Jodhpur Delhi Train - November 27th

This is our last full day in India (although tomorrow will be all but 20 minutes in India).  We are getting the train back to Delhi at 20:00 but before that we still have some time to spare in Jodhpur.  I had wanted to go to the Umaid Bahwan palace, the last of the Rajasthani palaces built just before Indian independence (and therefore opulent on a twentieth century scale) but apparently most of it is either a hotel that has a cover charge to enter, or the current Maharaja’s living quarters.

However I got outvoted by Dorota who wanted to go on a trip around some rural villages to the south.  This trip takes us to the Bishnoi, a small group of villages that are regarded as ultra-ecologists.  Not only do the not kill animals, they don’t cut down trees.  In fact 363 of them lost their lives 302 years ago defending a grove of trees from the woodcutters sent to get wood for the fort’s construction.  Naturally we go to see the monument marking this sacrifice.  As this is an area where animals thrive, we also get to do a little safari, and see some birds and antelope.

After that we visit a number of villages where we see different traditional crafts, milling flour, pottery, carpet weaving, being performed.  Due to our stomachs’ weakened condition we forgo the locally cooked lunch, however we are feeling better so after when we get back into town we go back to the market to the Omelette man, a world famous street food vendor who only sells very good omelette sandwiches.

The rest of the evening is spent in our hotel catching up on sorting out our photos and getting up to date with our blogs.  After dinner, where we venture back onto Indian food for the first time in 3 days, we go to the train station to board our train to Delhi.  Unlike the one from Mumbai to Goa our tourist status doesn’t see us in with other tourists (we couldn’t see any on the platform) but in with the military.  We are sharing a compartment with a man from the Air Force and the wife of an Army Captain and her 6 month old son.  He is actually a very calm child, so sleep actually is easy to achieve once we are on the move. 

Jodhpur - November 26th

The main sight in Jodhpur is hard to miss; it is the massive Mehrangarh fort on a hill which dominates all views, especially the one from our hotel, which is right underneath it.  So much so that when we leave the hotel after breakfast to go up to the fort, we find ourselves in it about 3 minutes later.  Our hotel is very conveniently located for sightseeing.

The fort itself is spectacular, more for its physical setting than its interiors, which although good, are not that different from those we have seen before in Jaipur and Udaipur.  However the forts location is amazing.  Just as it can be seen from all over town, so it gives views across the town.  What is most impressive is the way the walls rise out of sheer cliffs to make an impenetrable fortress.  The stone used in the walls was chopped away from the slopes below to make the cliffs.  The tour around the fort is quite good, as the audio tour is included in the price so you get a lot of historical background and hear from the Maharaja himself. 

The tour goes through most of the main parts of the structure, some of which also double as a museum.  The museum shop at the end of the tour is surprisingly well stocked, most of the time they haven’t been that great.  After the tour you can still walk on a portion of the ramparts and look down on the city, although the views from some of the windows in the buildings were actually better.  As well as the fort there is a temple (where unfortunately 241 people were killed in a stampede at a festival in 2008) and a cenotaph where a number of previous Maharajas are buried, o it take a large part of the day to explore it all.

As evening falls we descend the other side of the fort into the main part of the town, the market around the clock tower.  This is the usual chaos we have come to expect from markets, and in fact is so bad that we retreat into a coffee house for a drink, and then we decide to forgo eating out and watching sunset from a rooftop restaurant on this side of town, for the same experience in our own restaurant which is in a relatively calm spot.

Jodhpur - November 25th

Despite our bad experience with the bus to Udaipur we are taking a bus out of Udaipur as well.  This is not because we couldn’t book a train, but because no train goes from Udaipur to our next destination, Jodhpur.  However this time getting to the bus proved to be easier, because we organised the ticket through our hotel, so they knew exactly where to drop us.  Unlike our other bus there were also a few other tourists waiting when we arrived which made us feel a lot better.

The departure itself was actually quite punctual, we pulled off at 07:30 on the dot.  However there were the usual stops to pick up people as we left the city, but still it wasn’t that full as we left Udaipur.  The first 2 hours of the journey were back up the same road we had come down the previous trip, but in the daylight we seemed to make a lot better time than we previously had.  However we had to turn off the main road to cut across country to another main road, and that is when the road ran out.  It was pretty bumpy, although not the worst bus journey I’ve ever had.  This section, although maybe only 60-70km took almost 2 ½ hours.  Finally we reached the other main road, and again proceeded at a decent pace, except now I was suffering from another occurrence of Delhi belly and I was counting down the kilometres to Jodhpur.  Amazingly this bus arrived dead on time at 14:00 in Jodhpur.

