Pushkar and the pink one, Jaipur

Pushkar

Pushkar is a very holy place for Hindus, having the most prominent Brahma Temple in the world, Jagatpita Brahma Mandir. 

Jagatpita Brahma Mandir

This also meant that meat and alcohol are prohibited, although outside of the city limits we were able to get a beer in one of those English wine shops. 

Gurudwara in Pushkar

We walked through the town, stopping off to see the Gurudwara (Sikh Temple), then on through the market which catered pretty much solely for tourists, round the lake and took the cable car up the mountain to Savitri Temple. This was terrifying as the cable car looked about 500 years old and it stopped halfway for 5 minutes for no apparent reason, leaving us swaying in the wind. When we reached the top we found that the temple was actually closed. It would have been helpful if there had been a sign at the bottom saying that, or if someone at the ticket counter had told us, but if there’s money involved that’s usually all that counts.

Pushkar lake - ghat

On our way back, we spoke to a shop owner who recommended that we hire a scooter and drive out to see Aloo Baba, a sadhu (holy man) who lived about 10km from the city, in the forest. We met another couple, Ivan and Larisa on the way with the same idea as us, only they had actually done some research and had a bunch of bananas and a bag of potatoes with them because Aloo Baba only eats potatoes. (The word aloo is Hindi for potato, hence the nickname Aloo Baba).

Aloo Baba

When we arrived, Aloo Baba was very welcoming and we sat with him asking him questions about his life. He passed round the bananas, and seemed over the moon with the bag of potatoes. 

Aloo Baba told us in broken English how he had left his family home which was more than 1000km from Pushkar, around 55 years ago, to live a simple, meditative life. He had been living in the forest for 18 years, surviving only on spuds, talking to visitors occasionally and meditating for 5 hours a day. He told us that the only important things were the universe, controlling his own human behaviour and impulses, and self-discipline - by doing without life’s comforts such as his family and different food etc. All very deep, until he pulled out a packet of beedi (cheap cigarettes). So much for control and discipline! I suppose he is only human and we all need some sort of vice or release.

Artwork by a visitor

Aloo Baba showed us around the small white temple he lived next to, where visitors had painted murals representing control. The best thing about this temple however, was that it had a slide!

Temple slide

That evening we met up with Ivan and Larisa for a drink. Ivan had asked us if he could interview us for his podcast series that he’d been doing throughout his travels. That was fun but we were a bit unprepared and of course Baby D had no filter as ever! Not sure Ivan will be able to use much of it as we were offending everyone with our tales and opinions!

Aloo Baba's Temple

There wasn’t loads to do in Pushkar. I quite liked it although it was chockablock full of tourists; many of them what we are calling ‘ethnics’ – western tourists that go all out embracing the culture, wearing the typical traveller clothing (what they perceive to be local or traditional dress, even though the locals are in jeans and t-shirts), usually barefoot, dripping with beads, often sporting dreadlocks and sometimes carrying or playing a guitar or drums. 

For want of anything to do, we hired a scooter on the second day. Within 15 minutes, we had a flat tyre. We called the shop which was a stupid thing to do actually, as they charged us 400 rs to change it. Twenty minutes later, we got another flat tyre. Bearing in mind the whole tyre had been changed rather than just repaired after the first flat, we were pretty annoyed. As luck would have it the second breakdown was outside a mechanics, and the repair cost us 50rs. We returned the scooter to the shop and demanded some of our money back, which we got given - reluctantly. 

We stopped in town for lunch for some great paneer and pizza (is this veggie lifestyle growing on me?!) The owner was a crazy guy called Mango that supplied us with beer, but disguised in a teapot with 2 mugs. 

Nice refreshing cuppa

We stayed at his bar for most of the afternoon and staggered back to the hotel to watch a folk dance that a Dutch couple with more money than sense had booked. We had a drink and a chat with Heather and Gavin, a couple in their late 40s who had quit their jobs to go travelling. They are doing a lot of the same trip as us and they are keeping us updated through a Facebook blog, although they seem to be having a better time than us (or they’re glossing over the bad bits!) Saying that, Heather did fall off a cliff in Kerala. Turned out to be 2 foot high though.  

