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Published: October 12th 2005
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Bombay
Jamie's Cricket Team Hello!
Today we're in Bombay (Mumbai)! Jamie and I spent a few days in Jaipur. Three nights to be exact. we stayed at a hotel called Evergreen guest house, which was a really cozy place with a lovely garden, a good restaurant, and a small swimming pool. The first day I had to sleep off some on-coming sickness, and so we didn't get out into the town until later that day. We walked around the old town 'The Pink City' and bumped into some local students who were 'practising their english'. after telling us all about their studies and their lives, a random man on a motor bike said something to the boys and they hurried away from us without a backwards glance. hmm....my guess is that they were trying to scam us and the man on the motor bike shooed them away. we've been scammed (at least attempted scams) so many many times ! in delhi, men kept taking us to fake tourist agents who asked for sky-high prices for even the shortest bus journey, in agra we were asked to carry some precious stones in our luggage to australia (umm...no, i don't really want to give you my
Bombay Train
travel scrabble! credit card details), and in jaipur we were given dolls for 'free'. not so free it turned out, so we gave them back with a smile.
anyway - where was i...so we were in jaipur. tried to watch a bollywood film, but it didn't work out cause they were only shown in hindi. maybe we'll be luckier here in bombay! the next day in jaipur i was feeling a lot better, so we spent the day walking around town and even went swimming! all in all, jaipur is a beautiful city, but after spending time in delhi and agra, i really wanted to see a different side of india. i knew they going deeper into rajasthan would mean a lot of desert and camel treks, and that's not what i really wanted. luckily, jamie agreed, since he's been travelling around the middle east for the past four months, and doesn't really need to see any more camels 😉 ! so that evening we booked a train to bombay. now...for those of you who don't know distances in india, jaipur to bombay is a might long way! but luckily- there's an 'express' train which only takes 18hours! that's it! 😉
! so we tried to get a good nights sleep, and the next day at 2 our journey began. we got a 3rd AC class ticket, and the trip was a thousand times more enjoyable than what i expected. maybe it's cause we bought a pack of cards AND i had my reliable old travel scrabble with me. i slept well considering i was on a train, and the only nuisance in the whole trip was the small cocharoaches which kept appearing from everywhere since we were next to the kitchen!
The next morning at 8 we arrived in bombay. we took the suburban train to the place where we wanted to stay (the typical backpacker hub) and found ourselves a hotel. now - about bombay - the moment we stepped out of the train station i was amazed. the contrast to the north of india is immense! the buildings have a strong european influence which gives the entire city a very modern feel. the streets are wide, and it's more business-like. once we had showers and got settled, we decided to walk around town a bit. the streets were pretty quiet...but we soon found out that is probably
Bombay
Train to Mumbai due to it being a bank holiday today!
After walking about for a bit, we found a large cricket field next to Bombay University. Jamie is very much into cricket, and has told just about every cricket fanatic (read: every indian we've spoken to) that he wants a game. Finally his wish was granted, and he found a group of work collegues playing a friendly game on their day off. they we're glad to have jamie play with them. i've never known anything about cricket, but after spending 2 weeks with jamie, i could actually follow the game! jamie ended up being the big star of the game, and everyone kept telling me how great he was ( i just smile and nod, since i wouldn't know ). the game took 4 hours, but don't worry, i didn't sit there staring at the field the whole time, i went out to try to find something to buy - even though my timing was lousy and missed lunch!
I got hassled a LOT more without Jamie by my side. every shop keeper and stall owner said something to me 'ma'am - shirt?watch?DVD?food? ' and some growling noises to finish it all off! hehe. but the best thing that's happened today is that we were approached by a man looking for extras for a bollywood film, and so tomorrow we get to go on a set and -hopefully - boogey with the stars! i'm really looking forward to it!
mona
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Anu
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Yay! Good luck in the Bollywood auditions...who knows, you might end up their next big screen star! I'm feeling somewhat better, thanks for the email. :) Did you buy a sari yet?? -big sis