Hello all,
We have just checked our blogg stats and have noticed a lot of people have looked at our blogg in the last two weeks.We initially thought that it must be really interesting and you were concerned about our welfare,away from home at Christmas and all that business.Then over dinner it came to us that it was more likely to be due to people loafing around a lot more at work as it was nearly Christmas.I will leave it up to you to decide what the increase in blogg stats is due to. Anyway we are definitely not complaining as it makes us feel closer to home hearing from you. We have now had 2639 hits on our blogg,fantastic!
We have had a quiet couple of days since we last blogged.We left Varanasi whipped into a frenzy of excitement over our visit to Puri,one of the top holiday destinations for indians. We were optimistic about our 24 hour train journey and in high spirits as we embarked on our train,triumphant that it was not too late,we were on the right platform and we had the right tickets.
We were stood on the platform waiting for our train when we saw a cow. We took a quick snap and pondered at how the cow had got on the platform as there is no lift and only steep steps.I apologise for what happens next,but this is how we have learnt to enjoy our waiting time together. We dedicate this to Richie Ryan.
We thought the cow was waiting for cattle class.She seemed a bit upset ,so we asked her what her beef was?Apparently she was in pain as she had just pulled her calf muscle and said she was freesian(it gets worse) We asked if it was the right platform for Puri and she said she had never herd of the place,but she thought it was on the udder platform(wey hey).The cow told us that she was starving as she had steaked all her money on red at the casino ,but it had come in black.The last thing she had eaten was a cheese sandwich on the hoof. We tried to milk her for more information but she got a bit bullish and moooooooooooooooved off. As she left we shouted “do you want to come for a beer?” but she said that she was worried she would get slaughtered.( Chris made me put this on ,i think it’s to lower my blogg stats)
Anyway back to the real world,our train pulled up and we found our bunks next to a pleasant looking older couple and settled down for a quick game of scrabble.The trouble began when Chris stamped on something and would not tell me what it was. Happy to be oblivious ,we played on,another stamp came and went.We settled early and Chris dropped off while i read on the lower bunk,being soothed by the simultanious snoring and hacking coughing,phlegm releasing noises of our train carriage buddies.That’s when i saw the next cockroach,then another one,i sat up and moved my pillow to see another one scuttle out from under it. I was a little emotional and jumpy and spent the next 5 hours killing cockroaches while everyone slept around me.Thats when the mice turned up and it all became a frenzy of twitching,jumping and shuddering for me. When Chris woke up he took over “roach duty” and kindly kept an eye on me while i slept to make sure nothing crawled into my mouth.Probably the lowest point of the trip came at the 20th hour a cockroach fell(or jumped) from the bunk above me on to my chest. Awful.
It was not all bad though as we got to wear our glow in the dark ear plugs!
When we arrived at Puri we were pleased to see it was clean and laid back,it looked a bit like Western Super Mare with a long stretch of beach and a promenade with old fashioned lamposts dotted down the coast. After a massive coackroach free sleep we explored the beach, an evening market and soaked up the sight of lots of holiday makers dressed in their finest. We marvelled at the jaunty angle of the big wheel and the unnatural pinkness of the candy floss. Great to stroll around and see how people who live in India enjoy their holidays, the beach is packed and everyone seemed in quite high spirits.
A long walk up the beach the next day was a breath of fresh sea air with fisherman bringing in their morning catch and women taking a dip in their sari’s .The weather was pretty overcast and muggy and seeing a sea snake put me off any furthur relaxing while i paddled.Chris had a dip in the massive waves ,as he is truely brave and my hero!
After a bit of a ding dong with hotel manager we are moved to a hotel room that doesn’t have workmen sitting on our balcony shouting. We are truly exhausted with India by then and decide to retreat to our new room with almond buscuits,chocolate cake and chocolate. We booked up a trip for the next day and spend a good 8 hours watching television,snuggled up on our sleeping bags(the bed bugs are still biting)and promising each other we will never come back to India.