Later on we went back to Mango’s bar for more drinks and food and we finally got to try the famous dessert, ‘Hello to the Queen’, which is about a million calories and consists of vanilla ice-cream, crushed chocolate biscuits, fresh banana, and caramel sauce or hot fudge.

Away to Jaipur!

Jaipur

Jaipur is the capital of the state of Rajasthan and I for one had been looking forward to coming here. It’s the pink city, and specialises in gems so it is right up my street. It was huge, sprawling, quite dirty, busy and had a main road which seemed to cut right through the centre of our part of the city. It also wasn’t as pink as we thought it would be. Maybe we’ve been spoilt by starting in Udaipur and having done the smaller, quainter cities first. Jaipur was okay but perhaps our expectations were too high. I would go back one day if only to see the sights that we missed as I was sick on the second day.

City Palace

Our miniature painting

On day 1, we spent a couple of hours in the City Palace which was lovely; full of art and history. We got to meet an artist specialising in miniature paintings. His creations were fantastic and had we not been travelling we would have bought a couple. As it was, he drew us a picture so we have that memory (for free) instead.

After City Palace (sounds like a football fixture) we went to Jantar Mantar which is where there is a huge collection of massive sundials, astronomical and astrological instruments. India is really big on myth, legend, lore, and the cosmos, so these instruments have always been very important. Many Hindu families get the astrological charts of their newborn babies drawn up, and they are often used in arranging marriages to check compatibility.

Jantar Mantar

We climbed Isarlat Victory Tower, and visited Hawa Mahal which is a gorgeous palace from afar. Up close it is more of a building façade as the actual building is so narrow.

Hawa Mahal

We then went to the beautiful Nahagarh Fort to watch the famous sunset over Jaipur. It was a shame about the haze over the city though, which was probably pollution. Baby D had been leaning on a railing while I took a selfie of us and the whole set of railings fell over with an almighty crash. He panicked as he thought he was falling over the edge of the fort. Everyone was in stitches laughing at him.

Part of Nahagarh Fort

Galta

The next day, I was feeling less than great but we decided to go to the Sisodia Rani Bagh, some pretty gardens. Bobby then took us to Galta Temple where we saw a 6 legged cow. This was a site with some beautiful old buildings and temples. After that we headed over to Vidhyadhar Bagh which is a lovely garden built in memory of Jaipur’s main architect.

Vidhyadhar Bagh

I soon needed to get back to the hotel because I felt so ill and that was it for the rest of the day. We missed the Amer, or Amber Fort which is one of Jaipur’s main attractions, but we got a photo the next morning before leaving for Ranthambore. Who needs to see another fort anyway?!

6 legged cow

 So far the trip has been amazing and fitting in work has been easy enough, especially through Rajasthan where we’ve travelled huge distances in the car with plenty of downtime to work. I can’t believe we have been away for 2 months already, it has flown by, although we are missing friends and family. Baby D might actually be worse than me, because he has nothing to keep his mind occupied. I am working and writing this blog so I am keeping busy.

Ranthambore

Deer in the national park

Ranthambore is best known for its national park and tiger safaris. We went on the jeep safari with 4 others, and we allegedly spotted a leopard, sightings of which are rarer than tigers. I may have seen its tail, but it might have been a stick. We definitely didn’t see a tiger and I am not convinced there are any in there! 

Ranthambore Fort

Other than the national park, which was huge and very beautiful, there wasn’t much else in Ranthambore, apart from a 13^th century fort. (Of course there was a fort!)

#pushkar #rajasthan #jaipur #ranthamborefort #jagatpitabrahmamandir #savitritemple #aloobaba #hellotothequeen

 

The Blue City, Jodhpur, and the City of Gold, Jaisalmer

Jodhpur

The Blue City

Jodhpur, the blue city. On the first morning we walked up to...yes, you’ve guessed it...the fort! (Mehrangarh). Again, great views of the city, amazing architecture and history.

