And now for the Gwalior photos....

K is telling you about Gwalior, I will give you the photos.

These are from the Jain sculptures on the way up to the fort, just some of the smaller details, the full statues were not very photogenic :-)




We started with the Man Singh Palace...a pleasingh place :-)


The detail on the palace is amazing! So much colour and whimsical images.








Our best bat photo yet! Look at all of them!!!!


Another part of the fort...


And some interesting detail on one of the fort walls...


The views over the surrounding towns....




Can you see the pen of buffaloes?


We are off to Rajasthan tomorrow morning...Pushkar. We will catch up when we can (and when we can find a decent connection). Until next time...a very late goodnight from Agra(vation)...

Salaam!

After the Taj Mahal visit we were incredibly tired and hungry. We ate a dissatisfying breakfast of greasy paratha and neglected our distasteful coffee. We returned to base to get forty winks before we continued with our site seeing day.

Next we took a journey out to the Fatehpur Sikri, the city of the third great Mughal Akbar and grandfather of Shah Jahan (of infamous Taj Mahal fame). Although only occupied for fourteen years it has left its mark in the history of India. Akbar was illiterate but this did not prevent him from making a lot of achievements during his rein. Around him he had his 'nine jewels' which were his advisors. Akbar studied and discussed many religious texts, these included the Koran, the bible, the great writings of Hinduism (the Rig Vedas, Purana, Mahabarata etc) as well as Buddhism, Jainism and Judaism. He eventually created his own religion that believed in one god only but incorporated parts of each faith. This is evident in the detailing of his buildings, you can see date trees that represent Islam - there is no symbolic representation in Islam however date trees are in abundance in Mecca and as a result artisans often employ there image as a sign of their faith. There are swastikas representing Hinduism as well domed arches in the shape of a cathedral to indicate Christianity. Akbar had three wives, one Muslim, one Christian and the other Hindu. He built quarters for them in the appropriate styles of their faith. although he had many wives and concubines he never had any children. He went to visit Sheikh Salim Chisti at Sikri, he being a holy man so that he may enlist their prayers. The Sheikh told Akbar that he would have three sons. Soon, one of his wives was pregnant and the prophecy became fulfilled over time. Akbar built a new capital at Sikri, in honour of the saint and soon after the palaces of Fatephur were built. When the Sheikh passed away Akbar had a tomb built in his honour.

Sandstone was Akbar's favorite building material. This is the Panch Mahal, it would have original had scented grass screens to protect the women inside form the sun and heat, as well as keep them away from onlookers.


There are many buildings mainly empty shells but beautifully preserved.


In the middle of this pool which would have been filled with rose scented water, the musicians of the court would play to Akbar who sat upon a nearby platform. The acoustics would have been amazing.


Akbar’s rather large stone bed, still all of his concubines would not fit on it, they queued outside waiting to accommodate the emperors needs!


An example of the date trees representing Mecca.


An intricate lotus design supporting for raised platforms. Akbar sat in the middle and would debate with four of his advisors.

Some detail...


In the adjacent mosque - the Jama Masjid which contains the Sheikhs tomb K and I sat for a while after fighting off students who wanted to explain to us the mosque hopefully to get money although they insisted that they were not trying to be guides. They did pester us a lot. I managed to have some conversations with people, I shall write about what I learned in another post. This mosque is a Sufi mosque, Sufis are Sunnis, they can celebrate God through music unlike other more orthodox Islamic sects which believe that music distracts one from God. There were musicians and a singer seated at the front of the tomb, we sat with them for a while. Inside some tombs, women will tie threads in the hope that their wishes will be fulfilled, they hope for children or husbands. I believe that this is a practice of Sufis only although I cannot be sure. Men were also taking in flowers and candies as offerings, I was informed that this was not like Pooja in Hinduism but comparable to what the women were doing.


When we headed back to Agra we saw these deer.


Some more shots of traffic - we do spend a lot of time in it after all! These guys were ducking under the load.


We see many convoys of half made trucks driving along the roads, they await the chassis to be built. We are not sure if the buyer of the engine and the wheelbase arranges their own styling of its body to meet their needs.


We did get to see the outside of the Agra Red Fort but ended up giving it a miss. We hope to see the one in Delhi sometime.


Thus ends the photos from Agra :-)

Salaam!

Finally I present to you some photos of the Taj Mahal :-) We did not get the classic shot from the front but I am sure that you would have seen this many times over :-) Please refer to our posts to read about the experience.

We arrived early. The mist became thicker over the first hour as we awaited the morning sunshine.


Unusually we approached the Taj from the side.


The mist made the experience very atmospheric and gently revealed the splendour as it dispersed.


It was amazing to watch the sunrise and see the hues change on the surface of the marble.


As the mist cleared the beautiful and intricate detailing was revealed.






...a closer view of the script.


Here are some shots of the beautiful inlay, I have already described the materials used.




Here are some of the beautiful carvings close up that can be found on the surface of the marble, often unobserved in photos due to the popularity of pictures being taken from a distance.




The domes of the archways are shaped even further when you see them close.


A closeup of a minaret.


An example of one variation in the tilework.


There were many couples enjoying the view and soaking up the atmosphere.


Part of the gardens as viewed from the platform of the Taj.


The gateway that you walk through as you approach from the front.


The adjacent mosque.

Inside the mosque.



One of K's artist shots - no alcohol was involved in the making of this picture :-)


It is an amazing experience to have come here to see this, we almost gave it a miss. I will always be in wonder and delight beholding the memory that we cast our shadows at the Taj Mahal.


As we left we finally saw the Taj in all it's daytime glory.

I have escaped from processing photos to put a few words down :)

Wow, it's been some time since I got you up to date on our travels...A has been stealing my facts, but I have plenty more :)

While I remember....one thing I totally spaced about our Amhedabad walk was about the water. Remember that I told you how intelligently designed the Pols were? Overhanging at the top, wide at the bottom to help the cool air flow and keep it all the same temperature, there were also windows near the front door into each haveli to help the air flow into the houses. They also had realized that they were displacing the wildlife (birds, mostly) so they had bird feeders and they built birdhouses into the walls. Then there was the central gate where there is a chalk board so that everyone gets the news. The main (rich person's) haveli had a place for visitors to stay. They had secret escape passages into neighboring Pols so that they were not trapped, too. The passages ways were narrow and twisting so attackers would be confused and horsemen were forced to dismount and walk the horse through. All very well thought out. They also had a plan for water. Each Pol had several storage wells under the houses - I seem to remember them saying that there were 100,000 of these and that they each hold thousands of liters of water - that is a lot of water! They have a rainwater reclamation facility built into the house incorporating a gutter system. They let the first few minutes of water run off and then they start funneling the rain into the tank. The tank is also protected from contamination by limiting access and keeping it covered. I was very impressed...however, only some of the tanks are still in use...and the gates into the Pols are all gone...oh well, all in the name of progress, I guess.

Ok, on to our travels! We left Udaipur for Chittor and it was an easy ride and we arrived about 1pm. We got into town, decided that we didn't want to stay in town (just a gut feeling) and then I remembered that there was a note in the Lonely Planet that said there was a place on the hill that had been recommended so we headed up to the fort to find it. We got up to the top and did not see it at all...so we asked someone at the fort entrance and were told that it wasn't in business any longer, but there was another place we could stay in the fort...easy to find, no problem, just around the corner :). So off we went in search of it. We rode right by it not realizing what it was - no English signage :) That's when I sent A in to find out (it was the only possible option)...I'm the navigator and she is the universal communicator :) Score! It was exactly what we were looking for! We could have gone for the cheap room with shared bath for 50 rupees but we splurged for the luxury suite (including 3 geckos to share the space with :) for 200 rupees (our cheapest night so far!). We could see the shared bathrooms out the back from our window....we were very glad of our choice. As we headed out to tour the ruins A arranged dinner with the manager - there is no food up in the fort area and we did not want to head down unless it was necessary. He said thali (the magic word to my ears :) at 6:30 for 50 rupees and it was a done deal :) I have already told you that we ate exactly what the manager's family ate, and it was delicious! But back to the fort!