The next day India does what it does best and pulls a corker of a day out of nowhere. Just when we are happy to write it off we end up an hours drive away at Chilka Lake in a tropical paradise.There were palm trees,a huge crystal clear lake,sand dunes ,wild birds,lagoons and dolphins.Unbelievable,this place drives us nuts.!!!!!!!!!!!!
We took a boat trip with Helen and Maureen ,our new mates, and did a bit of bird watching. For the twitchers out there ,we saw,Kingfisher,storks,eagles,sea hawks,cormorant,flamingo,sandpipers and lots more. If you are wondering at our great knowledge of birds then we cannot take credit.We only know this because Helen told us!
We were on our boat drifting along for a few hours,perfect weather,gentle breeze,great company and dolphins popping their little black stumpy noses out now and then. All is forgiven India!
We stopped at a lagoon and a chap approached us with oysters in a bowl.He then proceeded to smash one open and tease a pearl out of it.Incredible!We were hooked and stood around watching him open more with most having pearls in them.I was looking for a slight of hand trick or signs of the shell being opened before.What a cynic. But it was clear that this chap knew where the pearls were and like ducks to water we were soon haggling for one for ourselves.It was an amazing experience,such a beautiful tropical location ,that we were completely blown away! I am still hoping that our pearl doesn’t turn out to be a lump of old,hard chewing gum.
The trip finished with a stop on a sand ridge where we saw the famous red crabs.Well we only saw them because people dug them up and prodded them (yes that does include Chris.)
Puri is our last stop before we catch the airplane from Kalcutta so only two days and one 10 hour train journey left in India.
Puri has introduced us to some very fast tuk tuk and rickshaw drivers and we have had some memorable trips up and down the sea front, screaming and clinging to each other. We have rowed with our terrible hotel, twice and defeated and pale we are spending our last day in the most expensive hotel in Puri,we may not have had the budget to stay the night in the lusciously situated hotel, but by god we will have lunch there(and leave our rucksacks there while we write to you.)
We have decided that India is like a bad relationship,you know you are not happy,but you just don’t seem to be able to leave!!!!!
Onwards to Thailand,clean sheets,hot water,milk,fruit,cheese,fluffy towels,toilets and hopefully no-one going to the toilet in the streets!Will we miss India?maybe just a little bit, the damn place gets under your skin!
The Indian love affair is finally over – Soph 17 Dec 07 December 17, 2007
Varanasi continued C 11/12 December 11, 2007
The funeral pyres are lit just before sunset and the bodies put on as the sun goes down. If you’re wealthy you get a big fire with sandlewood, if you’re poor your in the municipal burner just behind the main Ghats (temples). Rich or poor, you get your ashes thrown in the river on completion and this is about 200 dead a day. There are 5 reasons why you don’t get access to a burning 1. Holy Man (rock tied round feet and straight in river) 2. Baby/Child same treatment 3. Pregnant lady same treatment 4. if you are a cow same treatment but no rock 5. If you get killed by a cobra bite, it’s special privileges all round, you get tied to a banana tree/palm frond raft and floated down the river. As we were being rowed around in the dark being told these facts it became a bit eerie and took on a more spiritual feel. I’m not saying we’ve found religion but as we approached the fires and saw the singing and communal feel of death here it just felt quite serene. We certainly didn’t want to fall in the water though. After witnessing the fires we came back up river, it was getting quite cold now, to see the sunset religious ceremony at the main Ghat. This is a big event and there were crowds of people and lots of people in boats to witness it. Incense burning, chanting and music it was some spectacle! After this we rowed back to shore and had another cup of Chai with Shambhu and