Mehrangarh Fort

Another of the fort

I am being a bit flippant but the forts in India are amazingly well preserved in general, and the detail that goes into the art and architecture is really impressive. Even the less well preserved forts are magnificent – in fact I prefer them.

We took a stroll around the clock tower (Ghanta Ghar) market where I was assaulted by a couple of 5 year old boys chucking stones, and later on we went to Kaylana lake. There has been a lake in every town in Rajasthan I think, usually artificial, but all very scenic once the litter is overlooked.

We met some crazy screaming fans there; a whole family on holiday who took hundreds of pics of us and the dad, who had had a few too many beers, invited us over for dinner. We were completely taken aback at how ‘star-struck’ they were. Later on, Bobby told us about a cheap place for lunch and guess who we pull up right next to?! The family started screaming and waving, so we looked at each other and both yelled at Bobby to put his foot down and get out of there.

After lunch somewhere miles and miles from there, we headed over to Jaswant Thada, a marble mausoleum built by a Maharajah in memory of his father at the end of the 19^th century. We drove up to Umaid Bhawan Palace, a magnificent building which had been the main residence of the royal family of Jodhpur.

Umaid Bhawan Palace

Me at Jaswant Thada

A few weeks before, we had been invited to a wedding by Chandra, our Delhi driver, and by now we were panicking a bit about what to wear. We had been told that I had to wear a sari and Baby D had to go in a Punjabi suit or something traditional. After going to a few shops and being accosted by some top-notch rip-off merchants we ran out of patience and decided not to bother with the traditional dress. We would only wear the outfits once and then have to get rid of them because we are travelling, so it was a complete waste of money. Baby D had nothing to wear as we had just done a laundry run, so he ended up in a hoody, a pair of my black cotton trousers, socks and sandals and a scarf! Very dapper I must say. I had a dress which I wore as a top with jeans. 

Wedding party

 

We were on the groom’s side so we met at an apartment block a few kilometres outside of the city, where the groom and his entourage were staying, him being from Delhi. We stayed there for about an hour, drinking and dancing. We were without doubt the centre of attention and we felt bad for the groom as no one seemed to be paying him any mind. We danced our way up the lane towards the actual wedding venue, getting lost twice on the way. How, I do not know as it was a straight road, barely more than a kilometre long.

Bride

Close to the entrance to the wedding venue we noticed a man lying prone in a muddy ditch. Baby D and I rushed to help him up while everyone else ignored him. When we picked him up and as he came round, he asked us why we had woken him up. He was sleeping off the whiskey, getting ready for round 2! When we finally got to the venue, we were hustled over to the buffet and our plates were filled while we waited for the bride to arrive. She was brought in on a carriage, looking stunning, made up to the nines with gold jewellery dripping from her throat, nose, ears and wrists.

There were men there somewhere

The whole event was great fun and very opulent. Everyone was really welcoming. I had expected the bride to be in floods of tears as I had seen at other Asian weddings, because she was leaving her family to live with her new husband and his family, but this bride looked really happy. Perhaps the tears would come later, the celebrations were to go on for days.

Jaisalmer

The Golden City

Jaisalmer is known as the Golden City, resplendent in the middle of the desert and close to the Pakistan border.

We somehow got railroaded into staying at a desert camp for the night, which included typical Rajasthani food (lots of veggies and lentils), Rajasthani folk dancing and singing around a fire, and a sunset or sunrise camel ride. We had done something similar in Dubai on holiday in mid-2016 although we didn’t stay overnight, and we were not bothered about repeating the experience. Anyway, through a mis-communication or something we ended up at the camp in a village called Khuri.(Actually I think Bobby just pretended not to hear us and we were not really too bothered about going there or not, so we didn’t protest too much).

The singing and dancing show was pleasant enough but we have seen this sort of thing so many times before – sometimes I feel as though its only in the UK that we don’t put on this type of show (how many tourists go to see a morris dancing show? We should start capitalising on this!) The food was not the best as it was a luke-warm buffet. The evening was not improved by our driver who was absolutely battered and wouldn’t leave us alone, so we disappeared for an early night just to avoid him. 