The fort is huge, lots of open space! It's approx 3 kms by 9 kms, so we decided to take one bike so we could get around it all in good time. One end of it is a deer reserve (we didn't see any as we rode by, though). We decided to go clockwise so we headed out to the first palace. It was in great shape for a place that was abandoned in the mid 1500s. We explored it like a Tomb Raider game, making sure we covered all the various rooms and passageways :) There were several women washing clothes in the tank and one guy that was washing himself so vigorously that I thought he was preparing for a date that night :) We then hopped on the bike and rode around the very desolate end, stopped to walk over to the wall and have a look of the far side and then continued to the Jain temple and victory tower.

We met another tourist at the Jain temple - she was on her own and she was travelling with a driver. Since A and I are now vastly experienced with Jainism (yeah, right...but we have learned a lot these past few weeks :) we educated her a little. It must be strange for someone to walk in to a temple and see pictures of naked men on the walls! (not pornographic! they have just given up everything, so they have, literally, nothing :) and have the caretaker put a liquid mark on your forehead (we are very use to this from many temple visits, but for Jains it is more important - theirs is a deodorant, so you don't smell up the space :) Back on the bike we went onward to a tank, passing several shrines.

The tank is the one from the photo, with the interesting rock walls. I walked down and around, looking for good textures for my photos :) There was one guy having a wash at one end and there was an older woman having a wash at the other. I also spotted some small bamboo rafts on the rocks that must be from some past celebration (I assume). We then continued to the deer park and looped around to the main buildings remaining in the fort.

We explored another palace that has not survived very well and checked out another tank and then it was on to the Shiva temple and the BIG tower of victory. We came in the back way, past the ladies selling nuts for the monkeys...and then past the monkeys (I love monkeys and these ones were nice and very clean :) There were lots of monkey babies!!! They are very cute, but we kept our distance so as not to upset mother monkey. There were a couple of young ones chasing each other up and down the facade of the main gateway - leaping around and trying to push each other off. Hilarious :)

Then it was down to the water area - the bull spout where the spring comes out and a big tank. On the way down we watched a monkey eat some food...this was a bit different as the monkey was missing one hand, some toes and his tail, but he was defending his dinner from some other monkeys. It was interesting to watch. It was also interesting to watch the fish feeding frenzy when someone threw some of the monkey food into the water - there are some decent sized fish in that tank! Then we had some guys try to be very friendly with us...and after about 2 minutes they were so bold to ask for kisses!!!! We departed rapidly...and they followed and asked us AGAIN!!! So I got a bit harsh with them and told them we were NICE girls, NICE girls don't give kisses to boys they don't know, so if some girls have given them kisses after meeting them for a couple of minutes those girls were not NICE girls :) I do like to educate people....most of the time they don't get it, but I still try :)

Then it was onto the Shiva temple...we are quite familiar with Shiva temples and the smell as we walked in was familiar - it was really nice. It must be a specific incense but I don't know which one. A got chatting with the caretaker (and it looked like the caretaker was living in the temple - his bed and washing was in evidence!) and he told her that she could go into place where the linga usually is in a Shiva temple, but there was a huge trio of Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu all decorated in bright colors. I was checking out the architecture and it was very easy to see where the temple had been reinforced in the 1400s. The exterior is very interesting, too - very decorative. A spent a few minutes eavesdropping on a small group with a guide and found out about what the different levels of decoration meant. This is pretty standard for the time period - we saw the same layers on the second Jain temple we went to just down the road from this temple :) That Jain temple was next on our trail and it was very similar to the Delwara temples we saw at Mt Abu - in construction, not in finely carved decoration.

By the time we had visited the second Jain temple it was getting on in time and things were closing. We took decided to ride down and check out the gates that we had ridden up through and to look for the 2 markers for the leaders that had died in the last jauhar - when they defended the fort to the death. they were quite a ways down the hill, nearly out of the fort and one of them had already been mortally wounded and was carried out by the other guy! They take their chivalry very seriously. It was also just about time for dinner :):):)

The next morning we headed out at 7 and it was CHILLY! We were both really cold on the ride and we stopped about 10kms into the ride to put wind blockers inside our jackets - A used my waterproof tank bag cover and I had a bin liner :) That was the hard ride on the road under construction when we only made it to Jalawar. After that night in Jalawar we had a great ride into Bhopal. Bhopal is a beautiful city - a city of lakes it says on their welcome signs. The lake was lovely...not as lovely as Udaipur, but when we were thinking that this was the hottest and driest part of India...we were pleasantly surprised. We got a bit lost finding the hotel, but this is normal when you have rudimentary maps and no street signs (not even ones we can't read :) I have been very glad to have my very cool and very functional Nike watch - it has a compass!

The next morning it was off to Sanchi - the whole reason for our visit. It's about 50kms away and we found the road and it was sweet :) Most of it was freshly paved, only a few sections were still under construction and it was *not* boring and straight :) I did the driving with A on the back (it was early and A is a bit useless when she hasn't had her coffee, remember? And I love mornings :) It was also quite chilly....it's quite chilly up in the north! We are so used to the warm south :) We arrived in good time and went right to a cafe for some coffee and stuffed parathas :) Then we headed up the hill to the ruins....and it was WOW!

They have done a beautiful job restoring the stupas, the other ruins and the whole area. It was not crowded, it was so peaceful. We both commented on how happy and at peace we felt. Very strange. It was hot work, though and by midday we were both suffering and I went down to the small shop and got lots of liquids and some potato chips (so we could get some salt into our systems, not because we were hungry). What a change from the cold ride in the morning! You have seen the photos. It's just amazing. I would tell you more about it, but I have more to tell you :) You can find more info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanchi

On our way back, since it wasn't all that late, we decided to see if we could find the Union Carbide factory - no, we were not being morbid! :) We knew that it was only about 10kms out near the Sanchi road, so we had a go. We don't know for sure if we spotted it (there are no signs that say HERE IT IS :) but we think we saw it. We saw lots of other cool stuff though so it was well worth it for us to take the scenic route (with A on the back as chief photographer :)

So, another early departure...this time we REALLY froze! We were more prepared though and we had lots of layers on and our buffs and we were all zipped up....we were as warm as we could have been with the kit we have with us. About 100kms into the 400km ride we stopped at the A1 rest stop and depleted their stocks of 6 cups of coffee and 2 stuffed parathas (with pickle and curd, my favorite way to have them :). While we were warming up, the sun was also warming up the great outdoors and when we headed out we were just fine, temperature-wise :). A has already told you about the rest of the ride - the rain, the cops...that it was about 65kms farther then what my map said it was going to be :) That was not the end of the horrors, though...we could NOT find the hotel...we couldn't even find the train station!!!! We asked quite a few people, and apparently we were on the right road but we were just not finding it. Lucky for us 2 nice young men on a motorbike decided to ask us if we were lost :) We told them we were looking for MLB Road and they told us we were on it. Good...we thought we had followed directions :) Then we asked for the train station and they did one of those over there sort of wavy movements and then they asked us what hotel we were looking for (do we look like we are looking for a hotel??? plenty of people ask us :) so we told them and they said they would take us there (do we have great luck or what?!?!?! These guys saved my butt - I was just about at the end of my patience and I was starving! They led us right to the hotel, which was about 2kms away and not on the road we were on....crap maps!!!! But we got checked in and it was a nice room with a clean bathroom :)

The hotel didn't have a restaurant but they said they serve food in the rooms so we placed our order...we ordered one more dish than regular because we were really starving! They called up a few minutes later to say it would arrive at 8 (an hour later) we were starved, so we said ok and we went about entertaining ourselves by reading the Lonely Planet and finding out what was on television - Lethal Weapon 2! :) Just before 8 they called to say it was going to be another 45 minutes...A told them when she answered the call that it wasn't alright...and hung up (she knows what I am like when I am hungry :). Not a minute later the guy was at our door apologizing and asking us to be patient....I did lose my temper a bit and I told him we had been on the road since 7 this morning, riding from Bhopal and that I was starving....could they at least get us a packet of biscuits??? So we handed over 10 rupees and they appeared in about 5 minutes with the water we had ordered and the biscuits. The biscuits did not last more than about 2 minutes :)

The first set of dishes arrived and we tucked in! The food was good and it has to be said, it was worth the wait. We finished the dal, veg curry and rice before round 2 arrived and then we made the aloo gobi and 5 chapatis disappear as well :) Then it was malaria tabs and under the mosi net for us! In the morning we chased up the Indian Coffee House for some coffee and one of their famous dosas and then rode up to the fort (the reason to come to Gwalior :). A is posting the photos right now.