his dad, the old man who rowed earlier! This is the first chai we’ve had so far in India and was very nice, sweet and a flavour of Masala. Chill air drove us back to hotel, but felt like we’d had AN EXPERIENCE! The next day wasn’t quite so good, our tuk tuk driver insisted on driving us where he wanted to go, it felt to us and took alot of persuading to do as he was told. We eventually got to the University district which was an enclosed compound in the centre of the city, with clean and uncrowded roads lined with each faculty and loads of kids studying (on a Sunday, you wouldn’t get that at York Taylor!). It wasinteresting that the only dept having any extension work done was the Genetics dept, using three armed builders – suspicious!! After this and a walk around the new temple there and a quick discussion with the dean’s wife (a long story) we told Pramod we wanted to go for lunch. He ignored the name we gave him and ended up at his mate’s gaff, a place with the most inappropriate name this side of the black stump – the Sunshine Hotel. Well the sun was out but the hotel was absolutely gopping. To add insult to injury as we just had a Pepsi only safe thing on menu, our drives settled in for a cheese toastie. Cheeky git! Anyway after thathe also took us to a dodgy silk shop in the Muslim part of town, in some backstreets that looked like the set of Oliver (not the nice parts). Having second thoughts about driver at this stage! That said the next day he picked us up at 06 dubs for our trip back to the Ganges, this time for sunrise. Again as we approached through narrow lanes and back roads it looked very dull. Also freezing cold with not many other people around. As we came out onto the river side, we realised where all the people were, in boats being rowed around for the sunrise experience, they’d got there before us. It looked freezing though so we turned down the offer of a boat ride and just had a quick walk and then a cup of chai with the locals on the Ghat steps. Quite peaceful, even though the fog completely obscured sunrise. After that we arranged to be rowed to the Banares era Fort which was further up river by the pontoon bridge. Set off, this time with Shambhu’s younger brother Shankar. Halfway to the fort, myself and Soph decided to row, it was still fairly cool with some residual fog being burned off by the weak sun. That was great fun, singing ‘messing around on the river’ and trying to beat each other to the title of best rower (me, by the way). We rowed underneath the pontoon bridge and beached , for the short walk up to the fort and museum. Fairly surreal really, some good exhibits of guns and weaponry (Soph loved that as you can imagine) and some displays that looked like a car boot. Anyway back to the boat after a bit of culture and raced with tide back to the Ghat. We just sunbathing and snoozing in the heat of the day, very nice. After that we got swindled on the price and the ‘i am your very good friend talk’ lured us into schoolkids error of paying over the odds. We were annoyed with this constant pressure for money, so shortly after binned our tuktuk driver as well. In the evening we returned to the main Ghat to witness the sunset ceremony from the shore. In a perfect piece of timing, we arrived just as they were snuffing out the candles, genius! After that there was a bit of communal singing and hand clapping, a bit like a scout jamboree with incense. We had a full blown Chinese after that and it was nice to have none curried food! We are checking out today for a huge train journey down to the South East coast a place called Puri, the journey (according to a variety of sources) lasts between 23 hours and 30 hours depending on who you believe. We stocked up on sweets and crisps for the trip but this time we are without S. African red wine so it may be quite painful. We’ll send next blog from the coast. By the way if you were wondering about photos, if you double click the photo on the blog you will be taken to the FlickR web-site where all our phots are stowed, so hopefully everyone can see what we’ve been getting up to. Happy Christmas.