We were up early the next day for the sunrise camel ride – we’d arrived too late for the sunset one after Bobby had stopped 50 times for a sickly sweet roadside chai and a ‘beedi’ (cheap ciggies that are apparently 10 times less bad than normal filtered fags! Keep telling yourself that Bobby) and we were the only ones to go on the sunrise one, which was nice. 

So far we’d not had a great experience in Khuri and we’d been told to be ready for 6.15am. Bearing in mind it was freezing cold, we got up and ready to go, but when no one had shown up by 7am Baby D stormed off in a ‘that’s it! We’re leaving!’ rage, in search of Bobby to get the car ready.

Finally, somebody woke up and took us to our waiting camels for our early morning ride. I was shown to Shiva, a beautiful blonde who refused to walk in a straight line, and Baby D’s ride was a bubbly brunette called Laal, and bubbly he was. I have never heard farts like it, and I was helpfully down-wind too. 

My camel, Shiva

Apart from ripping half my fingernail off on the saddle on my ascent, we had a great time. We walked in darkness for about 2km then stopped in the Thar Desert for half an hour to watch the sun come up as our guides built a fire. We were frozen stiff but enjoyed every minute of it.

Mural in Jaisalmer

After leaving Khuri, we headed into Jaisalmer city. We walked up to the fort and around the small town, but we didn’t go in as we were forted out and saving our pennies. I think that was a mistake though, as I’ve seen some fellow travellers’ pics and it looks amazing.

Fort

It has a Jain temple inside apparently, and from what we’ve seen of these types of temple, they’re pretty impressive and very ornate. 

Later on, Bobby wanted to take us to an old village in the desert called Kuldhara, that was eerily abandoned overnight and consequently the legend was that it was haunted. Nothing to do with the fact that the villagers probably left due to having no water or crops of course, but this is India remember, and nothing gets in the way of a good story. 

Bobby had arranged with some other drivers to leave the hotel at 2pm to go Kuldhara, as he was going to follow them, not knowing the way himself. He failed however, to tell us, and we weren’t ready to go on time. 

As was becoming his habit, Bobby asked me for directions using Google maps on my phone, and we left about half an hour after everyone else. All over Rajasthan Bobby had asked to use my Google maps and then disregarded its directions, changing his mind just as my battery was about to die. This time, he followed the directions to the letter and we ended up driving off road in the middle of the desert. Yep, we were going more and more off the beaten track, in a crappy Delhi taxi with bald tyres. 

Three hours later, after visions of us being eaten by vultures flashed through my mind, we found a road. Bobby gave a nervous laugh about my useless GPS, and I told him off, asking him what sort of driver didn’t know where anything was? I felt a bit bad about yelling at him, as he was probably worried about us all dying of heat exhaustion and thirst in the desert, but he got the message. He was never the same with me after that – much more wary and formal after a Tara Tantrum.

We gave up on the village and went back to Jaisalmer, ready to head to Pushkar. 

#jodhpur #rajasthan #jaisalmer #kuldhara #mehrangarh #jaswantthada #ghantaghar #kaylanalake #umaidbhawanpalace #thardesert

Camels and rats - Bikaner

Bikaner

I had heard about the international camel festival in Bikaner so I mentioned it to Bobby who told us ‘as you want’…10 hours later and we were there. Completely off our route and poor old Bobby was in desperate need of his ‘medicine’ by the time we arrived. These distances across India would take less than half the time in the UK but the roads are terrible so you need to allow a good few hours to go less than 100km.

 

Another hotel, another cockroach, or two actually. By this stage we were definitely past caring and we were at the stage where we would rather just stay put than pack up our gear and change rooms. 

The camel festival was a 2 day event and when we arrived at the stadium where it was being held, I began to worry that I had made a bit of a boo-boo making us all travel so far for a little local fair, but actually it was really good to see a traditional event like this. I didn’t get where the international part of the festival had come from – unless they meant the 50 or so tourists that were there.