When we go to Jodhpur we were treated to the sight of the tuk-tuk drivers actually fighting over who gets to pick up the tourists from the bus.  It was a bit scary, but then out of the blue appears a guy with Dorota’s name on the back of a business card from the hotel we had booked.  They had sent a tuk-tuk driver to pick us up, and I don’t think we were ever so grateful.

Between the drive, and the lack of sleep due to our illnesses last night, we were so tired we just crashed in the hotel when we arrived.  We even stayed in for dinner that evening, although it has to be said that alone was doing one of the things to do in Jodhpur, looking up at the fort from a hotel rooftop restaurant.

Udaipur - November 24th

I am still feeling the effects of the Delhi Belly this morning, but it appears to be receding.  After a plain breakfast of omelette and toast we return to the city palace to do some more sightseeing.  However on the way we stop for a Diet Coke and coffee at a nice coffee shop, and we get talking to an English lady who has lived here for 22 years.  We learn 3 things, first the electricity outage will be from 11:00 until 14:00 today, second there was a riot in the centre of town two days previously (right where we had been doing some shopping earlier) and third, where to get the best thalis in town.

Incorporating this last piece of information into our plans we walk through the city palace grounds (being carefully stewarded by attendants around the luxury hotels – we are riff raff in comparison) to see the Maharaja’s classic car collection.  It does take a bit of finding, the walk is not well signposted, but as we know most tourists either get a tuk-tuk here or are chauffeured in their private jeeps/buses.  The collection itself is not brilliant, but it does have a few classics, including one that was used in Octopussy.

After this we go to the restaurant for the thali.  A thali is basically an Indian all you can eat with many different dishes.  This one is very good, but as we are in a place only Indians usually venture, it is also very hot.  Still we eat a fair amount, and it is very good value.

However almost immediately we get back to our hotel we begin to feel the effects of the thali.  While it may be good for the locals and 22 year expats, for us it is a bit too much, and so we are confined to bed again.  In total we have spent a high proportion of our time in Udaipur in bed (or on the toilet) but to be honest after the previous week and a half of travel and sightseeing, having a few days rest is not necessarily a bad thing.

Udaipur - November 23rd

Today for the first time we have had the appearance of the dreaded Delhi belly.  Dorota has actually had a cold for a couple of days due mostly to the change to the dry climate of Rajasthan, but today I have definitely come down with Delhi belly.  The day started normally enough, with breakfast in our restaurant terrace, but it wasn’t too long before the stomach cramps appeared (and all ensuing consequences, I will leave out the gory details).

Nonetheless I still felt well enough to continue with our plan which was to go for a quick walk to the second lake in Udaipur, which is one that not many tourists get to.  It turns out that the map we have isn’t to scale, and so it is further than it looks.  Also not helping is the fact that any locals we ask don’t seem to know where it is even though it is a giant lake about 5 minutes away from where they are standing.  Still we get there, look around, and leave somewhat unimpressed.  Our real reason for this walk is that we are waiting for the electricity to come back on in Udaipur, it is off from 08:00 to 11:00 each morning due to power generation supply issues, so we can use the internet (to finalise our Vietnam trip details).

In the afternoon we pay a visit to the City Palace museum, another of the many palaces we are visiting this week.  This one is slightly better organised with a one way system and plenty of stewards, as the local Maharaja himself still runs the whole complex.  It is a bit feudal, although no more so than a stately home in England, but it works and is worth the money (even the camera charge).  However I begin to fell unwell again as we finish, so we don’t go to see sunset from the palace grounds.

After I sleep a little we go for the highlight of an Udaipur visit, the Octopussy film show.  Most restaurants will play this every night, because it is the film that put Udaipur on the map.  90% of the film’s Indian scenes were filmed here, and so everybody who comes here has to watch it, whether you’ve never seen it (like Dorota) or have many times (like me), as there are extra things to notice now you’ve seen the sights yourself.

Udaipur - November 22nd

Because of our late arrival last night we sleep on a bit today and also have a late start.  Even at that late hour last night I think we were able to appreciate the view we had of the lake, but only in the daylight can we really see what a view we have.  Udaipur is built around a man-made lake and has two islands in it with palaces (now hotels).  From our hotel room we have a view of both these islands, and the much bigger city palace (also partially hotels) which stretches along the opposite side of the lake.  We really are in our friend Karl Pilkington’s territory, the view from our cheap room of their hotels has to be better than the view of our cheap hotel from their rooms.

After breakfast we go for an explore of Udaipur.  In truth it doesn’t take too long, because unlike other cities we have visited the tourist area is actually quite compact, with all the main sights and the touristy shops, restaurants and hotels all within 10 minutes’ walk of each other.   By lunchtime we have covered most of the main streets, and we go for a lunch in a little local place overlooking the footbridge that joins the two sides of the lake.