To the Holy City, Varanasi December 11, 2007
Originally uploaded by chris.warn
Well it was cheerio Khajuraho and by car and on the late overnight train to Varanasi on the banks of the Ganges. Car journey was a complete swindle, the Indian guy telling us the journey would take 4 hours and it took 2! So we found ourselves in the least attractive town so far – Satna. Basically a series of hovels built on a waste dump. The plan was to waste time playing on the internet, but after wading through ankle deep mud on the main street and taking in some of the fetid air, we reckoned the lesser of two evils was to wait on the platform. Busy and alive with life (humans and bugs) we then had to wait an extra 4 hours for the train which was late. Got talking to two female travellers Aussie and Romanian, who were going the same way. At one point a train came in and we were convinced after asking bloke next to us, that this was our train. We got on and started aranging our sleeping bags, waking a bloke who we thought was in our seats. In the nick of time the Romanian girl came and told us that we were on wrong train. So we sharply grabbed our stuff and got off as train departed, thankyou Romanian girl!! Eventually the train did arrive and we settled down for a fairly interrupted night’s sleep, lights on and off and the normal sounds and smells eminating from our fellow travellers. Arrived at Varanasi and went straight to hotel Suyra picking up a tuk tuk driver on route called Pramod. Seemed nice enough and we agreed to go with him to Ganges for sunset that night. After snooze in hotel and freshen up it was back out onto the streets. Arrival at the Ganges was fairly uninspiring, dark dank buildings and a mass of humanity washing, praying and trying to sell us stuff. Went up river with an old man (61 and still rowing strong) and I had a go at this rowing business, absolutely cream crackered, I did note the old boy made me row upstream though!! After a quick cup of chai with these boys, we got back into a boat with Shambhu our rower for the evening. As sunset and it got darker the magic of the ganges came to the fore. Lots of prayers, chanting, symbals and bells added to the atmosphere and people were lighting funeral pyres for the nightly burning of the dead ….just about to run out of time on computer so will continue story in a moment.
Agro in Agra but nothing fancy in Jhansi December 9, 2007
Well we finally got away from the shops of Jaipur and took the train to Agra and the Taj Mahal, 5 hour journey in a more crowded carriage. Spent time showing people the card trick the Frenchman Gerrard showed us in Madagascar and in return some kids showed us a real live Indian rope trick, great fun. Arrived late at Agra and straight to Hotel Sheela Inn (not run by an Australian), it fully lived up to its’ 7 pound 50 a night price tag. Bugs in bathroom, damp peeling walls and packs of ferociuos dogs fighting in the streets. Our newly purchased silk bed covers saved the night. Up very early the next morning to catch the Taj at sunrise, along with only 300 other people who had read the Lonely Planet guide! That said it was quieter then than later so glad we did it. Taj itself was beautiful, the sun didn’t really struggle through the mist and cloud cover so the temple itslef wasn’t showed in the best pinky light. The phot shows it looking a bit flat and muted, but still good. Got the obligatory front of Taj shot (like Princess Di) and also one with me wearing Sammy Fel-squared’s rugby top, very well travelled! We wondered around the nicely kept grounds for a while, getting requests from Indian school kids to have our phots taken with them, very bizarre that they should ask the 2 most unphotogenic people in Plymouth for this, but still. Taj was built over 22 years using 22,000 skilled labourers all had their hands chopped off at the end so the building could never be replicated. It was a gift of love though so the guy who did this wasn’t all bad. We decided that return to our lovely hotel room was a no-no and that afte the Taj we wanted to get the hell out of dodge city. On return to check out we noticed that our hotel stood opposite the Indian Institute for Leprosy (where you go to learn to be a Leper presumably) this decided it for us. Quickly to the station and bought 3rd class tickets from Agra to Jhansi, no other type available so this was to be our first experience of cattle class. Long wait at the station for 2 hour late train and we were ready for the big heave ho onto the train, but in the event we just couldn’t do it, far to British and polite to join the scrum so left on the platform. As the train started to pull off, we ahd a snap decision to make another night in Agra or dive onto a moving train…we started running. I bravely threw my wife through a bunch of people saying cheerio to a passenger and pushed her onto the moving traina nd managed to squeeze up beside her. We were just starting to congratulate ourselves on our bravey when someone