Camel, shaved and dyed

We saw a fantastic procession of camels; some dyed, some shaved, all majestic, even those dressed in ridiculous outfits. Some were made to dance which was a huge crowd pleaser, although I suspect the animals were doing it under duress which was sad, rather than because they felt like cutting some shapes on the dancefloor.

We saw men with moustaches that were 2 metres long, although they had them artistically rolled up. We sampled camel milk kulfi, which the locals avoided – they will eat goats’ feet and sheeps’ brains, but the thought of camel milk was disgusting to them.

Bikaner Fort

The next day we went to the fort in Bikaner. Beautiful as all the forts in India are, but we are beginning to lose the will to live with the amount of forts we’ve seen!

Karni Mata

We left Bikaner to head for Jaisalmer, but first we stopped off at Karni Mata Temple just outside of Bikaner, which is a temple dedicated (and full of) rats! 20,000 rats live in this temple, all descendants of a Hindu God of course. And if you spot a white one, you are doubly lucky so they say…which we didn’t.

Of course, being a Hindu temple, shoes were not allowed which was a real treat. I really enjoyed this stop, but I can’t say the same for Baby D! After nearly 8 years together I am only now finding out how much of a germaphobe he is!

#bikaner #bikanercamelfestival #rajasthan #karnimatatemple #bikanerfort

Venice of the East, Udaipur

Udaipur, Rajasthan 

We flew into Udaipur and were met at the airport by Bobby, our driver for the next 20 days. Bobby was tiny. He eats like a bird after losing most of his teeth in a bike accident when he was younger. Bobby spoke fluent Japanese which sadly wasn’t getting him far as most Japanese tourists were petrified every time he approached them.

Udaipur

When we arrived at the hotel in Udaipur, we were shown to a pit of a room. Sensing a theme yet? We are, believe it or not, getting more and more immune to the dirt and we definitely notice it less and let it bother us less than we did before, but this room took the biscuit. The toilet seat was covered in sticky dried piss and there was dirt and blood on the bedsheets. We went straight back down to reception with our bags in tow, adamant we weren’t staying. 

They insisted on showing us a better room and not wanting to seem petty, we checked it out and it was actually quite nice. I swear they try their luck with tourists – either some don’t care, don’t notice or are too polite to say anything. Yeah, not us. Not anymore anyway. We are so over that British politeness already. 

Udaipur was lovely. Cobbled winding streets full of knick-knack shops. Baby D took to it immediately whereas I thought it seemed a bit touristy at first – and it is – but it’s a nice vibe and the usual trinket shops were cute and not in your face. We were based a stone’s throw away from the City Palace which was a spectacular building. (I am running out of adjectives for lovely, nice, amazing, stunning etc!) We were also only a 5 minute walk from the lake, in the middle of which was a lovely hotel. Bobby was staying in our hotel, but in the drivers’ room. This is quite common in India; the drivers tend to choose the hotels and they will normally pick those with a drivers’ room so the drivers are nearby and they all bunk up together in dorms for cheap. 

Bobby invited us to join him and the other drivers in their room for a drink that evening but I ducked out as I had some work to do. Baby D went in there and sat with him. It soon transpired that Bobby liked a drink. He (along with seemingly every other Indian male we met) would drink half a bottle of whiskey per night, but because the Bobster is so small, he can’t handle it and gets steaming after a mouthful.

City Palace

Inside City Palace

The next day we went to the City Palace and Monsoon Palace. Monsoon Palace is in a state of disrepair, but has fantastic views over the city and the lake. Its informal name is because it was built to look at the monsoon clouds over the city, but its real name is Sajjan Garh and interesting fact, it was a location used in Octopussy (James Bond film).

Monsoon  Palace

Back at the hotel. Bobby insisted we have a drink with him and two other drivers who seemed quite nice, until one of them started making rude comments and gestures to me. I got up and left straight away, only thinking of some clever comeback an hour or so after (always the way, am I right?!) Baby D hadn’t seen any of this  and came up to the room about 20 minutes later. We had a chat about it and Baby D rushed out to have words with the driver….who for some reason, was now outside our room. Odd, bearing in mind the drivers’ room was 2 floors below. Baby D told him off and I’d say he got the hint as he scuttled off and we didn’t see him around Udaipur again. 