We needed to get to Agra, so we we only spent a couple of hours nosing around. On the way up to the fort are some pretty amazing Jain sculptures carved into the rock, they were carved in the 1400s and defaced about 75 years later (heads and genitals knocked off). We did a bit of climbing on the rocks and then it was on to the fort! The fort is much smaller than Chittor - it covers the top of a hill 3 kms long and not even 1km in most places. There were definite signs of British presence as well! We explored the palace, walking down dark stairways where the architecture provided a small bathing pool and passages to facilitate cold air movement and also speaking tubes! We also saw some more bats :) Then we walked on the walls, checked out some more ruins and the tank where nearby the women killed themselves when jauhar was committed at this fort. Then we checked out the museum and then went to have a look at our first Sikh temple.

That was a new experience! You have to cover your head, wash your hands, remove shoes and walk through a pool of water (very clean!). Inside they gave us some sweet mushy stuff to eat as well. There was a board outside that explained about the temple and it's purpose at this particular spot and it also gave some Sikh history. The temple is called Gurudwara Data Bandhi Chod and it was built in the memory of Guru Hargobind Sahib, who was imprisoned in the fort for two years by Jehangir. There is a bit of a story about how he came to be released and when he did he asked that any prisoners that could touch his shawl also be released and it was agreed. He then had a special shawl made and it had lots of tassles on it and more than 50 other prisoners were also released with him :) More about Gwalior can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwalior

We headed down from the fort, got packed up and then got underway to Agra. Finding the hotel was fine...made harder by the fact that the hotel does not have a sign :) Then we found and internet cafe and A told you we were here :)

That's about all I have in my fingers today, you will have to wait for my report on the Taj Mahal. Catch you later!!!!

Salaam!

Whilst journeying here and there, we constantly glimpse many images of what life is like in different parts of India, I have very few photos, hopefully my brief descriptions will suffice. We often see much beauty in the landscape and the flora and fauna that we pass by. Sometimes life in the countryside can seem ideallic, peaceful and serene, from what I have read it is a constant struggles for farmers to make ends meet, often getting themselves into heavy debt through money lenders because the little land that they own grows no profit.

Of rural areas:



We have seen dusty unwashed children with unbrushed scraggy hair in rags and darkly stained clothes walking alone or in pairs alongside highways as traffic rages by at break neck speeds swerving. Children so young that in the UK we would not even allow them out to play at such a vulnerable age let alone walk alongside roads. Sometimes the children will be defecating, sometimes they will be carrying water, herding cattle/ goats, carrying bundles of fire wood, playing, fighting or sitting with parents.

India is a largely agricultural country, many people depend on the crops not only for food but also as a source of income. I have already mentioned the crops that we saw in Gujarat, as we rode from Udaipur to Bhopal and then from Bhopal to Gwailor we also saw an abundance of crops and vegetables growing. The roadside fields and the smell of fresh coriander growing in them filled our nostrils every now and then and it would make my mouth water and I would think of dahl or salsa. Between Udaipur and Jhalawar we saw a lot of opium poppy being harvested. The sickle is the most important piece of equipment, very rarely do we see farm machinery such as combine harvesters or winnowing machines. We often see people cutting wheat using the sickle, they will then tie it up into little bundles which are arranged in parallel lines in the fields as they work their way across the crop. A crop will be wonnowed using woven baskets, sometimes it will be laid out rather dangerously on the road so that the wheels of the traffic does the hard work. Sometimes a sickle will be attached to the end of a wooden pole which are used to pull down small branches from trees either to get the leaves for the goats or for use as firewood should there be enough of it.

We regularly see goat/ buffalo/ oxen herders taking out their livestock to be fed, often they will walk them in the highway in order to reach common ground. A man's wealth can be measured by the amount of livestock that he owns. Donkeys are at the bottom of the ladder, we have seen more women than men with donkeys. Goats are next, suceeded by bovine. We see men women or children herding. Hairy pigs are often left to their own devices normally feeding off of the piles of trash left lying around. The relationship between people and their animals is very symbiotic, a mutual relationship where both become dependent upon one another.

Yesterday a peacock ran across the road in front of us as we travelled two up on K's bike out to Fatephur Sikri. The luminescence of the blue feathers was amazing. we have seen a couple of wild peacocks now, on both occasions they were a wonderful surprise.

We have seen a lot of bicycles and motorbikes panniered with large metal urns with lids, these carry milk. Mainly they can be seen in the morning after the few cattle that the owners have are milked. The two wheelers will drive to homes and businesses delivering milk. They will pull up and with a metal ladle scoop the milk into a container owned by the purchaser, the money is exchanged and then the rider will be on their way.

In the pre-dominantly Muslim areas we see buffalo meat for sale. I saw a goods carrier rickshaw loaded with the ribs of carcasses uncovered and open to the world. In the butchers the carcass will be hanging up in the small abode often no bigger than a cupboard which serves as a business. The doorway covered with a loose piece of fabric will flap in the breeze and expose the contents inside. There is often an excessive amount of flies buzzing around the meat as well as outside the front of the shop. When somebody makes a purchase the butcher will hack away at the piece of halal, I am not sure what the meat is carried away in. These places are often dark inside compared to the light in the street, you can see a couple of people sitting on the floor talking whilst the carcass hangs next to their heads and they sit amongst the debris.

We have seen men wearing many different coloured turbans as well as different ways in which to wear them. Sikhs have them tightly wrapped with what looks like an arch formed into the front. We have seen some where the fabric is twisted and then it is loosely slumped upon the head. Some are wound and then a flat piece is placed upon the top with the last piece of fabric. Colours can be fluorescent pinks, greens, yellows, pastels or primary colours, there are also mixtures of colours, red with blue or black, there are many combinations. For as bright as the saris are in the dust or amongst the green of the fields, these turbans also stand out.

I have mentioned urns used to carry water before now. I had forgotten that they can also be made of pottery as well as plastic. The plastic urns are often a blend of two colours and their texture can look like a swirled fruit and cream flavoured boiled sweet. The plastic variety was more popular in the south.

We have seen Jain pilgrims walking alongside the road. Normally they are of the white clad sect and can be seen wearing white or cream robes and carrying a stick and an alms container. Recently we saw two naked Jain men walking with an assistant. The ascetic Jains were carrying a peacock feather each. The peacock feather is to sweep away any ants in their path so that they do not kill them by stepping on them. Some Jains even go so far as to wear a mask over their mouth so that they do not breathe in any bugs. Jains do not like to kill any living thing and the produce that they eat is also restricted. They will not wear leather and will not eat onion or garlic for example as they believe that some vegetables have souls.

As you are about to see we have seen residences made of straw, twigs or sacks tightly pulled across frames as well as brick or mud or a combination of the above. Normally they are made of any material available locally. In the cities and towns buildings are regularly made of cement.



They may have corrugated roofs or thatch. There are houses made of dry stone wall, they are then covered with mud or dung in order to insulate them.



In UP and MP state many of the houses have been of this latter type, they are very low in height, often windowless with typically small doorways. Normally cattle will be out the front of the building, either roped or chained up and seem to be very much a part of the families life as much activity goes on around them.



People are already preparing for the monsoons in the future. Here are some of the dung patties that will be used as fuel for fires. They are formed by hand, you can see handprints in them when you are close up.




Finally here are some of the abodes that we saw as we rode from Agra. In the heavy rain they must have been dreadful, these are some of the better ones too.





....and as we rode to Agra from Fatephur Sikri.