else calmly stepped past us and off the train, in the words of Dave Mazz ‘unbelievable’. HSort rip and on to the town of Jhansi. NOt much to say, certainly nothing fancy when we got there even the taxi drivers said, why are you staying 2 nights?? Soph was ill though and we wanted to recoup after Agra so stay we did. Off in a mini bus to Khajuraho the next day. Relative luxury with just us, 3 indians and their exceptionally loud music for company (am I getting old or what?). Trip through back roads and remote villages, small communities every couple of kilometres ust shops lining the road and all of them selling tat, who on earth buys it? Stopped off at a small post office to post some cards and as i was queuing (only guy in the place yet still queuing) a uniformed man came and stood so close to me we were touching from shoulder to knee. Visions of the film, midnight express passed through my mind, but he was just being nosy apparently. Never seen a tourist buying stamps before mate? The only other thing to note is that we saw large numbers of people defecating by the side of the road, whatever we did it seemed we couldn’t avoid there steely gaze. Khajuraho was lovely, a backwater with a laid back feel and some lovely temples. Phots don’t do them justice and the level of skill in making them was magnificent. Famous for their erotic sandstone carvings, it’s more than that the temples are well maintained in lovely gardens and you get a real sense of the history, originally 85 they now number 23 and these were only saved from Muslim destruction by the remoteness of the village. Not much else to it apart from ridiculous numbers of hawkers, but they were the politeness we’ve met. We’ve not included any of the rude photos here to save the blushes of Julie Gannon, you know she’s shy. We went to see a light show in the temples which was very professional and a local dance show which wasn’t. The dancing was hilarious and we left literally speechless. The high point was seeing an extremely camp transvestite, with a disturbing smile, painted gold and green standing one legged on a small bed of rusty nails, with 3 pots on his head, miming badly to indian tribal music – priceless! We stayed 3 nights in this place and it was the most relaxing time so far in India.
Jaipur-26th-1st. It’s all back on with India December 1, 2007
Hello all,
We survived the 17 hour trian journey to Jaipur and have spent a few days realy getting stuck into Indian life.The train journey involved us sleeping in a small moving room with hard beds and our loyal travelling companions,the bed bugs.We hurled ourself into some competitive scrabble and 2 bottles of red which made it more bearable.Chris said he slept like a top due to it being quite like a submarine room i think it was probably the fact he consumed more of the wine than me.I alternated my time between bed bug slapping(a lesser known Indian sport )and jumping around tutting on the slippery bed.
When we arrived at the station we had read the book and were prepped up for some hard core dealing with the world famous tuk tuk chancers.As it turned out the Lonely Planet was a bit harsh and we met a lovely chap called Mohamead who has shown us around the last few days.Finally after Meme (por quoi meme,pour quoi?) we have learnt to trust again.
Stayed in lovely hotel in centre of Jaipur with a great back garden and a bed that reminded us of home.We visited the Pink Cities famous Tiger Fort on our first night to watch the sunset.Very romantic,just me,Chris and Mohamead.I sat and gazed at the city while Chris and Mohamead discussed who would be in their cricket dream team if they could choose players from any country.Like i say,very romantic.
However it was a beautiful view and could see the whole city,and hear the noise from music very clearly.As the sun went down we could hear the chants of the prayers beginning which was ,dare i say,a spiritual moment and i felt a long way from home. Quick trip to the station to get our tickets to Agra, we’re old hands at this now and it went smoothly, bought tickets from the fantastically named Mister Meena.
The next day was packed with shopping trip to textiles co-operative which specialises in fabrics.I could have wept seeing all those saris,rugs,clothes,bags,bedding e.t.c and felt like i was in heaven.Chris was also a little spend crazy and half way through ,what will always be one of the best shopping days of my life,i looked around to see Chris choosing fabrics and being measured up for a dinner jacket.These sales men are good!
We returned home exhausted (and a little ashamed of what we had spent )for a dinner of lots of curries and naan breads,a perfect day for me!Right up there with our wedding day!
The next day was culture and sight seeing(boooooo)but it was great to drive around in tuk tuk ,not knowing whether this might be the last journey you ever made ,as bikes,elephants, cows,pigs,cars,rickshaws,tuk tuks,chickens and dogs all hurled themselves at us.Absolutely crazy!