The next morning we did a boat ride round the lake in our own speedboat with our own driver. There were group trips available but the price wasn’t much more for a private speed boat and the group trips seemed to book up quite soon in advance. The driver was great, pointing out what the different buildings were and telling us a bit about the city.

View of Udaipur from lake

After that, as I was desperate to do a cooking class in India, Bobby organised it for us. A bit pricier than we would have liked and we did less cooking than we wanted to but it was great fun all the same. Neena showed us how to make samosas, chapatis (3 ways), pakora, aloo ghobi, paneer masala, chicken masala, veg pulao, chocolate paratha and masala chai. Then we ate it all while watching the sun set over the lake. One of our top moments.

Sunset after cookery class

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Rajasthan has lots of rooftop restaurants and Udaipur was no exception. The city was magnificent at night. There are very few bars in the state and alcohol is really only available in the government approved shops, or English wine shops which shut at 8pm in most places in Rajasthan, but 2pm in Udaipur. There were some bars but it didn’t seem to be the done thing to drink there. Personally I reckon they’re missing a trick and they’d make a killing opening a bar, especially when tourists end up sat in their drivers’ room getting harassed!

The next day was a trip to Ranakpur to see the exquisite 15^th century marble Jain Temple, and the dam at sunset, and to Kumbhalgarh for the fabulous fort, also 15^th century.

Kumbhalgarh Fort

(Jainism is an ancient religion, which centres on principles of non-violence and self-discipline).

Inside Jain Temple

Ranakpur is a very small village and its main attraction is the Jain Temple. Bobby was nervous of going out after dark, and the poor guy told us of having been dragged from his car and beaten in a place like Ranakpur, so we didn’t wander far from the hotel and had an early one before our epic drive from south to north Rajasthan, to Bikaner.

To Bombay, a travelling couple came. Mumbai

Mumbai

Tree-lined street in Colaba

Sunday cricket outside our hotel

I was excited to get to Mumbai. I’d been here for work earlier in 2016 and really enjoyed it; the chilled vibe, the trees(!), the sea next to the bustling city, the weather. This time we stayed in an area called Masjid Bunder, a far cry from the Taj Mahal Palace where I’d stayed for work. The guys at the hotel this time round were just as accommodating as the staff at the Taj though.

Once we arrived in the city, we dumped our bags and took a walk down to the Gateway to India and round the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, stopping in Café Mondegar for lunch. 

Gateway to India

We strolled through Colaba’s busy street market and had a quick beer in Leopolds. I had forgotten how expensive it was in Mondegars and Leopolds but I guess they’ve experienced the 'Lonely Planet' effect and more people know about them, so prices rise in line with popularity. Leopolds has also been of interest for other reasons, and travellers and locals alike flock there in solidarity against the terrorist attacks in 2008 when the bar was hit before the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, and 10 people were killed. 

We visited the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya museum (that took me 10 minutes to type), one of India’s national museums, hosting artefacts ranging from typical religious carvings, to Indian history, art and natural history. It was especially interesting to read about Harrapan civilisation that lived during the Bronze Age, around 3000BC, from Northern India to Pakistan. Harrapans seemed quite advanced in the way they lived in terms of infrastructure, such as sewage systems, construction techniques and tools, ceremonies and rites. Not much is known about them, especially as the pieces of writing found haven’t yet been deciphered. It does seem crazy how some of today’s cultures seem to have taken a step backwards from some of their ideas! 

The museum

On one day we took the train to Pune, which is a city around 3 hours away from Mumbai, as I had some meetings. We had plenty of time to get to the train station from our hotel and when we arrived, we were immediately surrounded by drivers, all advising us on where to get the train to... Goa. I suppose the majority of tourists are on their way down to the beach so they assumed that was where we were headed. Being the India train aficionados that we are, we brushed them off, telling them we knew where we were going.

CST train station, where we were meant to go for Pune!