Thanks for reading.

Last photos from Udaipur...and beyond!

We decided to stay an extra day in Udaipur...it's such a beautiful place! So we spent the day walking around town and then went to a dance performance at night...

Lazy days by the lake...


...while others are hard at work!



The dance performance covered several dances from around Rajasthan and Gujarat, including a puppeteer!

Dance with bells...



...swirling skirts...



...puppets...


...and the water dance - she startd with one pot and they added subsequent pots as she demonstrated different skills: lying on the ground, twirling, running, walking on broken glass!!!! all without tipping the pots off her head. Now that is talent :)


We left Udaipur for Chittor...a huge Rajput fort (28 sq kms?) on top of a hill. Three times the people of Chittor committed jauhar - preferring death to surrender. It means the loss of all life - the women commit suicide on a funeral pyre in the fort while the men fight to the death, charging out and attacking the invaders. It's a big place - apparently one time it was 13,000 women dying by fire! I would assume that there was a similar number of men that died in battle.

Views from the hill...




There are several palaces in the fort....some in better condition that others.






And lots of temples...

This is a Jain temple next to one of the towers of victory (they didn't always fight to the death...sometimes they won :)


The main site here was a Shiva temple. Built in 800 AD and restored in 1450 AD or so. It has the trio of Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu inside.




A small shrine...with eyes :)


A small shrine with...monkeys!


Spring water coming out of a bull's mouth...it's one of the major attractions, too, just down the stairs from the Shiva temple.


And temple monkeys :) There were women there selling nuts to feed to the monkeys...




and the fish in one of the tanks! The feeding frenzy was amazing to watch.


This is one of the tanks. The special thing about this one is the texture of the rock in it's walls.


This is another victory tower...done over in one of my artistic photos :)



Those MP roads were a hoot....this is the 1km of potholes alternated with 1km of nice two-lane.


Some traffic moves a bit slower than other traffic....


Another roadside attraction was the picking of opium poppies...



We then headed to Bhopal...it was a nicer city than we expected.

The Hotel was really nice - a business hotel that also caters to forign tourists (there was a tour group staying, too). These rules had us rolling on the floor with laughter :) It's a very good thing we left the gramaphone behind, wouldn't want it to get confiscated or anything....




The reason for our trip to Bhopal was Sanchi - Ashoka's Buddhist meditation center (300BC - 1200AD). It was well worth the major detour!!!! One of the few places we found amazingly peaceful in a country that is always buzzing.

The thing to see in Sanchi is the stupas. The biggest one - Stupa 1 - was the burial place of one of the relics (a bone fragment) of one of Buddha's disciples. Nearby is the Ashokan Pillar with the edict of Ashoka for the monks and nuns not to force any schism in Buddhism or they would be excommunicated (or the equivalent). It is surrounded by 4 gates and a fence, all added later. The gates are all unique and show scenes from the Jakata tales and Buddha's life and other things.




detail of the fence...


This is a Buddha that is in one of the temples...


This is from another Buddha in one of the big temples...the first image is from the disk behind the head of Buddha and the second is some designs on the skin of the Buddha.



There were also several monasteries built over the years. They were usually wood on top of a brick base, so only the foundations survive.



When we got back to Bhopal from Sanchi we went for a little ride around the outskirts of this fair city (really to find the Union Carbide plant from the 1987 disaster)...

A Bhopal party wagon...the band plays for weddings and other celebrations (we see them in every town - the band usually has it's own shop front...in case it's called to play at a moments notice???? :)


Lots of pots for sale....


This Sinsiter Rickshaw was about to gobble this guy up (I told you A thought they were sinister!!!). We have learned that these are actually called Tempos...

Salaam!

We have survived another day in Agra(vation) :-) We have spent the morning walking around the city avoiding rickshaw wallahs who are persistent in getting you under their canopy - it has been the worse that we have seen since Delhi. The wallahs will offer you a "free" ride, which will result in the innocent tourist ending up on a wild goose chase to all of the shops that will give the wallah twenty rupees for you just walking through the door. You will then being a victim of aggressive commerce tactics. The wallahs do not go away. Despite our incredibly clear Hindi and good pronunciation. I am learning to be blunt and firm without being rude, sometimes I joke a little, engage in a light conversation and tell them that we have been here for far to long for any of their antics :-)

So, as promised, on to the Taj Mahal.

First the reality...

There is an effort to protect the monument from the polluted atmosphere by creating a 2km radius around the Taj whereby vehicles that emit noxious fumes have been banned and local industry is having to comply to strict rules and regulation. As a result there are electric rickshaws/ buses, camel carts and horse drawn carriages to transport tourists. We decided to catch the number 11 bus (our legs :-) with the accompanying call to prayer sounding out from the many mosques around us. After stopping off at Joney's Place for the best coffee in town, we arrived incredibly early at the Taj, in fact pre-dawn. It was still dark, there were no queues to get in and very few visitors compared to the heaving masses that we saw later in the day. We had to walk through metal detectors and have our bags searched thoroughly to gain entry through the west gate. Our entry fee was 750 rupees, for Indians it is 20 rupees, Indian people think that we are crazy to pay such an extortionate price. There was a terrorist threat here in August 2006 and I should think that since then security has been tight. Later I also noticed the security patrols brandishing automatic weapons walking the perimeter walls as well as the guards standing high up watching out from the towers, silhouetted in the morning sun. In fact in Agra in the Taj Ganj area there are regular patrols of police on horses and there are many lining the approaches to the gates of the Taj. We then walked to the red sandstone gateway which conceals the Taj, allowing you to only see the monument when you have walked up to the gate, this is symbolic of the divide between the secular world and paradise. The garden in front of the Taj, although wonderful, is not as splendid as it once was, the lawns and the watercourses do however add to the symmetry that the Taj is renowned for. Still, it was also dark and the green lawns and sandstone paths did not yet contrast against the whiteness of the marble - as we were to realise later in the day. Many tourists stood at the gateway, waiting for the dawn and the opportunity to take the cliched photo of the Taj from the front with the garden lined up. I admit this is a beautiful position but K and I did not want to be amongst the crowd. We decided to walk up the side of the watercourses (the rivers of heaven) and get straight up to the monument to watch dawn from the east side and thus the morning light reflecting off of the building. The Taj was covered in the morning mist rising up from the river Yamuna this added to the other worldly effect.



The Beauty..

It radiates an eternal declaration of love; sensual and captivating, pure.

The morning fog was embracing it, I was seeing an image in a cloud such was the effect of white marble swamped in the mist. I imagined that I was seeing something from another realm and not just another century. As the fog became thicker it appeared as though it was slipping away because the Taj was not so clear to see. Then the sun came and captured it, the warm hues making the marble more solid and reassured me that I was not in a dream - although in it's presence you cannot help but feel as though you are in a dream. I sat myself down on a bench because I felt as though I could no longer stand, I wanted my senses to absorb my surroundings and my body was only causing a distraction. I sat here for almost an hour, watching the colour change as the sun caused the surface of the marble to reflect shades of pink then pale orange followed by soft gold, appreciating the fancy. As the dawn ended and the new day began the true fabric and presence of the tribute became very real. It did not lose it's magic. I looked at the boldness of it's lines and it's symmetry, balanced out with the softness of the marble. It looked like a line drawing lifted straight off of a parchment, I imagined that somebody had come along and carefully filled in the shades of tan, grey and cream effectively amongst the white marble. The inlay of semi-precious stones was more apparent and I admired the detail of vines and petals that I imagined to be refreshed by the morning dew. It adds to the beauty to know the following: the stones came from far and wide:

Red carnelian - Baghdad
Red, yellow and brown jasper - Punjab
Amethyst - Persia
Diamonds - India
Mother of Pearl - Indian Ocean
Crystal and green jade - China
Turquoise - Tibet
Agates - Yemen
Blue lapis lazuli - Afghanistan and Ceylon
Dark green malachite - Russia



There is a saying of the prophet (Shah Jahan was a Muslim), it describes the throne of God as a dome of white pearl supported by white pillars. It is said that the pearl appearance of the dome is thus not coincidental. I admired the smoothness of the dome against the sharpness of the minarets. There are verses of the Koran in calligraphy of black marble bordering doorways. I admired the script and I found it pleasing to look at it's curves - words that I do not understand and cannot read adding to the mystique. The marble in places reminded me of white marzipan that has been smoothly molded by hand into intricate shapes and glazed with egg white.