We visited the Amber Fort first and to be honest were a little disapointed.We even sat down on a wall to make our visit seem longer so as not to upset our tuk tuk driving mate Mohamead.We were more enthusiastic about the Monkey Temple and arrived at sun set to worship at the sun god temple overlooking the city.Bought some nuts (monkey nuts of course)at the bottom and cooed at the sight of our first baby monkeys literally at arms reach.As more and more came around us there began a slightly uneasy feeling of being out numbered.We started to stride out a bit as there were loads of them and some made barking noises and were fighting with each other.
After a brief stop at the top where we met some very bossy children who were also good fun we began our descent to the tuk tuk and Mohamead(hopefully not too disapointed with the length of our sight seeing again).
Chris put his hand in his pocket to get the nuts out and the mere russle of paper had hundreds(maybe not hundreds) of themonkeys rushing towards us like bandits in a cow boy film.We ended up pegging it down the hill throwing the nuts over our shoulder to prevent us being attacked ,as they were clearly vicious ,evil little monkeys who didnt deserve their own temple.
The next day was a lot more low key due to Chris having a dodgy tummy but relaxing and pottering around the hotel was really relaxing.I even met a new friend,a girl from England with wild eyes and the shakes.I later found out she had been off work for a year and was suing her company for stress.You just cant get girls like my lovely mates back at home( although she was more polite to me than they are!)I knew she wasnt right and was releived to have my brilliant travel companion well the next day.It is sadly our last day in Jaipur today and our stay has been amazing,and i am not just saying that because of the shopping.We left Mumbai really disheartened with India,but the love affair with India is now definately all back on!!!!!! Tai Mahal tomorrow,brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!
On the Sub-Continent November 26, 2007
Before I forget want to mention 2 things 1) thanks to Nottley clan for the Plymouth Sloe Gin, we drank that with coke watching the Madagascan sunets and 2) when we were in Durban and jo’burg we noticed that all the elevators are built by a company called Schindler – we couldn’t believe it, i mean Schindler’s Lifts, what a great advertising campaign that must have been!
Well we arrived safely in downtown Mumbai airport, tired from the flight and Chris ironically already suffering from Madagascar belly, how cruel is that. Spent the next 2 hours trying to get some Indian currency, first time we noted the huge beaurocracy associated with any public service, forms in triplicate, entries into large bound ledgers and signatures across everything (just to change 50 dollars!). Out to our govt sponsored and allegedly safe taxi, which is shown in the photo. Place is full of ‘em, manufactured by the mechanically unsound and driven by nutters – crazy journey to the hotel 30km, the boot was so small the driver had to tie it up with string to get our rucksacks in. Did this way heavily on his mind when driving us, not a jot he absolutely barreled along. Scary journey through dark and grubs streets, saw shapes sleeping in doorways and on wooden carts propped against walls, thought initially they’d brought out their dead – still it was 26 degrees at midnight so you can understand why they do it, that and lack of housing of course. Into hotel which looked dirty on arrival but ended up being pretty good mid-range stuff. Asleep at 3, up at midday to venture out into Mumbai. Sleep interrupted by constant beeping of taxis and cars as they try and cream the pedestrians! As we walked through Mumbai to take a look at a few monuments, we witnessed two near fatal RTAs in 1 hour, amazing. It’s like one long game of chicken with people willing to risk their lives just so as not to lose face and actually move out of the way of a bus! Passed by the Naval base main gate, like the attitude, sat there smoking and playing cards all with a mass of gold braid and medals! Passed some beautiful Victorian buildings, a crescent like Bath and a catholic church all of which have not been looked after and are caked in grime. The atmosphere is something to behold, sheer noise and smell. As you walk you’ll get a whiff of inscents? which you breath in deeply, only to walk into a pocket of fetid air in mid breath, nightmare. It sticks with you the smell and we’ll be glad to leave it, it rests on your lips and fills your nose, horrible. Went to the station to try