Money money money

If we had a fiver, we'd have the whole set!

Pink is my favourite colour

<p dir="ltr">Well - no it's not. But Jaipur, the Pink City certainly has a lot to like in it, despite being mostly orange. The old city was painted pink from green a couple of hundred years when the wife of the maharaja was complaining about the colours making the city look sad. Don't we all have a story like that? :) So the city became pink, the maharani satisfied and the maharaja could finally go out for a quiet evening beer with his friend the basha from Agra. This is roughly the story our guide for the first Jaipur day, Hafij, shared with us. As I mentioned he was a pretty pushy guy but he was just the right choice to guide us. As mentioned his English was good and in good Indian tradition he treated us more like guests who just happen to pay, as opposed to simple clients. The motto was "This is your rickshaw today, what you say happens", so no surprise that one of us drove the tuktuk by the end of the day :) also he was "protecting" us from scams and cheats, sending them away in loud Hindi, even helping to haggle for a lower price (well, the official price) at the gin store. <br>
We started the day at at corner breakfast place with a couple of samosas and katchouris followed by the usual sweet, spicy chai as a kickstart. It's always fun mingling with the locals, there's no such thing as "your table", everyone sits everywhere and talks you up if they feel like it, in some cases even with useful advice. With both us and the rickshaw refuelled we headed to the Pink City (I know, finally :)) which is as a district not as scenic as I expected. Basically it's the same chaotic daily city life with shops, stalls and scaffolding where in addition to the city mandated pink colour on all houses. There are 3 huge gates into this inner city, and in the very heart it hides the City Palace, the Jantar Mantar observatory and the Hawa Mahal, all good examples of the Indian architecture I expected to see on this journey. The City Palace supposedly holds the biggest armory exhibit in India (doubtful), and holds all kinds of weapons-in-weapons, throat cutting arrows, katars, anything that has place for a pistol appended has one. You can also check out a clothes exhibition, moderately interesting for us, but we at least saw a proper biliards outfit :) Next door isn't he Jantar Mantar, one of king Jai's 5 observatories scattered in Rajahstan. This has buildings as instruments, each perfectly positioned to locate celestial bodies or to tell the time with 2 seconds precision using a sundial. The whole site is surreal, with all the buildings serving a single specific purpose they don't look like proper buildings at all. <br>
Hawa Mahal is the Wind Palace, a building with an amazing facade (in the background) but not much else inside apart from a nice view on the city. <br>
Part 2 to follow, the train ride is slowly coming to an end. </p>

Electricity around the world

We were not too sure how different plug standards would be converted in India before we started - this is one of our better suggestions. :)

The Night Train

1200 kms in 14 hours overnight, who could resist such an offer! Of course the night train prices were a lot more reasonable than an inland flight would have been, so the decision was a nobrainer.
As the train was crossing the main malaria region we decided to take an air conditioned train, apparently something mosquitos don't like, but we chose the lowest class even here. It was still a better than Budapest - Warszawa overnight was a couple of years ago and of course cheaper as well. On this train they serve food regularly, where by "food" I mean stuff that would like to be airplane food when it grows up, an "regularly" means they wake you up when it's time for chowder. You also get free bottled water, tea and English language papers.
As for company we got a nice couple and their 3-4 year old daughter who just started to learn English numbers, they were very friendly and helpful with us and our tourist-questions (when do we eat? When do we sleep? When will they check our tickets? Etc.) The other 2 passengers were high school age 2 boys, who switched one of their berths with us to be near the electric outlet when the beds are down. They were cunning enough to keep the better place when the beds were folded down and we polite Westerners didn't start to argue, of course.
The scenery during the ride was changing very frequently with only the fog /smog being constant. We crossed very European forests and scrublands, dried out riverbeds and an occasional mountain in the distance. The only sign of India outside were the goats and a palm tree every now and then. Getting to Jaipur was easy compared to dodging the tuktuk drivers hunting tourists at the station - one of them even followed us to the hotel which was walking distance and managed to convince us to hire him for the next day :) sure, we may have been loosers with haggling for the price but he spoke good enough English and in general proved to be a pretty good guide. So, hotel found we got our nice room with view on the nearby construction grounds and of course double bed, typical for Indian hotels. Bathroom was OK and the whole thing had a nice garden with statues and an occasional peacock flying in. Oh, and our door was locked with a pretty medieval looking bolt and guarded by a huge plush tiger on the outside :)
After a short break we wandered out to find a SIM card (success, and the first clean store!) and to visit one of the nearby forts. On the road a jeweller stopped us and invited us in to show his store and as it turned out to sell stuff (yes we are this inexperienced :)). He was pretty friendly and explained everything so even with his business side taking control this detour was worth it. For example this was my first time being barefoot in a jewellery store :) he also caught a tuktuk for us to get to a local restaurant which was the scariest looking (thus far) but served meat for good prices. :) The rickshaw broke down half way back to the hotel but the driver fixed it quickly enough not to get so uncomfortable in the dark at the side of a roundabout :)
Right after that we called it a day to prepare with some sleep for the first pretty Indian city, which no one will believe as I still can't post pictures :)

Finally some rest

The first Indian macchiato: click

Let's go global!