In order to go inside the tomb it is a requirement to wear soft covers over your shoes (these are provided). I am going to leave it to K to describe the interior.

My conclusion - The Taj is breathtaking. It captivates you. You get the impression of an eternal love whose existence cannot be denied such is the strength of the piece that has been created. Nothing that I have read or seen prepared me for the beauty, magnificence and depth of feeling that I found before me. I suggest that if you have ever wanted to see this Wonder of the World that you do so. That you get there at dawn to beat the crowds and make the effort. Truly there is nothing that will ever come close to being here and was more than worth the effort in putting up with the Agra(vation) :-)

I have really enjoyed writing this post, thank you for reading.

Salaam.

Today we saw the Taj Mahal and currently I am stuck for words, tomorrow I shall write more about it, today I am too tired to do it any justice.

Regarding the matter, I can only leave you with this - it is one of the most beautiful and unwordly structures that I have ever seen in my life, I think of it as a poem and a dream but its exitence proves that it is real.

One more thing....

We also rode 45 kms out of the city of Agra to see the Fatehpur Sikri, the great city of Akbar, the third Mughal ruler after Babur and his son Humayun - hence my greeting.

It has been an interesting day but we are wiped out and have had to work quite hard to fight off 'guides' and 'students'. We also need to find another internet cafe because none of the USB work here and we cannot get the pictures up.

Tonight I am sure that my dreams will be filled with exqusite marble, for I must go and get some shut eye.

Until tomorrow... Goodnight.

Namaste!

We are in AGRA - home of one of the great Wonders of the World - the Taj Mahal. It is so wonderful to be here and we are both incredibly excited to see it :-) :-) Tonight we managed to catch a glimpse of the great monument to Shah Jahan's wife Mumtaz. We saw only a small part of the great dome and the upmost point of the minarets however the little that we have seen is already breathtaking. Tomorrow morning we shall get up for 5am and will head out of the door to the Mahal hopefully catching the dawn call to prayer from the mosques within the city as a double bonus. We have heard many horror stories about hawkers in Agra and tourists being hassled by aggressive touts, we do however feel better experienced to deal with this now and we hope that our early start we help us beat the crowds.

Talking of our experience, we have now been away travelling for three months, this is also the most amount of time that I have ever spent away from MK and the UK which means that I am personally covering a lot of new terrain. We celebrated with a nice long ride - just what we need :-) We rode 465 kms in one day from Bhopal to Gwalior. This was incredibly hard work despite the road conditions being better than they have been of late. We also encountered rain! There is a strange weather front across India at the moment, it is coming from Pakistan, there had been heavy snowfall in the north and freak storms around the country, this is very odd for this time of year apparently and is causing much mischief including damage to much needed crops. As we rode underneath a dark grey cloud it did not take long for the smell of rain to fill our nostrils. The smell was sweet and fresh, luckily we were passing open countryside so did not have to smell the dampness in the city. In the UK, rain is a part of our everyday constitution, the familiarity of it and now having been parted from it for so long bought in it's downpour many warm memories for me. I have spent a lot of hours in the rain riding bicycles, naturally my head filled with nostalgic thoughts of two wheels either on or off road. Surprisingly other memories were triggered such as playing out in the rain when I was young or walking home from school and splashing in puddles and having my plaited hair get all soppy and wet. I love the rain and I am not ashamed to say that I have missed it, in our busy lives we do not have time to appreciate it because of the inconvinience it causes. When I was a teenager, a friend and I used to run out into the rain to feel it on out faces, it was a pleasure not a burden, how different we become as we grow older.

We are fortunate enough to be able to go out into the rain, get wet then dry ourselves off in the warmth of our homes afterwards because.....

Another thought that I had was for all of the poor people that we have seen living on the roadsides in makeshift shelters. We have already shared some stories of the slums that we have seen but over the last few days we have also viewed tents, some luckily made of waterproof tarpaulin but we have seen some made with old sacks, pieces of sari, I even saw some that were made of twigs with gaping holes in the sloping sides/ roof. The rain brought coldness too, we both thought of the poor people who live in these shelters and how terrible the rain must have been for them, causing them to freeze, lying in dampness and in the dark. Even in the morning the sun took a long time to warm up the earth, K and I were shivering on the bike ride, these people have a lot less body fat than us and often very little insulating clothing, they must have been suffering....

On the ride yesterday we were also stopped by the police - and it was not because K was breaking the speed limit! We were flagged down by a cop who held his hand aloft in a "halt yourselves" position, we thought it wise to follow his order - he did have a rifle slung over his shoulder afterall. There were three cops, all wearing the military style uniform that is required which adds to the imtimdation. They wanted to check our paperwork, reassuringly they were stopping every single motorcyclist and tractor that went by so we had not been singled out. K, being the organised one pulled out more paperwork than the three guys could possibly audit with any efficiency and the result was that they were more baffled than anything else. Not only this but she also still had her earplugs in, which makes her louder than normal (and she being an American, is loud at the best of times), I think that the situation turned into the cops being intimidated and feeling the need to behave themselves instead :-) They flicked through our International Driving Permits trying to find a language that could be understood, passing all the paperwork between them out of curiosity more than anything else. Anyhow, needless to say we passed with flying colours (our license plates matched the paperwork) and we got a nice big tick next to our recorded details. I said thank you :-) and we sped on our way!

Another thing to acknowledge from yesterday is that my bike passed the 10,000 km mark and K's bike rolled over the 20,000 km mark - that means we have done 10,000 km on the trip so far.

Finally, I would like to let you know that I am keeping a list of all the things that we have observed and that we would like to share with you but have not had the time to do so. We shall therefore be posting these over time so do stay tuned. We also have some more photos to load up.

So, until tomorrow, goodnight from Agra!

Hello from Bhopal....

yes, home of the Union Carbide disaster, but it's actually a decent town :) It has been a long, hard road to get here, though....we are back in Madaya Pradesh and we told you their roads were pretty terrible last time we were here :) We are riding some of the same roads again, but this time it all looks different - much greener!

We had a really nice time in Chittor - checked out the ruins and stayed in a nice tourist accomodation type place and had our first home cooked meal! It was delicious!!!!!! The guy that manages the place said he would arrange a thali for our dinner...little did we know that we would basically be eating with the family. We were up and out the next morning on the road to Sanchi...and we had over 100kms of road construction! It is the same road (NH-76) that we used to get to Udaipur and it seems the whole of NH-76 is being upgraded from it's one lane incarnation to the 4 lane monstrosity. We have been told that it is a national highway project - they want and east-west expressway in this area and this is the chosen route. We ended up in Jhalawar in a nice Rajasthan Tourist Corp. hotel feeling like we had done some hard miles and not feeling like we had much to show for it.

A fabulous hot shower and good nights sleep later, we woke up refreshed and filled up on some of the best butter toast we have had and hit the road. We rolled in to Bhopal this afternoon feeling pretty good after having fought the roads for half the day (why Madaya Pradesh decided to pave alternating kilometers we will never know - it was one km of pristine pavement alternated with a km of single lane, pot holed, gravelly, lumpy bumpy...road. It went on for far too long...and then the road was sweet!!!! So we ripped it up and felt a lot more productive.

Tomorrow we head to Sanchi to see the Buddhist ruins and then we have had a slight change in plans and we are going to head north to Gwailor and on to Agra (Taj Mahal here we come :) and then get back into Rajasthan to our camel safari :)

Time for bed! We have to get an early start - it's 50kms from Bhopal to Sanchi and we want to beat the crowds :) Goodnight!!!

Namaste!