After that we are still taking the afternoon easy.  Our room is set up to make it easy to just sit and read or look out at the passing traffic over the footbridge (which does consist of a lot of cows).  In order to get a good view of sunset we go for the Lonely Planet’s recommended rooftop restaurant overlooking the lake.  This is beautiful, but expensive, my Kingfisher beer costs almost the same as back in London.

Our evening finishes with some Rajasthani folklore dancing.  Those who know me will know I normally avoid these shows like the plague, but after getting out of some in the Balkans, I have to give in this time.  It was a bit strange, a lot of women dancing around with things balanced on their heads, as the dances are all based on household chores.  Unfortunately I found this to be a bit reflective of some of the sexism I have noticed during our trip.  Even the puppetry had the female characters portrayed in a pretty bad light.

Udaipur - November 21st

Today we are getting a bus to Udaipur, which is an eight hour journey away.   Originally we were supposed to be getting a train, but in all the hassle at Delhi station this was the one train we couldn’t get a reservation for.  So instead we are getting a private bus.  Private busses are supposed to be faster and more comfortable than state busses, but they do have reliability issues.

The timing of our trip is supposed to be the bus leaving at 13:30 and arriving in Udaipur at 22:00, giving us a leisurely morning to pack and do some more internet.  The place from where the bus is leaving is a bit out of the way, vaguely described as opposite Sun and Moon tower, but the drop off organised by our hotel finds it, and there is a bus from our bus company there.  However there is no driver.  This is at 13:00, so by 13:15 we decide to call the company to find out what’s happening.  This is where they then tell us that we should go to opposite some cinema for the pick-up.

So now we are in a frantic rickshaw dash to get our bus.  We get to the place they told us to go to only to find no bus.  After another phone call, and some helpful intervention from a passer-by (as we could no longer understand the guy on the other end of the phone) we end up back in another rickshaw, and back almost where we started.  We were probably only 300m away the first time, but we had travelled about 5km around the city before getting there.  Even though it was now 13:55 there was no chance of the bus leaving without us, it doesn’t more until 14:10 and then with many more stops we aren’t really on our way until close to 15:00.

All this wouldn’t have been too bad if it wasn’t for the discovery just after we start moving, that during all the rushing about in rickshaws, my sunglasses have fallen out of my bag, and are gone.  So this has turned out to be a very expensive journey.  The journey itself is OK, but slow, so that we are not in Udaipur until midnight.  But our hotel is very nice and have waited up for us so we just go straight to bed.

Jaipur - November 20th

After seeing 7 UNESCO world heritage sites in 5 days, we decide to rest a little.  And indulge in a little shopping therapy (mostly for Dorota).  So we get a tuk-tuk down to a shop recommended by Lonely Planet which has no haggling.  We’re sick of it, not because of the haggling, but because there is no concept that sometimes we just don’t want anything.  Dorota is used to looking at things, deciding if she likes them, and walking away.  They don’t let you walk away here, which means we no longer look in the first place.

After visiting this shop, its associated café and bookshop, we walk back to our hotel and wait for an arranged pickup by auto-rickshaw for a trip out to Amber Palace.  This is another fort located on top of a hill to the North of Jaipur.  Our driver is supposedly knowledgeable about the area, although we get warned about him by our hotel owner (which is weird, as he was sent by the hotel to pick us up yesterday).  However he offers no guidance at all and leaves us to explore the palace on our own, which suits us.

The palace itself it nice, although we are getting tired of palaces by now.  After this we want to go to see the sunset over the city from Narangarh fort.  Again perched on top of a hill this fort overlooks the whole town.  So you would think it would be easy to find.  Not so for our ‘knowledgeable’ guide who gets lost and asks for directions.  The delay means we have to run up the hill to try to get sunset, which we miss.  Still our bad luck is good luck for some tourists who have been stranded up there and can’t navigate their way back, so we lead them down.

We forestall the inevitable attempt to bring us to some shop at which he will get commission by telling him we have reservations for dinner at a nice restaurant.  We don’t, but we have unfortunately had to learn to lie and be rude to the Indians, as they lie and are rude to us (and each other).  Luckily the restaurant is empty when we get there, however the driver hangs around for a while outside in case we come out.  We wait him out and walk home but it is an annoying end to the day.

Jaipur - November 19th

Today we had our earliest start yet, for a train at 05:10.  However other than this the train in unremarkable, and it gets to Jaipur at 09:15.  This is good as it will give us a full day to see the city, but our free collection from the station is delayed by an hour (due to some other tourist claiming it for themselves) and we are subjected to a barrage of taxi drivers offering their services.

After eventually checking in and relaxing a little, we start out to explore the town.  At first it looks the usual chaos that we have come to expect, especially as we visit the bus station to try (and fail) to sort out our final transport tickets.  We get a rickshaw to the entrance to the old city, the Ajmer Gate, thinking inside will be narrow streets with bazaars and historic buildings, but instead once inside the old walls it is just more wide roads lined with shops.  The guide books rave on about the bazaars of Jaipur, but to me it’s not the market I was expecting.  It has to be said that my first impressions of Jaipur were not great.