However, it soon transpired that our train wasn’t coming up on the screen, so we checked with the police who had a desk in the station...and who told us that we were at the wrong station. Our cocky attitude soon disappeared and we were quickly ushered into a rickshaw with 15 minutes to get to the correct station. No easy feat getting anywhere fast in Mumbai at 8 o’clock on a Monday morning. Our driver, who knew approximately one word in English, was keen to show us how stressful this all was by constantly checking his watch and shouting ‘shit!’. We made it with 5 minutes to spare amazingly, and of course the train didn’t move for another half an hour anyway.

Pune

We made it to Pune and I went off to my meetings while Baby D relaxed at the hotel. Pune is a nice city and it’s getting a lot of investment for development, so hopefully I will be back one day. We only stayed over for a night, which was a pity really. I was told it was only a small town where everyone knows everyone, and at in excess of 3 million inhabitants, I guess it’s TINY for India!

Back to Mumbai

Back in Mumbai and we decided to do the Dharavi slum tour. Dharavi is one of the biggest slums in the world and was a key location for the film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. There is a big debate over doing this tour as people feel it’s profiteering from others’ misfortune, but the tour we did puts 80% of the revenue into slum projects, which are generally education-based such as IT, literacy and teaching English. 

The slums were exactly as I had pictured, having read Shantaram, a novel which is partially set there. Tiny rooms in which people cooked, slept and generally lived, but kept surprisingly clean under the circumstances. Walking through the slums was treacherous at points, they were not much more than a foot wide, low, with electricity wires hanging down, pipes sticking out of the floor and water (sewage?) running in rivulets. 

The other side of the slum showed us the industries thriving there – this is probably one of the only towns in India that recycles and probably one of the most industrious. They collect plastic to recycle into pellets which are shipped off to companies to make toys, bottle lids; all sorts of things. They even made the machinery to make the pellets. They have a similar process for aluminium – recycling, melting into bars, shipping out for re-use. The men that work in the aluminium ‘plants’ don’t use any protective gear, and so their life expectancy is only about 55 years; 30 years less than average. They know this, but they want to work and it’s a relatively well paid job, so they make sacrifices!

Dharavi slum tour

We were taken to the leather making factory where they go through the process of tanning before turning the leather into goods which are sold in their shop. They sell through a small number of specialist shops but production is very restricted to avoid counterfeit products appearing at local markets. It seemed as though everyone who could work, did work. There was a bakery with a conveyor belt of loaves – none of them were marked ‘made in Dharavi’ as this would put people off from buying them. Even the women who stayed home with their children worked, making poppadums which were left to dry on upturned buckets, and are sold all over the world. Quite an inspiring place to see.

Hanging Gardens

We spent some time wandering around trendy 'SoBo' (South Bombay), as well as picking up street food at Chowpatty, Mumbai's best known public beach, on our way to one of the city's most chilled parks, the Hanging Gardens. A whistlestop tour of Mumbai before our 20 day tour of Rajasthan!

#bombay #mumbai #masjidbunder #gatewaytoindia #chowpatty #dharavi
#ChhatrapatiShivajiMaharajVastuSangrahalayamuseum #harrapan #pune

Christmas in the sun; Goa

South Goa

The Landy

Night train to Goa. It was a bit different from the last night train – I slept for 7 hours and we had virtually the whole carriage to ourselves. And there was my old school friend Danielle and her partner in crime, Rich, there to pick us up at Madgaon Station when we arrived. 

We were staying at Nana’s Nook in Agonda, South Goa. Danielle and Rich had been living in a land rover for six months having driven to India from London at the beginning of July via Western Europe, Russia, Mongolia, the ‘stans’, China and Pakistan. Rich had converted the landy and it had a bed which pulled out for storage and a table, fridge freezer and a fresh water supply. I am not doing it justice at all. It was great to be driven round in it for a couple of weeks!

Agonda Beach sunset

We spent 3 nights in a beach hut in Agonda. Our accommodation was fairly basic but we had everything we needed and we were pretty much right on the beach which was gorgeous, and more or less deserted.