We are still in Udaipur - as always plans change. It is possible that when we leave here we will not have access to a computer for a week, so we had decided to get everything up to date before we get out of touch. We also wanted to see some Rajasthani folk dancing, so we have tickets for a show tonight which is to be held down by the ghat in an old haveli.

I also want to use this opportunity to share some other stories with you that I have not had time to write up...

Yesterday when we visited one of the farm villages we were told a story about the lack of rain which affected the area for many years. There had been seven years of bad monsoons and all the wells, rivers and lakes had dried up. Old women were walking at least two kilometres or so to collect water from where it was still available - if you consider how heavy liquid is to carry you can imagine how long this process would take. Times were getting desperate, crops were failing, there was barely enough water for the people to drink let alone anything else. There were many rituals performed and Puja offerings to encourage the rain to come but this was to no avail. Finally when the rains did come there was much celebration, people were dancing outside in the rain for a long time so that they could feel the water again, people would go and sit by the lakes and rivers and stare at the water because they had missed it so much.

I have been reading about farmers who end their lives when the crops fail due to a lack of rain, without the produce they have no income, if they have borrowed money in order to just survive they get into a desperate situation and can often see no other way out - it is very sad. Even now, the landscape seems really dry and we are lucky enough to come when there have been good rains. In Rajasthan there is a vast amount of desert, K and I have not reached the driest area yet but we are noticing the difference, our skin feels much drier and we are drinking a lot more water. Getting water is a main part of peoples lives in India, we are always seeing people (mainly women) including children carrying urns on their heads. Quite often they carry two urns, they have a round base that is kept in place on top of the head with a piece of fabric that is twisted into the shape of a doughnut with a hole in the middle within which the urn sits, quite often there is a smaller urn stacked on top. We have seen many plastic versions in the south of India but as we have headed north again they are made out of metal and must be heavier to carry. There are water pumps everywhere in Rajasthan, most people do not have running water in their homes and even here in Udaipur there are public water pumps on every street. We see people on the steps of the ghats in the heart of the city washing their clothes or themselves, we see this all over India. I often feel as though I should divert my eyes from this because I do not mean to pry but it fascinates me, the water in which they wash is often polluted or contaminated with litter. I watched a woman who ran a chai stand on the edge of the ghat pull a bucket of water up from the dirty water and wash the glasses in which she served the tea, she did not dry the glasses before use and immediately after rinsing them with the water she served up the tea - I wonder why people do not get sick all the time, maybe they do.

On the subject of water, I have seen hand made ice lollies made in the street. There will be a hand cart upon which will be a selection of bottles containing various coloured liquids as well as fresh limes. There is an upside down plane on a wooden block, hidden in the base of the cart a block of ice is pulled out, a piece is chipped off and the ice is returned to its resting position. The remaining piece of ice is then shaved with the plane, these pieces in turn are pressed very hard into a cup. A wooden stick is then forced into the formation and the flavoured and brightly coloured liquid is poured over the top, sometimes fresh lime juice is added. The cup is then removed and an ice lolly has been made, this is very popular amongst school children, in the heat of the day I would love to try one but like much of the street food it is off limits for us.

Next - The slums in Mumbai.

When K and I caught the train to Mumbai we were surprised at the vast number of slums that lined the railway tracks for miles. These are often constructions made from corrugated sheets, old tyres, tarpaulin, cardboard, railway sleepers, almost anything that can be used as a building material. The people that live in these have often come from rural areas hoping to have a better life in the city, unfortunately in most cases this does not happen and they end up being victims in a game of political chess. The huts are built tightly together, they are very close knit and seem to form one large sprawling monstrosity. Sometimes when buildings have been knocked down only half of the structures remain standing, the bare minimum is removed to make way for a road or railway track etc. People will move into the remains that are left standing and will string up tarpaulins etc to make a new abode out of what little is left. These are often quite odd in their appearance because you can still see the brightly coloured paint that would have adorned the interior of the buildings, sometimes there are neat rows of tiles as well as sinks that are no longer plumbed to anything. There are no facilities for the people that live in these slums, quite often in order to get electric power they will illegally rig up their own power lines to the electricity supply that supplies nearby businesses or housing areas (we have read about this in the newspaper). As our train passed by these areas and day broke, people were waking and getting ready to start their day. There was the usual brushing of teeth and washing from a bucket of water as they watched the carriages slip by. One of the most disturbing things to see was the use of the railway tracks as a public toilet. People were squatting either on the tracks or just on the edge of them in order to defecate, these were mostly men and children, I am not sure what the women do. I am not talking about three or four people, I am talking a good hundred or so en route. If you consider the density of the slums and the fact that there is no space at all, it is no surprise that people have to resort to such measures to relieve themselves. We saw many bare bottoms that morning! I was quite disgusted at first but soon, as I thought about it more, this turned to pity - how awful that they do not even have a toilet. There is in fact a big problem with people defecating or urinating on the railway tracks, this is not only done by the slum dwellers but also by passengers and those who work on the railways. The situation is so bad that some tracks which should have lasted for twenty years are only getting a lifespan of two years - it is costing a lot of money. There is pressure on Indian railways to improve facilities but as always it is likely that corruption will impede any progress (according to what we have read). When K and I were waiting for our train to Mumbai we were going to sit in the ladies waiting room, unfortunately we had to rule this out because it had been used as a lavatory (and you know it was not the ladies!!!!). The people in the slums are often mislead by politicians wishing to gain votes, promises are made but after the all important campaign is over, the slum dwellers will find themselves victims to a bulldozer that has come to demolish their homes, quite often they will receive very little notice. Other times politicians will remove slums in advance of the election in order to influence voters or skew the numbers. With no access to education, health care or water, basics that we take for granted, life must be incredibly hard for these people...

One final subject (because liming would probably help the railway tracks), when we were in Ahmedabad the gutters and streets had been limed. This is done periodically especially in areas were there is a rubbish dump or where there has been a lot of urination. Another thing that we saw was the removal of illegally parked two wheelers, we would often see a tow truck with five guys and about ten scooters and motorbikes piled on the back. There seemed to be a lot of organisation in Ahmedabad and efforts to keep the city clean and green.

I still have stories to share with you regarding politics and communal violence but I am still reading up on some of this. Thanks to Kate who has lent me her copy of Mark Tully's "India in Slow Motion". It is an excellent book - the more I read it the more I realise that I know very little about this country and how things work here. I do however hope to at least diminish some of my ignorance by continuing to keep an open mind and try to see through the smoke screen of the happy shopper tourist.

And on the subject of thanking people.....I think Carl needs to know that we think of him often. And not just when we are huddling under the mosi net he left with us in Kerala (his 2 person hooped net makes us feel like we are in the "family" tent and not the 2-man backpack tent mosi nets that we brought with us :-). That net was a true refuge when we were under attack in Pondicherry (and other places, but Pondicherry was by far the worst! Headlines read: "50 Mosquitos slain by the Chappal of Death!" :-). Also, K is reading "God of Small Things" and is remembering the time we spent in Kerala with Kate and Carl. Do I need to tell you that we are having a great time on our adventure????

Oh...and on the mosi front....it is true that the mosquitoes love me - the morning we left the Food Inn I picked up my helmet as we were ready to go and at least 20 mosquitoes flew out of it! When K lifted her helmet there wasn't a single mosi in it! It's nice to be loved....

Until next time, thank you for reading.

Namaste!

Some days I feel like life cannot get any better than it is and today was one of those days. Today I rode a horse for the first time :-) :-)




I have wanted to ride a horse for a long time but due to various reasons I never had the opportunity and besides I have loved riding two wheels for so long and had no space or time to swap this for four legs.