After lunch in a very nice hotel, we continue where we see the Hawa Majal, the Wind Palace, which is a very unusual single palace that was built to allow the women of the court to look out on the street life below.  It also gives us some great views over the city.  Then we go to Jaipur’s UNESCO listed Jantar Mantar, which is a set of massive astronomical instruments built by the king who founded the town.  And after that it is onto the city palace to see how the Maharaja lived, although as a more modern palace, and one still in use until the present day, it is not quite as impressive as the older ones we have seen.

After that we have dinner in a local restaurant, and then we walk back to our hotel, discovering in the process that it is not quite where it is supposed to be according to the Lonely Planet map.  The walk is slightly longer than expected, but not unpleasant, as the other thing we have noticed is that Jaipur is noticeably politer than Delhi or Agra.

Agra - November 18th

Today we actually get up early because we want to keep our body clocks conditioned from the early start yesterday, as we have an even earlier start tomorrow.  We have breakfast in our hotel’s lovely courtyard (again I will stress it is amazing the space we have so close to the Taj Mahal).  Today we are going to Fathepur Sikri, an old former capital of India. When we leave our hotel, to our surprise all the vendors, and most of the rickshaws, are not there.  The Taj Mahal is closed on a Friday, as it is a working Mosque, and obviously all the people who hang around trying to get money out of tourists don’t bother.

We have decided to brave the local bus to Fatpheur Sikri.  This could have been disastrous, but when we get to the bus station there is a bus, not very full, pulling out, so we have absolutely no waiting time.  When we arrive in Fathepur Sikri we walk through the bazaar for a bit, which is as chaotic as anything we have seen, and then we ascend up to the great mosque that overlooks the town and is an entrance to the main site.  Our enjoyment of the mosque is curtailed by a tout hassling us, so we get into the safety of the paid-in site as quick as we can.

As with the other sites we have been to, this is essentially a set of palaces for a king, and his various queens, that are linked together.  It is a lot of sandstone and intricate carvings.  The Emperor, Akbar (who I always thought was an Admiral), was supposedly the most enlightened of his time, having three wives, Muslim, Hindu and Christian, yet we still see where his elephant executions occurred.

We finish with lunch in another rooftop restaurant, and then get the bus back, again proving uneventful, and showing the lies of the taxis drivers who tell the tourists it takes ages, breaks down etc. When we get back we enjoy a peaceful, hassle free walk among all the closed shops, and we stumble upon hotel with a band playing outside, which we learn is preparation for a groom riding off to his wedding.  After that it is back to our hotel for dinner, sorting the beautiful Taj photographs, and early to bed for an early start.

I apologise for the small Star Wars joke in this blog.

Agra - November 17th

We leave Delhi by train at the ungodly hour of 06.15.  Because New Delhi station is so big we wanted give ourselves time to get there, but in fact as the train to Agra is one of the show-case trains for Indian Railways (with all the tourists on it) it goes from Platform 1.  So we actually end up waiting a bit longer than we needed to.  It was worth it, as the train journey is very good, fast at only 2 hours for 200 Km, and not only do we get a free breakfast, and free water, we get biscuits and sweets as well.  For a 2 hour journey.  Nothing like it in the UK.  The only part of the journey which is not pleasant is leaving the station at Agra where the taxi drivers crowd you, even though it is a prepaid booth.

We can’t get a taxi all the way to our hotel.  This is for a good reason, it is in the no car zone surrounding the Taj Mahal.  It is literally 50 metres away from the entrance gate.  Yet it only costs £5 per head.  What is more, it has a beautiful courtyard restaurant that is away from all the noise.  OK you can’t see the Taj Mahal from the courtyard, but it is so peaceful you don’t mind.  Checking into our hotel takes a while because of our early start, in fact we have to wait almost 1½ hours, so I have time to walk the 1km and back to the ticket office (which is back at the car park where the buses pull in).  Eventually at about 11:00 we set off for the highlight of the whole India trip, the Taj Mahal.

There really isn’t much I can say about the Taj Mahal that hasn’t been said already.  Quite simply it is the most beautiful building I have ever seen.  The entrance gate to the complex itself is pretty impressive, and we have seen some good gates already in Delhi, but the real sight is what lies behind.  The gardens are magnificent, and the whole thing is very symmetrical, with a mosque on one side, and an ‘anti mosque’ on the other side (a mosque facing the wrong way, just for symmetry).  The main building itself is actually white, unlike say the Sydney Opera House, so some care is being taken to ensure pollution isn’t dirtying it.  The only problem was the crowds, but what do you expect when you are at one of the Wonders of the World.  I’m going to leave the rest of the talking to my photos.

