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Published: October 18th 2006
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Gateway of India
The good old gateway, a meeting place of confidence for many a tourist. Hi all,
The relaxation of Goa is just a distant memory of the past and since then I have covered some serious ground on the wonderful train network here and currently reside in Upaipar, Rajasthan district after having crossed through Maharashtra and a brief stop in Gujurat.
The daytime train journey from Goa to Mumbai was a pleasure. I was in first AC sleeper which is extremely comfortable and has quite literally non stop room service, with chai, lollipop chicken, samosa sellers just traipsing up and down the train for the whole 12 hour journey. You cannot just admire their regularity and enthusiasm.An unforgettable experience.
Entering into Mumbai was nice, and despite numerous horror stories and warnings about Mumbai, I had absolutely no bother whatsoever there and can only recommend the city as a great place to visit in India. The train station in Mumabi which was built by the British and is inspirational gothic architecture as is the Post office and many other buildings around Mumbai. The great thing about India and historic buildings in India is they just do not refurbish them so most all original features/finishes are retained no matter what condition
Semi Sleeper to Mumbai
The train ride to Mumbai where i look semi sleep. they are in. Trip over an old broken marble piece of floor and its, well just tough luck. It is great and best of all all Original and just lovely.!!!
In Mumbai, i visited many places including Ghandi's residency, Gateway of India and Elephante Caves to name a few. Unlike any other centre in India, Mumbai central is very clean and sophisticated. It is though a city of 20 million people of which 2/3rds live in slums so you can imagine what it is really like if you walk off any nice clean side street into a slum area. A friend and I went for a late night drink in a bar in the downtown city and in our taxi home at 3.00am through a slum area on a Tuesday night you would have throught that you were driving through Brent X on a Saturday morning during the sales, the amount of life and people buzzing about was unreal. I dont care what anyone says, there is only one country in the world where the city never sleeps and that is India.
From Mumbai, I headed to Arungabad where I stayed for 2 nights. This is a stop
Train Ride Scenery
And yes, there is absolutely nothing apart from your common sense which stops you walking off a train travelling at 60mph! point from where you visit the Ajanta/Ellora caves which is a world heritage site. The town was horrible and I would recommend that no one ever visit this place however the caves were lovely. A interesting but certainly not funny story is that once the caves where discovered in 1819 by a group of British Army offices , a British Captain in 1844 was commissioned to copy all of the caves paintings for future reference/restoration. He spent 27 years living in a small camp outside the caves and nearly completed his work after 20 years of work which were displayed in Crystal Palace, London. In 1866, Crystal Palace caught fire and all but a few of his paintings where destroyed. After this, he spent a further 5 years copying the work before giving up and then dyeing from ill health...poor bugger.
After the caves, i continued to Jalageon where i caught my day train to Ahmadabad and from there a brief stop of a few hours before i caught my next train overnight to Udupair. On these journeys,
Washing Laundry Kids Say Hi to England
In Mumbai, they have a place called washing laundry where much of the cities washing is done for the hotels. Next door they have a school for these peoples children. They are smiling cos I just got them lots of chocolate. i went non air con sleeper. Another whole different experience. Along with the samosa and chai sellers, we had everything possible entering the train each time it stopped in an attempt to get a few rupies, blind old man singers, kids performing tricks and sales of almost anything you can imagine possible. The night jounrey was a little more relaxed thankfully and we spent it with a group of travelling Harry Krishnas who luckily did not start singing their songs until daylight in the morning. The sleeper train has lay down beds like within the A/C sleeper, but does not have windows and just bars in front which is a much nicer way to travel through the Indian outdoors.
Udaipur is a very lovely city based around a lake which was until recently dry for 10 years due to lack of rainfall. It is where they shot many scenes of Octopussy, hence why they show it in each and every hotel every day. The problem with this however is that every restaurant/hotel wants to overlook the lake, so they all build higher than the next and all boast of having the highest view etc so it is quite difficult
Ghandis Residency
Me at Ghandis former residency in Mumbai. Now a museum and place of immense study for loads and loads of very hardworking Indian students. to make an informed choice of where to eat/get a drink etc without walking up 5 or 6 flights of stairs to the "highest rooftop restaurant in Udaipur".
After Udaipur, I shall be seeing a few more places in Rajasthan which is without question the most touristy area that I have visited in India and from there I shall be crossing through Central India and heading to the Andaman Islands where I plan to spend a week before heading to Delhi via Varanassi.
I will update my blog shortly with these stories and hopefully some lovely photos from the Andaman Islands.
Hope that you are all looking after yourselves, Best Wishes as always AC.
ps: The highlight of India for me so far and something that I can recommend to anyone is the Trains here. It is better than i ever thought it would be and if anyone fancies a little adventure of a trip, I would recommend nothing more than travelling through India on the trains. A pleasure and so much fun and each train ride is a different experience amd you can get anywhere you want on the trains.
pps. Dont know who
Prawn Madness
Have you ever wondered who peels your millions upon millions of prawns. I am going to upset but I am sorry if i do anyone but South Indian food rules!
ppps . people so far, my favourite has got to be those from Tamil Nadu.
pppps, favourite districts in order, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Goa.
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André
non-member comment
back in germany
Hi Andreas, Gerrit and i now 1 and half week back in germany. I´m happy that you enjoy your yourney. For me the trains was a highlight from india too. My next yourney must be longer like yours. four weeks are not really enough. And i don´t forget the little trip to London... :)