K and I caught a rick(ety)shaw to the ranch which was about 7 kms from the outskirts of Udaipur, we rode on rickety roads which were so bad I thought they would rattle the vehicle to pieces. When we arrived at the ranch we encountered the horses which were being saddled up and we met our guide. We took a seat and awaited the other member of our trip to arrive. There was one horse who I really took a liking to, which is unusual for me because I have a really pathetic fear of animals that are bigger than me and this includes horses. I was pleasantly surprised that this was to be the horse that I was going to ride, her name was Rama too which made me even happier because I have been reading a lot about the Ramayana :-) We were told that we had to ride the horse English style as opposed to Western style (something else that I have learned about - I really was ignorant of such terminology) and had a little lesson on how to sit etc. Naturally K having grown up in Wyoming and having a cowboy for a father had no problem. When it came to mounting the horse I was not afraid, I was not afraid at all, in fact I was so excited, I could not believe that after all these years I was doing this. I patted Rama on the neck and stroked her between her eyes to say hello, this was under the good guidance of K. I had the assistance of a staired platform from which to mount Rama. When I was seated on the horse I grinned like an idiot, this did not stop for the rest of the day, in fact I am still grinning like an idiot now :-)

We left the ranch, Rama and I were at the back of the group of four horses, K was just ahead of me, then there was the guide, then a woman from Kent who was very experienced with horses too, she lead the pack.



It took me a little time to get used to the horses movements, I was not sure how to move myself but I soon relaxed and enjoyed it. I patted Ramas neck every now and then and spoke to her a little, maybe it was to reassure myself more than her. When we got out onto the tarmacked road (single lane) and motorbikes and cars passed by us I was a little concerned that the horse would take fright, in fact she was great and had no problem at all, she did a great job in keeping me calm! The horse at the front however was jumpy and would take fright at anything that we passed be it donkeys, cows, mopeds etc. We rode on for the next three hours or so. We passed through various farming villages and rural communities, it was incredibly ideallic, people were waving to us shouting "namaste", children were smiling, it was amazing. We rode on small farm tracks, the kind that I would normally love to mountain bike on, the trails were steep and rocky in sections but Rama had no problem with this and I got used to adjusting my postion in the saddle to try and make it easier for her.

We went to a village that was a middle class farming village although in reality you would not think this because it still looked incredibly basic and not at all what I would expect. We were lucky enough to be invited to an animal hospital that was set up for street animals, it was a charity founded by an American. They are doing great work there, treating animals that have been brought in that would otherwise get no care. We met a monkey that was blind and had a disfigured face from having been electrocuted by a powerline. There were many dogs with incredibly bad mange as well as broken limbs and missing paws. I also made friends with a young calf who had a terribly wound to it's rear leg, the calf kept nudging me with it's head and wanted to be petted. We were shown the operating theatre, everything was very basic but obviously enough to keep animals alive and nurse them back to health. K and I were so pleased to see that something was being done about the stray animals, we have seen so many dead dogs etc throughout our trip, nobody seems to care for the strays, it is a very sad state of affairs. In a few years the charity is hoping to branch out into other areas in Rajasthan and eventually throughout India.

On our trip we also saw some bulls that were turning a mangle to create sugar cane juice which was being made into molasses, we saw more instances of animals being used in such a way.



I saw a bull pulling a wooden plough with the farmer balancing on the back of the plough. We saw the old hunting towers from the days of the Raj high up on the hillside where they would have had a great advantage for taking an aim, I thought these to be a cowardly way to shoot wild animals. There was dung being dried everywhere in little patties, these are used as fuel when the wood is no longer available during the monsoon. We walked on through the hills and upon the rock. It was quite appropriate that my horse seemed to suffer from the same appreciativeness as I do and we were both quite happy to plod along behind the rest of the pack occasionally putting some distance between us. K's horse liked to get close to the butt of the horse in front and she did not like to respond to the reins either, she was also 8 months pregnant.



One of the handlers who was assisting our group would make that clicking sound with his mouth to get Rama to move a little faster and catch up with the others. When Rama and I had fallen back some way I thought it wise to repeat the sound, I did not expect her to break into a trot though and I found myself bouncing up and down quite high on her back!! It was quite hilarious really, especially when you do not expect this to happen, I did manage to pull her reins and say "boosh" to get her to slow down again, I was surprised in myself that I managed to do this.

We eventually headed back to the ranch. The horses were hot and after their saddles had been removed they got to roll around in the dust to cool off. I had never seen this before and found it to be so fascinating. We were then fed some food whilst the horses ate their hay and rested.



I have had an amazing day. To have ridden a horse now, (albeit not fast and admittedly a very calm horse) I feel very lucky and my eyes have been opened. I have great respect for all the people out there who love horses and have had them as a part of their lives. I never realised so much how man and beast can work together. It was an experience that I shall never forget and I hope to ride again some day.

Tomorrow we leave Udaipur and head to Chittor :-)

Hello from Udiapur!!!!

With new found strength we left Ahmedabad for Mt. Abu. We found a great place to stay, went on a fabulous hike, ate some fabulous food (I ate 7 chipatis!!!! A gave me such a hard time :) and then headed down the mountain for Udaipur. Wow, what a ride that was! About 100 of the 180kms of our ride was under serious construction - they were upgrading a 1 lane road (I kid you not - the pavement was not even wide enough to be a 2 lane road) to a 4 lane motorway!!!!! In places it looked more like a quarry than a road building site - they were blowing great big gaps in the hills and they were even putting in a tunnel (which was pretty cool to see :). We liked Udaipur immediately (and not just because we spotted, and stopped at, the Cafe Coffee Day on the way into town :). We chose the hotel because they offer horse trekking in the surrounding Rajasthan hills but it is also a great place to stay! We are right under City Palace - we can see the palace from the rooftop cafe :) Lastnight we walked to the lakeside, today we went to City Palace and then walked around the city and tomorrow we are off on the horse trek (A has never ridden a horse before :). We will let you know how it goes....but first some photos!

A few final pictures from Ahmedabad..

Here are our bikes after their makeover. We have some new seatcovers that are cooler (read less sweaty....you don't want to know the details, just trust us, the ride is much more comfortable :) than the vinyl factory fitted seat and check out those new number plates...I'm sure you can tell from a lot of our past photos that we like bats, and we also watched Batman while we were recuperating in Amhedabad :)


This is (a very tired looking) me at the New Lucky restaurant (our favorite place!!!!) with my "special" thali. This is the place where you share the space with the graves markers (and presumably the deceased underneath) - they are the green shapes on the floor in the background.


We liked Amhedabad a lot...but we were not happy to see this monstrosity as we left town - it's surrounded by slums, too....



Mt. Abu - Rajasthan's only hill station and home of the Dilwara Jain temples. We don't have any photos of the Dilwara temples because they do not allow photography (or leather or mobile phones....) They are beautiful - some amazingly fine marble carving. You can read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilwara_Temples

These were on the side of the road at Abu Road (the town at the bottom of Mt Abu)


Here's A ready to head out on the hike and me on the hike :)



Great views!!!





We also saw this eagle...


It was Mahashivaratri - Shiva's birthday (a holy day) and we somehow got attached to the pilgrimage to the Shiva temples in the area. It made a nice twist to a regular hike :) They brewed some tea and handed it around and they had banners flying at each of the temple areas (4 of the 5 that we visited were out in the wilds - we saw lots of evidence of recent sloth bear activity!!! but no snakes, Mark :). Some of the temples were a couple thousand years old! This particular group does the temple route 4 times a year. Our timing was impeccable :)


This is A heading down the mountain...leaving me to chase :)


This was the road to Udaipur...notice the "Diversion" sign :)



Udaipur sights :)

We spotted these guys on our walk to the lake...



And a view of the lake...


These ladies were on our walk through town....


This is the famous Lake Palace....which is now a very posh hotel.



We went to City Palace...








A thinks these are very sinister looking rickshaws....that guy looks friendly enough :)


Another one of my sunset photos :)


Until next time!

One more thing...

I said we had been reading the paper :) We were shocked to see this headline in the Times of India this morning:

Police fire 16 rounds in air after mob asks for cheating to be allowed in exams

You can imagine that we immediately had to start reading :) I was shocked and appalled - cheat on a math test!?!?

Here is a link to the article from the Telagraph (the India version :):
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070214/asp/jamshedpur/story_7388832.asp

Today you have had lots of updates....but we are both feeling better and we are on the move tomorrow, so it may be awhile until you hear from us....please be patient :) Mt. Abu here we come! Then Udiapur and then the road to Sanchi....