After 2 days of just walking around we decided to get more touristy on our last Mumbai day. We had until 11pm to get to the train station, so we decided to head north to visit the Global Pagoda. This is the largest unsupported dome structure in the world with seating for 8000 people so definitely it was something not to miss. The trip, as usual, included a long ride on the local train, but we were already well prepared for that, nothing new there. On arrival to the Borivali station we had to get a rickshaw to the ferry to get to the peninsula the Pagoda is on, but it turned out to be more difficult than expected. Of course there were loads of drivers around but as we were (and still are) obvious tourists they were quoting tripled prices and refused to use the meter on the ride. Eventually a young guy with more common sense turned up and even though he had to ask for directions he got us to the ferry port for the proper price. The ferry doesn't only serve the Pagoda but also 2 fun fairs, Esselworld advertised as one of the main attractions in India (yeah sure) and some other thing. This also meant a very mixed crowd on the boat with a school group, families, the local young and glamorous and inland tourists taking the ride with us. Luckily the motorcycles and loaded bike-rickshaws were transported on another ferry, although that was just a people transporter just like ours. The boat wasn't bad, just slow, it seemed as the driver did the loading/unloading part for the first time but with Indians being happy giving advice on everything to everyone he got all the help required :) The short walk to the Pagoda was nice, pretty palm trees everywhere with the entrance being right next to the fun fair. Before entry they took all our poisons like our whisky flasks (for disinfection!) and cigarettes, all of these worldly evils being forbidden on the holy grounds. The Pagoda itself was interesting, indeed huge from the outside as well, fully covered with golden paint, but as it was only built a couple of years ago the ornaments were more kitschy than nice. Lots of Buddha statues were set up around the gates with a couple of elephants and tigers scattered between them. We had to walk clockwise around the building to find the entrance where of course they had us take off our shoes to get in. And with all our expectations - we could only go in a meter or two with the larger part separated by plexiglass for the 3 meditating people sitting inside. Seemed like a bit of a waste of space :) apparently you can only go inside after completing a 10 day meditation course. We skipped that, but what we saw of the dome was indeed huge. We tried to back out through the entrance but that broke the rule of going clockwise and passing the donation stall so we were quickly ushered back :) tha Pagoda also follows best museum traditions as it has a gift shop, which we skipped and a cafe where we had some strange lunch. Apparently they are not too keen on meat (expected) or strong flavours (unexpected). They had a strange system whereby you had to buy dedicated food coupons at a counter and get your food somewhere else which made it a bit hard to choose for us, not knowing food by name. We went by the clerk's recommendation with some satisfaction - could have been worse :)
Next, a "quick" rickshaw/ferry/train ride back to the city, during which we learned how angry Indian women can get if you accidentally jump on the ladies' coach of the train (very, they hiss like snakes!) and how big an applause you get when jumping on the moving train, Mumbai style. We got off at a random station, finding ourselves in a city market. Apparently here the darkest alleys serve the best chai and any sudden turn of the road can get you to a busy farmers market. The small bananas are quite tasty, but nothing extraordinary. The price seems to be a constant 10 rupees for grocery regardless of buying 1 or 4 of anything. Our next stop would have been Hard Rock Cafe Mumbai, hidden in the back of a guarded residential building, but it was too full of the young Indian elite and too empty of free wifi so we skipped it.
Another train ride later we had a "burgee" (or something) at the station, basically buns with an onion/tomato omelette - they even gave scraps of the daily paper to wipe our hands. It seems used newspaper is used for hand wipes in toilets, wrapping sandwiches and paper trays - not necessarily in this order ;)
A quick taxi ride to the hotel, grabbing our bags, quick ride back to the station later we were ready for our first Indian night train. 14 hours on AC 3rd class with a 3 piece family and 2 university students sharing our couchette, what could be better :) Details to follow!