North Goa

Candolim Beach

Just before Christmas we drove up North to Candolim where Baby D and I had been on holiday six years before. It had changed quite a bit since we were there, it was even more touristy if that’s possible, especially on the beach which was covered in parasols and sun loungers. But we had been hard pushed to find cheap accommodation round Christmas and New Year so it suited us. We also wanted something easy and holiday-ish for the festive season, and Danielle and Rich needed a laidback holiday by then too.

Our hotel was in a great spot; 50m from the beach, but adjoined to a karaoke bar/night club which stayed open until 3am, and opposite another karaoke place also stayed open until 3am. Most of the time the bars were empty but that didn’t stop them banging out ‘Dancing Queen’ and ‘Jolene’ till the early hours. The noise was unreal. After getting up at 2am to complain (we’d asked for a quiet room) we were offered a matchbox to move to which we declined. Danielle gave me some wax earplugs and I was out like a light every night after that. DO NOT GO TO INDIA WITHOUT THEM!

 We spent Christmas day on the beach, and Rich had the bright idea of building a snowman in the sand. Our snowman turned out to be about 5 metres tall and we got half the beach involved in building it. We had a pretty decent version of traditional Christmas dinner at good old Bobby’s Shack, one of the better known beach shacks. 

Our snowman!

One of Candolim's many shacks

One day we went down the beach for a couple of sundowners and ended up staying out until silly o’clock, drunk and embarrassing ourselves – well Danielle and Baby D were embarrassed when I showed them the video of their dancing. New Year’s was Bobby’s Shack again with fireworks and dancing on the beach.

Baby D and I planned a day away from our usual plot on the beach so we went on a boat trip which included dolphin spotting, snorkelling off Grand Island and having a barbecue on Monkey Beach. We met an Aussie called Dan who was travelling alone after his friend had to go home. Dan joined us on a few occasions after that, including on New Year when he went home BEFORE 1am. He’s 23. That is unacceptable. 

The boat trip was, shall we say, interesting. We saw several dolphins from a distance of about 500m but we had quite a few free beers. Apart from that…we saw no fish during the snorkelling, and the beach where we had the barbecue was about 200m long and had about 2000 people on it. Not exactly idyllic. The ladies toilet after all that free beer was a clearing up the hill where we all made friends as we peed together! Pretty disgusting actually.

After spending a fun packed couple of weeks with our mates, mooching round Anjuna flea market, hiking to the fort in flipflops, chilling on Mandrem Beach, watching Rich devour dish after dish of paneer and anything sweet (but nothing green), building sand snowmen, watching Danielle try to say no to red wine and failing miserably, laughing at Baby D doing charades, me becoming best friends with the hotel manager who didn’t like anyone else, singing karaoke (‘You’ve lost that lovin’ feeling’), dancing, swimming, playing bat & ball and frisbee and Baby D getting stung by a jellyfish, it was time to say goodbye.

South Goa again

Baby D and I set off to Palolem where we were staying in a beach hut again for a few nights before our flight to Mumbai. Palolem is in the South of Goa, next to Patnem beach and about 10km from Agonda where we’d stayed just before Christmas. If anyone is thinking of going to Goa, I would definitely recommend the South. Up North is more lively, with more bars and big beach shacks, but Candolim is for people of a certain age (60s+ generally) and it is busy. I can’t speak for Calangute or Baga but we did drive through and they were just as busy. Further North in Mandrem was lovely and quieter, but the South did it for us. It was quiet, relaxed, with enough shacks and restaurants to keep you from getting bored, and a nice mix of age groups.

Patnem Beach

Our beach shack in Palolem was not on the beach, but was on the main road through the village, a few hundred metres away from the beach. The noise from about 5am was mental. Agonda had also been noisy – crows cawing, the breadman honking his horn as he went through on his push bike, dogs barking, waves crashing, cockerels crowing, but Palolem was something else. Indians seem to be used to noise, I guess with 1.2 billion people in this country they need to shout to make themselves heard! They are probably used to the noise of the temples and mosques, car horns and dogs barking. 

All too soon it was goodbye to Goa, reluctantly, and onto Mumbai.

#goa #candolim #agonda #patnem #palolem #anjuna