After the Taj Mahal we walk back to our hotel.  I can’t stress how close our hotel is, it took one minute.  It is still time to be hassled by some street traders, but it could be worse.  After lunch we go to Agra Fort.  This is another UNESCO world heritage site, and in any other city would be an impressive thing to visit, but it plays second fiddle here.  Still it actually takes longer to go around than the Taj Mahal because of its sheer size.  Again like the Red Fort in Delhi, it is a series of palaces within a fort, but I think I preferred this one.  The linking of the different palaces is pretty good, the different style palaces sort of blend into each other, so you are never sure when you have moved from one to the other.

We finish the day in a rooftop restaurant overlooking the Taj Mahal, for a very good meal with a great view as the sun goes down.

(Like with Aya Sofia this is longer than normal, but it is the Taj Mahal).

Delhi - November 16th

At least today we can do some sightseeing without having to organise travel.  However we first tell the hotel reception we have booked our own travel, which results in them being distinctly frosty towards us.  Our first call (getting there by metro) is the Red Fort, the massive sandstone edifice in Old Delhi, which was built almost 400 years ago, and inside it houses a number of palaces.  The entrance gate is quite spectacular, but inside is not as impressive as I thought it might be.  Still it takes a couple of hours to wander and see everything.

After that we walk/cycle rickshaw through Old Delhi, paying a visit to the Jama Masjid, a massive Mosque capable of holding 25,000 worshipers.  Old Delhi itself is a maze of bazaars of various types; strangely our walk takes us down stationery road, where all the shops appear to sell various types of paper and cards.  We even buy some nice cookies from a street vendor before getting on the metro again.

We lunch in a place called Khan Market, which turns out to be a trendy hangout for expats, and therefore expensive.  After that we go to Ghandi Smirti, a museum dedicated to the great man’s life at the spot where he was killed.  It was quite moving, although the multimedia exhibits seemed a bit childish given the sombre nature of the site.  It also gives Dorota inspiration for the put down for our auto-rickshaw drivers who want to take us shopping, Ghandi didn’t need any goods, so why would we (although we did pick up a few things in Khan Market).

Our final tourist spot is Humayun’s Tomb, a great mausoleum which is said to be the basis for the Taj Mahal.  However this tomb is marble and sandstone, and the contrast of the white and red looks particularly good at sunset.  I think overall we have been lucky with the times we have visited the various sites around Delhi.  However we still are getting the various problems with the photos (taking them, obstructions and so on).  We finish our day back at the main bazaar in Pharangi, the backpacker area.  It is chaos as usual, but we find a little calm for a good vegetarian meal in a restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet.

Delhi - November 15th

Today we saw the good and the bad of India.

The bad came first.  We decided to go the New Delhi station to book all our train tickets.  However on getting there we run into the touts and we get the run around as all sorts of lies are told to us in order to get us to go to fake tour shops.  Our hotel gave us the hard sell, but at least they didn’t lie to us.  No matter where we went there was someone looking to scam us, either for tours, or the rickshaw guys trying to take us shopping.  Getting past these guys into the train station is a challenge, so we eventually get the idea of getting the metro into the station, and finding our way from the inside.  It’s longer, but we make it and book most of our tickets (one of our trains is booked out, so it will have to be a bus).

The metro is part of the good of India, it works really well and wasn’t too crowded, although there still is some pushing at the doors.  The security checks getting on do make it a bit of a drag at crowded stations, but it only really affected us once.  We get the metro South to the Qutab Minar complex on the outskirts.  This is a pretty cool old city, built around a tower which is quite good.  But the best thing is that we are not being hassled once inside (by the way we used a rickshaw to get there from the metro, we do like using them – when we want to, not at the behest of some guy). 

We spend a couple of hours looking around the complex, which surprises us as it is a lot more than just the tower as we thought, again its good India.  However we note that the local tourists, who outnumber the western tourists, are spending their time trying to surreptitiously take photos of us.  I have to say it dampened our enjoyment of what would have been an incredible Indian sight.  The rudeness of the Indians also manifests itself in their inability to queue, and their inconsiderate nature when they deliberately stand in front of you taking a photo (yet they chastise you if you wander into theirs accidentally).  I have to say this is the bad part of India, the people.

Delhi - November 14th

Today we leave Goa for Delhi.  We have cheated slightly by booking ourselves a flight from Goa airport instead of our original plan, taking a train.  The main reason for this is that it gives us an extra day on the beach (the flight is 2½ hours instead of 26 hours on the train), and thanks to low cost airlines it only costs us about £25 more each.