for a ticket to Jaipur and were fortunate to meet an American who told us some details (like you need your passport) and saved us waiting around. Next day we were all action, well up at 10 and out to post some parcels, interesting business. We sat with the bloke while he sewed our gifts in muslin before sending airmail. Took a while, but it was a beautiful piece of work, talked cricket with Jalpy, not sure what his role was but he shouted at the others quite a lot! Soph had been ogled pretty much from the airport, so decided to go native and buy long trousers and short dress. Looked lovely in her gear as the photo shows, but i did have to drag her away from the bazaar before she bought more (and more, and more). We also returned to the rail ticket office, where we laughed at the way all tourists have to queue together. It took HOURS and as we approached the front of the queue, we realised that time was running out atnd it was shutting soon. We saw some french girls being turned away, some Aussie girls pleading for the correct tickets, our hearts dropped this eemed so difficult. When we finally got to front with 8 minutes to spare, we basically started bowing at the waist and being as subservient as possible to the power crazed, non-english speaking old lady who was definitely ‘in charge’. We got the golden ticket though and sauntered past the poor germans behind us who were going to miss the deadline! (2 WWs, 1 world cup and a ticket, under our breath!). With that over with we spent a pleasant evening down by the water at the Gateway to India, british built they must have visited Paris first to copy the arc de triomphe, it was completed in 1924 and used by landing troops as an entry point to the Raj, ironically 24 years later they used it for the last time going in the opposite direction – poor old Pongos! The Taj Hotel was built just before by an Indian Merchant JN Tata, apparently he was turned away by a European hotel so he built his own, very cool. It stands today, overlooking the Arch and is still magnificent. We wandered in, but after a swift look at the menu prices, wandered out again pretty sharpish! The whole area by the Arch is being ripped up and a new park built leading down to it, but at the moment it looks like ground zero. Talked to a one armed Christmas Card seller for a bit on this day, he was deeply religious and said he would pray for Soph to fall pregnant which is nice, I asked him to delay that for a few months – he seemed harmless enough (come on, that was Soph not me). Soph did by some lovely China handles for our dresser and bizarrely I almost bought a sextant. Sunday was a traditional lazy day again for us, we had coffee and toast for breakfast and went for a bimble, streets seemed calmer and lots of families out and about. It is also obviously the day for young lovers, as we walked towards Chowpatty Beach (which for some reason needs to be pronounced with a Gordie accent) there were loads of courting couples. In India it is frowned upon to show public displays of affection so there are 2 results 1) young couples kind of hide from others, crouching next to some bins or behind a cart to escape prying eyes and 2) young blokes touch each other for some physical contact, this is ok with the hand holding and arms round shoulders, but come on fellas…sitting on each others laps is not going to get you a girlfriend surely? The beach area, like a lot of Mumbai, is decrepid but was probably nice once. As your eyes come back from the smoggy horizon, you see the grey/brown sludge of the bay and then the colourful muddy beach, bejewelled with a thousand plastic containers and plastic bags – horrible and people were paddling! Soph decided to combat the staring men by having a henna tattoo on her hand, this only served to increase curiosity (as she was having it done about 20 people gathered to witness it, the Indians are unashamedly nosey) it also served to ruin my t-shirt as it all came off on my back during our snugs. Although Soph seems to have picked up a cold and wanted to head for the hotel, we stayed around for the sunset along with thousands of others all sitting on the sea wall. Well, 10 minutes before true sunset, the sun set as it disappeared into the thick smog – let down. It pretty much sums up Mumbai though. Today we ahve posted some postcards and done a bit more sight-seeing, but we’re just waiting for the jaipur express to take us north at 1900. It’s a sleeper, so should be a real experience. Will let you know when we get there! Love to all and keep sending the comments, it’s not a competition, but make sure you send them under this blog!!
