to stand for the national anthrem. Very wierd for us who don't even know the words of our anthrem. Half way through the film is an intermission where they show more tralers then without warning cut straight back to James Bond.
We have found eating here really good. There are loads of very clean and nice resturants that are
rediculously cheap. It's hard to spend more than about 60p on a meal, drink and extra nanns. I got used to pretty grubby places in SE asia but here they are clean and some places even bring you finger bowles. The food is great and it's vegetrian heaven.
After Mumbai we managed to successfully get on the right train to Nasik and were entertained for hours by the national under 20s fencing team. They turned up in the same carraige and all wantted to talk to us, look at our books and show us card tricks etc. That was good. When we arrived we went to book our onward tickets which involved queing for an hour. Then we had a mess up with a tuk tuk driver who took us to a hotel that we didn't want to stay in and that was no where near where we wantted to go. After another tuk tuk ride and lots of different direction (the guide bok doesn't have a map of this place) we found a Hotel that looks lke a flea pit at first but has actually grown on me. It's very cheap ( 2 pounds 50p) for a double
and is pretty grubby but the bathroom is clean.
The reason we came here was main just for the hell of it but also becuase it is an important pilgramage place. Ever 12 years the Kum Melha festival is held here. This is the biggest gathering of people on the planet. It's a nice place, crowded but small and friendly.
We got stopped by a very polite young gentelman who requested to ask us some questions (englsh here is lke it was at home maybe 100 years ago. People call you 'kind sir' and 'madam' and are generally polite to the point of seeming comical to us). He bascally wantted to practise englsh and ask us all about ourselves. We ended up staying for about an hour and a half and were introduced to most of the family. I lost count of the number of uncles we met. He couldn't take us into his house as his grandfather doesn't like tourists (possibly just the british actually) but they brought chairs out for us and fed us chai tea. we seemed to have a crowd of about 15 around us all the time and loas of very sweet kids. It was great talking to them and young people here seem to be very outward looking.
We then went to see the river where pilgrims come. There were lots of people doing washing there but not much else going on. We stopped for a drink and the shop owner got talking to us. He was telling us abut the Kum Melha and how they now have 2 seperate bathing places. This is becuase the two mian sects here, worshippes of Shiva and worshippers of Vishnu, kept fighting about who got to go first. They resolved this by having 2 bathing areas.
It's wierd being british here as colonialism is still a hot topic. When we say we are english lots of people say 'oh yes you where here for 150 years'. This isn't nessesarily a bad thing though as quite a few people have talked possitivly about the british. Mainly becuase the British had a policy not to interfere with religion and at the moment religion is the main cuase of conflict.
Being a woman here is quite hard as the streets are so male dominated. I'm often the only woman in a place and everyone stairs. I think this was worse in Mumbai than Nasik. Indian men don't tend to give a monkeys about womens rights and do often try to grope women in crowds. It's also strange becuase men talk to Sam often like i'm not there. He always gets handed to menu or bill etc. This is feking annyouing and I keep reminding Sam not to get used to it.
So all in all it's pretty full on here and definatly the hardest place we have been. But i thnk we are getting the hang of it. All thoes visists to the curry mile and proving valuable as we actually understand te menues and know what the order.
Mut go and eat now. Missing you all and missing christmas loads. Sing 'Gingle Bells' for me!
Loads of Love and seasons greatings
Jen
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Ravi
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train booking
Hi This is regarding what you have said about train booking, you can visit indian rail web site to look for trains and seat availability it is indianrail.gov.in, you can also do online booking if seat are available. Enjoy