The relatively late departure time of 15:00 allows us a leisurely checkout, or so we think until the credit card reader at our hotel breaks down and we have to dash to an ATM to get enough cash.  This involves a trip to Madrem village, which we discover is actually bigger than what we found, apparently us explorers never bothered to see what is around the next corner.  As we are getting a taxi it doesn’t leave us under time pressure.

Goa airport is small but pretty calm (compared to train stations) and has a fair number of flights to Delhi.  Luckily we booked Indigo, not Kingfisher, who suddenly are in financial difficulties and are cancelling flights.  The flight is very good and punctual, but there is one major annoyance, the men using their phones, even during take-off.  We were both uneasy with this, but the stewardesses seem to be too cowed to chastise the men on the plane.  There are no male staff (the advert in the inflight magazine looking for staff is only looking for women cabin crew), and our suspicions are deepened by the fact that they tell Dorota to shut her Kindle at landing time while leaving the guy beside us listening to music on his phone, and one behind playing his music out loud.

After landing we get picked up by our hotel, except their car broke down so we get met by one of their staff and have to get a taxi back.  This taxi looks as old as I am and the engine cuts out about 25 times in an journey of less than one hour.  It’s quite annoying to us, and to the hotel guide.  When we get to our hotel we are assaulted by a barrage of neon signs, and realise that we are not in quiet India anymore.  Our hotel is fine, except for the hard sell they try to do on us to take their organised trips, but we resist.

Mandrem - November 13th

Sleep, eat, beach, eat, beach, eat, sleep.

It is (to me anyway) getting a bit boring.  Our little quiet resort was a bit busier today as the Sunday crowds turned up again.  But overall it was still a relaxing last day on the beach in India.

I should also mention it was Dorota’s last chat with her new friend, a French former actress (who was relatively famous - but I’ll leave her anonymous for the blog) who is a longer term resident of our beach.  She has been really interesting to chat to.

Mandrem - November 12th

Sleep, eat, beach, eat, beach, eat, sleep.

Other than that all we did was use the internet as it finally got working in the resort.  So there was a lot of blogging, photo uploading, and I of course read about the Irish win in Estonia, which now means this trip may have to continue until next June.

Mandrem - November 11th

Sleep, eat, beach, eat, beach, eat, sleep.

This time it really was pretty much just that. 

We didn’t even get time to reflect on the special 11/11/11 day that it was.  Mostly because we didn’t realise the rest of the world thought it was anything special.

Mandrem - November 10th

Sleep, eat, beach, eat, beach, eat, sleep.

Ok, it wasn’t that simple, we did try to explore Mandrem during daylight after not finding much in our exploration last night.  But we didn’t find that much in the day either.

So really that is all there is to say about today.

Mandrem - November 9th

We get up early to avoid the rush on the buses, but it seems 8.30 is too early for this Portuguese town, as the shops aren’t open, and the buses are still running infrequently.  Still our bus to Mapusa, and then to Arambol is a lot better than yesterday’s journey, although the only bus route there is a bit of a circuitous route so takes a bit longer than it could have (it is also extremely hot if we are not moving – so when we stop for a 10 minute tea break for the driver it is not pleasant – otherwise it was fine).  We are heading for Mandrem, a less developed beach in North Goa, to chill out even more.

Mandrem is only 2km from Arambol, another more developed beach like Palolem, but because there is no bus going there the tuk-tuk drivers have you over a barrel and we get shafted on the fare.  Also he may have dropped us at a place he gets kickbacks from, but we don’t care.  The place we are in has even better huts than we had the last time for only a little more than we were paying.  And it is a full resort with all the facilities you need.   We could stay here all the time and never leave, but of course we are explorers.

But not for today, once we check in, its back to the usual combination of beach, eat, lie on loungers, drink Mango Lassi, back to the water, read, and then in the evening get ready for dinner.  We go for a quick pre dinner explore of the village, but finding a lot less than in Palolem, this doesn’t take as long.  That’s not to say that there isn’t everything that you would need here, there is just a lot less.

This makes Mandrem more to Dorota’s liking, but I think it may be too quiet for me.  I think the next few days blog’s will be of the sleep, eat, beach, eat, beach, eat, sleep variety.

Panaji - November 8th

The 9.30 bus from Palolem to Margao is an experience I think you should only have once in your life.  Luckily we get on at the start, so we get a seat, actually right at the front of the bus.  But the bus fills up quickly, and once we start is standing room only.  There are only supposed to be 11 standing, but there are 11 standing in front of us, and we are in the front seat.  I think there were 40 people standing on this bus, it was very uncomfortable and claustrophobic.  We eventually get to Margao, where we switch to a bus to Panaji, the state capital of Goa.  This is a much more civilised affair, as it is a shuttle bus direct from one bus station to another.