Mumbai walking

The second day started slow, we took our time deciding if we wanted to stay in the dorm of the first night. It wasn't that bad, but with the train ride it was far from everything. In the first day we checked out a couple of places but neither were good (i. e. cheap) enough. In the end we settled for the Sea Shore Hotel, a nice place on the sea shore, as you may have guessed :) rickshaw took as to the train, we filled it up 120% with ourselves and the bags. The train was fun again, but the locals were very helpful once again and gave us the extra space and all the "useful" advice we needed. At the station we bought our train tickets to Jaipur with a choice of buying with cash and extra administration from the "tourist quota" or paying by card at the "locals" desk. They needed some convincing but in the end we were local enough :) the system is strange, you have to fill in some forms to get a ticket including your age and home address apart from the train information.
Afterwards a nice bearded driver in his Ambassador taxi took us to the hotel giving another feel of the bustling traffic of Mumbai. Then we had to go up to the 4th floor, no elevator, to the hotel, where we had the choice between rooms with or without a window! No way would we have missed the wonderful view on the dirty fishing boats so we took the window of course. We would have taken anything at that point :)
A bit later we strolled out to the fish market, obviously closed in the afternoon but still smelly :) the old wooden fishing boats were nice though. Interestingly the fish market is close to one of the posh quarters with nice parks to sit in, so we did just that. Obviously we had to pop in to a tailor shop for one of us to ask for suit prices ;) Then we followed the locals and went for a walk on the boulevard by the bay. Some  nice chay tea (boiled with lumps of sugar, milk and ginger or cardamom) was just perfect for the view! We sat around for a while, then did loads more walking in the district before heading back to the hotel. We tried and failed to find a proper pub for a beer, even Lonely Planet suggestions led us to places long closed down. We closed the evening with some street food, chicken kebab, to train ourselves for the days to come, and then fell asleep below the noisy ceiling fan. At this point we at least still had 2 separate beds - but that's another story for another day :)
All in all, Mumbai was 2 days of walking around just taking in the atmosphere, skipping most touristy things like museums. It wasn't bad, but it was a very different India experience from what we expected. The story for the 3rd day, with the Global Pagoda visit is to follow, hopefully with some pictures soon.

Eastern Comfort

After weeks of contemplating on a travel destinations and a much rushed preparation once the target was decided on we set off to India on a regular winter Saturday. It was only regular though because the airport was locked down just the day before and snow only brought the country to halt the day after, but that given Saturday was just plain average. Following a "last call" transfer in Cairo we landed Sunday in the AM in Mumbai, and being too tired to fully take in the experience we were just pushed through customs and money exchange counters to be picked up by our pre-arranged driver. The heat and humidity was dazzling just as the traffic with no rules and the amount of people living on the streets right next to broken down huts right next to luxury apartments. Our hostel was somewhere in between, in something which seemed like a dirty alley at that time. Settling in went fine, we scored a Lonely Planet guide for the day and set out for the first train ride of the day. It seemed a bit crazy, yes, but the 8 rupees ticket vs the 400 for the taxi made it an easy choice. The station was "close", so we walked, an experience in itself, taking in the noise, traffic, dogs, crows and people living everywhere among trash ubiquitous. Strangely enough the smell wasn't half as bad as suggested by fellow travellers :) So after the short 2-3 km walk we reached the station, we eventually figured out which queue the ticket booth was and fortunately the clerk spoke good enough English to sell us our tickets. Of course almost everyone speaks English and in general is very helpful from plain men to fully armed soldiers, but we didn't know that yet :)
And the train... Schedule is in Hindi and English but sure seemed Greek to us - stations are abbreviated to one letter, fast and slow trains mix on all tracks regardless of destination, but it can be figured out. As for the rolling stock, in Hungary, similar suburban trains are smaller and more narrow but otherwise similar. Of course back home the doors are closed during the ride and people tend to stay inside the cars without jumping on and off moving trains at the station, but otherwise it's just the same :) In the city we jumped off at the Mumbai Central station just to find a helpful guard who knew Hungarian football history surprisingly well and guided us to the hangar-lookalike ticket office just fine. Of course it was full of stray dogs, like most open buildings, and did not have the service we were looking for. So we just started walking around, passing some parks where locals were playing cricket in their all white uniforms, next to the grubby homeless and the countless motorcycles parked at the side of the road. Very confusing. But we got to the Gate of India in the end, a nice arc de triomph from the British times, surrounded by countless inland tourists. This is all right next to the recently terrorised Taj hotel so military presence is ample - safe or scary, who knows :) going further towards the old Victoria Terminus, another example of the crazy mix of Victorian and Indian architecture, which partially being renovated so hard to see the full beauty (I'll post pictures when I can) After that we strolled through some nice parks in the evening followed by nice, dark alleys :) It's safe for sure, but there's people sleeping everywhere on the street, thrash everywhere, sometimes set on fire... So safe, but not that comfortable :) we took the evening train back to the hostel, it was horribly crowded, it was a bit hard to get down with having to elbow your way out and then try to jump off faster than the people jumping up. Fun :) we got to the hostel just fine and fell asleep like a log after tens of hours staying awake.

To be continued, hopefully we can catch up with the events as they are happening. We're already in Jaipur, the Pink City, with Amber Fort and maybe the Monkey Temple in the plan. We already secured a rickshaw/guide for the trip, it should be fun :)