After checking into a slightly dilapidated old colonial hotel in Panaji, we go to Old Goa, the former state capital, only 10km away.  At one stage this was bigger than London or Lisbon, but now it is only a dozen or so old churches and some tourist restaurants.  But the churches are spectacular.  We start in the Basilica of Bom Jesus, where the remains of St Francis Xavier are on show, then to Se Cathedral, the largest church in Asia, and finally to the St Francis of Assisi church.  These three massive churches are all within a hundred metres of each other, but because the town is now empty, unusually there are no other structures, just a nice park around them meaning there are great views of each church from the others.

After that and a museum to cool off, we go back to Panaji early to avoid the bus being packed.  This is not a 100% success though, as we have to stand all the way back, and it is a pretty twisty road.

In the evening we walk around the town of Panaji, which given its Portuguese past, does have a more European feel than any of the other places we have been to in India.  We look at some shops before going for a treat to a relatively expensive restaurant on the main square, where we have yet more great Goan speciality dishes.  The great thing is even though they are spicy hot they don’t seem to leave any aftertaste when you are finished.  I still haven’t braved the Vindaloo though.

Palolem - November 7th

Well today is going to read a lot like yesterday, wake up, find breakfast, go to the beach, retreat into the shade of a beach front restaurant, order lunch, go back to the beach when it cools, go back to the hut and change for dinner, eat dinner on the beach.

The only difference today is that instead of walking all the way to Patnem, we decided to stay in Palolem.  Actually we were lazier than that; we decided to stay in our own restaurant, the one attached to the beach huts we are staying in, both for lunch and dinner.  So our total walking today isn’t that much, really just up and down to the water from the sun lounger.

And really there isn’t really much else to blog about for today.

Palolem - November 6th

Our first full beach day sees us wake up late again.  I think it is fair to say that the sleep last night was not as expected.  The noise of the waves which we thought we would hear was drowned out by the noise of the fan in the hut which sounded like a plane taking off.  It cooled us down, but the breeze was annoying and woke me many times in the night.

We have our first western style breakfast for a while in a slightly expensive café, and then we being our walk to a beach called Patnem which is about 2km south of our beach.  Of course as we are almost 1½ km up our beach it means we walk a good bit further.  When we get to the beach we find there are more cows on the beach than people.  It’s not that there are many cows, probably only a dozen or so, similar to Palolem beach, but there are so few people on the beach.

We begin sea and sun-bathing, but given we set out so late, it is now actually quite hot, and you can’t really lie in the sun for too long.  So eventually we have to retreat to one of the beach restaurants overlooking the beach.  These all have sun loungers and shade, and as long as you buy a drink or two from them they are happy to let you use them.  Of course the trap is you get lazy and end up ordering lunch from them as well.

At the end of the day we walk back to our beach and discover to our shock that it is even more packed (and dirty) due to the Sunday local day trippers who have descended en masse to it.  Still once the sun goes down they disappear and so we can walk up the beach to have a nice Goan fish dinner sitting on the beach in front of one of the restaurants with the waves breaking only a few feet away from us.

Palolem - November 5th

Today we finally go to the beach.  But first as Margao is a market town, we stock up on a few supplies and have some Goan snacks.  Thanks to the Portuguese influence, the bakery here serves very good breakfast snacks.  Then we have to get the bus to the beach.  This is an interesting experience as the way to find the bus you want is stand at the bus stop and listen to the conductor shout the name of the stops as the bus pulls in.  The accents make this very difficult, and asking locals gets us the wrong answer at least twice (we get told busses are going to Palolem when the conductor tells us they aren’t – we learn waiting for the conductor to finish his spiel and then asking him, gets us answers).

Eventually we get the bus and get to Palolem in an hour, which is just as well because the heat would have made it difficult to last much longer.  When we get off the bus we are approached by a guy renting out beach huts.  Having been successful with this in the past we go with him, and the hut is pretty much as expected, just off the beach (you pay double to be on the beach) and with very basic facilities (no electricity, but it’s the whole town that is off at the moment).  We take it, as the price seems about as good as we have been told we can get here.  We aren’t put off by the pig running by, the cows have immunised us to roving farm animals.

Once checked in (like booking train tickets, checking into a hotel is not something that gets done quickly here) we explore the beach,  it is quite long, about 2km, and I’d say we are about 1/3 of the way down (from North to South, and the town to check out the facilities, which has everything you need in a beach town (except an ATM but we knew that so have enough cash).  We also see the electricity people attempting to fix the supply.

We spend the rest of the day on the beach, going for a swim, and in the evening after dark, walking the beach to find the best looking restaurant.  We settle on a place called Ciaran’s, alas not an Irish bar, where we eat really good freshly caught fish dishes.

Margao - November 4th

It is an early start this morning for the train to Goa.  We are awake at 04:30 to check out at 05:20, to be in CST for 06:00 to get the 06:55 train.  CST is as busy as ever, even at this early hour, but unlike with the commuter trains, finding our long distance train, and our seats, is actually quite easy.  The names of all the passengers and their seat numbers is printed out and pasted to the side of each carriage.  Not only is this a long distance train, it is a long train, with 24 carriages.  A bit more than our last train.

Our bearth is quite good, there is more space than on the Istanbul train, and unlike that train there is a buffet car.  Not that you have to get out of your seat, there are guys selling tea, coffee and all sorts of snacks constantly walking up and down the aisle.  As we leave Mumbai and have our breakfast, we meet our compartment companions, two not very talkative German ladies.  We all nap for a couple of hours, and then it is the just seeing out the rest of the journey with a variety of reading, eating, and looking out the window.

We arrive at the northern end of Goa on time at about 17:30, when it is still bright, and our German companions depart for their resort.  But we are planning on going further south, to a resort called Palolem.  However for some reason, the trains, which have been reliable untila  now, suddenly fail us and it takes two hours to get to Margao, the last stop, instead of one.  Because it is now very dark, we decide to stay in a hotel here overnight, before continuing on to the beach in the morning.  We actually arrange all this on the train during one of the stops thanks to the Lonely Planet and our local iPhone.

Staying in Margao looks like a good decision, because as well as a pretty good hotel (it looks dodgy from the outside but the room is as good as in Mumbai for half the price), we also find a really good local restaurant recommended by LP as well, where we have a good meal surrounded by a lot of curious locals wondering how we found this place (it is off the beaten track).

Mumbai - November 3rd

We do manage to get up a bit earlier this morning, although still not as early as planned due to a miss-set phone alarm.  We have worked out a plan to make half our commute easier, Dorota gets one of the women only carriages.  We saw a news item last night in the hotel which showed what a problem it is for women here, two men were killed trying to intervene in a case of sexual harassment on the street.

We arrive at the Gateway of India for our trip to Elephanta island.  It’s a one hour boat journey, although they must only start the clock when the boat finishes dropping off supplies to others in the harbour, as it takes about 10 minutes longer.  The island itself is home to some caves which were used as Hindu temples and have carvings of a number of the various deities in them.  We fend off all the guides offering their services, as it’s not hard to find our way there.  Instead of the steps through a jungle which we were told by the ‘guides’, we have a tunnel of junk sellers to guide us to the gate.

The caves themselves are OK. They are cool, it being quite hot now at the middle of the day, and you can see the carvings were quite intricate at some point.  Unfortunately vandalism, some of it by the Portuguese, has taken its toll, but the main 3 headed Shiva statue is very impressive.  Reading our guidebook and walking around takes a couple of hours, and then we go back towards the boat, stopping off for a mango lassi and some barbequed corn on the cob.

Once back in Mumbai again we walk a few of the other streets that we didn’t walk the previous day back towards the train station.  With CST and Elephanta we get two UNESCO world heritage sites in one day, which isn’t something you get too often.  Despite us just beating rush hour, the train station and our train back is very full, but we get back to our hotel early, popping out for another quick bite to eat, before we prepare to move on to Goa in the morning.

Mumbai - November 2nd

Jet lag must still be hanging around because we wake later than expected this morning.  Our goal is to get into the centre of Mumbai, book our train tickets to Goa for Friday, get a local SIM for Dorota’s iPhone (so one of us is data connected) and take a trip to Elephanta island.  To do this we have to get a local Mumbai commuter train into Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST).  Luckily our hotel is right beside a station, but we just miss a train and have to wait another 25 minutes.  This gives us a chance to see how they operate, and it’s is all a bit worrying.  It’s a lot of hanging out of trains and jumping on and off before while the train is moving.  But luckily our train has space for us slow people to get on.

Getting the ticket to Goa was fairly straightforward, although there was a bit of queuing (queuing in itself is an experience where there are locals, but there is one foreigner only queue in CST).  The SIM is a different issue, as there are no micro SIMs for the iPhone the guy has to cut a regular one down to size (I didn’t even know that was possible).  It takes two attempts, almost an hour, which combined with the CST experience, and our late start, meant we decided to book a trip to Elephanta instead.  This still required us going down to the Gateway of India and Taj Mahal hotel, where the touts are everywhere.  It turns out we can’t book, we just have to get there earlier tomorrow.

We then wander around central Mumbai.  The shopping on the main street in the Colva district was more like what we were expecting the previous day, a mix of shops and stalls.  We had a very good lunch, before looking at some of the architectural gems (according to Lonely Planet) around town.  You can see that some were spectacular, and still are, but there is so much that could be done to make them better.  We also get to sit and watch some locals playing cricket in a park.

We finish the day with an ice cream watching the sunset (about 15 minutes before real sunset because of the smog) before an even more hairy ride back on the train, and a few beers and some nibbles in a local bar.