Later!

Namaste!

To continue with the photo journal....

A small part of the Harrapan site at Lothal.

The Harrapan dockyard.


I now bring you to Palitana.

We have only seen this mode of transport in Gujarat so far, they are Enfield motorbike carts, they are a very strange hybrid.


Horse and cart.


We reached the base of the hill upon which sits the 800 Jain temples (sorry no photos). K ate her bananas and we were surrounded by onlookers, there was not much dialogue between us!


K fed this cow her banana skins. It was a very happy cow and K earned some good karma :-)


A rear perspective :-)


We thought that this advertising was something to related to the giant dam project in Gujarat, we have seen this everywhere in Gujarat including on the back of buses. We were quite amused by our misinterpretation when we found out that it is advertising paint :-)


A street in Palitana


Palitana is a major Jain pilgrimage site.



There are many Jain temples here besides the 800 or so upon the hill!


We left Palitana and headed for Alang, we saw more Jain temples en route.


Next Alang... :-)

Despite the fact that we could not make it into the ship breaking yard we were still quite excited to see the items for sale that lined the road leading to the port. We saw the shipbreaking yard from a distance but photography was not allowed.


You could buy rope, gaffer tape and various sprays... Remember this has all been recovered from the ships, it is amazing to see.


Need some fabric?


Shopping for furniture?


Fancy a tank?


How about a giant radiator?


You can buy parts for use as scrap metal, it is weighed on giant scales.


One of our favorites, a giant crankshaft :-)


Need a big chain for your dog, then come here :-)


There be floats...


...and there be boats, ahoy me hearties.


Lifesuits.


Sinks.


..and finally giant rope.


The list is endless and goes on and on and...

In Alang town I spotted this beautiful wooden swinging crib, how cute.


As we left Alang town we were met with heavy oncoming traffic - other shoppers who had come to peruse the delights on sale from the shipbreakers yard :-)


I am surprised that we do not see this sign on every stretch of road in India.


To contrast with the INDUSTRIAL ZONE, along the road we also encountered the agricultural zone which stretched from west of Ahmedabad to Palitana :-) It makes me feel much better to see this contrast in landscape.

Wheat.

Onion


Sorting the red onions in the field.


Herbs.


A scarecrow that we saw going for a walk in the fields :-)


Travelling home from the fields.


There was a lot of cacti lining the road and the fields.


We saw more cows marked with pink.


Cotton is big buisness around here.


Well there are worse things that I can think of crashing a car into.


A road side bird.


...Oh, did I mention the smelting plants for all of that scrap metal from Alang?


We did not take many pictures in Bhavnagar but there was one particular traffic circle (or roundabout as it is known in the UK) that was the height of activity.

There are many statues in the middle of traffic circles in India. Here is an example of one (sorry we do not know who the model was)


When you have looked at the statue you can read the ads. We giggled becuase we could not work out how you would read the small print even on this giant billboard.


To finish our photo journal - more cows and they rule. At this traffic circle there was a cow or two at each intersection.

My turn to have a little rant :)

I remembered that I need to tell you about Bangalore and the train....

We read the paper pretty regularly - to hear about local stuff (and make sure we are not heading into trouble :) and to keep in touch with what is going on in the world. While we were in Bangalore we were in such a posh hotel that they delivered the paper to our door every morning :) There was an article in there about a terrible accident where some people were run over by a train - it caused a huge crowd to go running and 2 people were killed and one woman lost her leg(s) (it was to early to tell if it was one or both). It was very sad, but apparently totally unnecessary!!!! And here starts my rant on the general behavior of the Indian population....

We noticed from the moment of our arrival (and I commented on it in an earlier post) the...disregard for authority? the independence? selfishness? Who can say...anyway, people here do what they like when they like.

On the airplane the flight attendant announces that we need to stay in our seats until the plane arrives at the gate and the captain turns off the fasten seat belt signs (who hasn't heard that every time they have been on a plane?). Is this not good advice? Is this not for our own personal safety? While we were still rolling, the announcement still ringing in our ears, a couple of rows in front of us several Indian passengers stood up and started grabbing their luggage from the overhead bins! (irritating the flight attendants as that sort of behaviour is wont to do :)

A queue is a foreign concept to most people here, everyone rushes the window :)

The driving is a great example of this sort of behaviour, too....they drive like they own the road and they are the only road users that count (though people will tell you that people here drive knowing that if it's their time to go then they will go, but if it's not their time to go the gods will keep them safe....hence the Ganesh and other images/shrines they drive around with on their dashboard :)

Let me tell you what happened with the train and what the article suggested could have been done....

Many people were travelling for weddings that evening and they were changing trains in Bangalore. They were walking across the tracks (instead of taking the subway tunnel) to get to their platforms. The news report said many of them, including the victims, were talking on their mobile phones (ooo, don't even start me on drivers on their mobile phones, which is also stupid and dangerous, but walking across train tracks and not paying attention....death wish??? or the thought that the gods will protect them????) There was an engine that was backing up along the tracks....it had sounded it's horn, it was supposed to be on the move - e.g. this was not a runaway locomotive. Some people heard it/saw it coming and started to run and shout but the old people (??? one was in her 50s and another guy that was 62 or 63 - is that old?) couldn't move fast enough and three or 4 of them were run down, 2 died.

That is really a terrible thing. What's worse is that people here tend to take it out on the people that are in a position of responsibility - whether they are at fault or not - and the paper reported that the train driver and the station manager had absconded (you see this a lot in the paper...if they don't run then you will get reports that they were attacked by the mob and were injured or dead). As I said (and no one questioned) the train driver was not out of line by moving that engine and he did sound the horn....

The article in the paper really irritated me at the time - it did not mention (or even hint!!!) that maybe these people shouldn't have been walking across the tracks or that maybe they should have been paying a bit more attention (and not chatting on their phones). The article just went on to make suggestions as to what the station and the train company should do to prevent this sort of thing - like hire more guards to make sure people can't get on the tracks, or put up fences. We had been here for awhile and it just twanged my personal responsibility trigger...apparently it still does :)

You see this lack of personal responsibility all the time - the way people cross the road and step out in front of the traffic. Both A and I have had people (3 or 4 times EACH) step out in front of us - and nearly get themselves run over (if it wasn't for our extremely quick reactions :) Dogs and other animals we will let off the hook, but people should know better. It does explain why there is such a high number of pedestrian deaths on the roads here! There are rants in the motorbike magazines and in the papers saying pedestrians (and other road users) need to be more aware. One thing we have thought (and talked about :) is that it seemed that some of these people just got tired of waiting and just decided they were going to cross regardless. And we have seen loads of other people (pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists....trucks and buses!!!!) just pull out into the road without even a look at the oncoming traffic...it is SCARY!!!!

Now don't start worrying about us, we are good and careful drivers, we are not madly rushing around because we are here to see things :)

Oh, one more thing....people here don't seem to have respect for other people's property, either. In more than one case (my moto and someone else's moto) people don't seem to think twice about sitting on any motorbike that they feel like sitting on. Did I mention the Hayubasa in Mamallapuram? The owner had said that someone saw it, liked it, sat on it, heaved it up (it's a big bike :) and promptly dropped it, doing some damage to the plastics...all so the guy could have his mate take a photo! When we come out of the hotel people are sitting on our bikes all the time (the guy at the desk says they won't hurt it, they are watching them carefully!). They always seem to want to reset my trip meter.... :)

ok...rant off :)

Happy Valentines Day!!!!!

Namaste!

It is about time we bought you up to date with the latest and greatest photos, we hope that you enjoy them :-) :-)

Ahmedabad:

I know that we keep hankering on about the traffic but to justify this fascination I can say that it is unique in it's own way wherever we go....

I would not fancy pulling a load on this handcart, especially through traffic.


A loaded up autorickshaw is always a familiar site


Three on a bike... This is a regular occurrence throughout India, we often see whole families on one bike with a child on the tank and the mother holding her baby.


Two on a bike...


One of the fine polo hats used as head protection on the motorbike.


There are many different variations of these hand cranked bikes, they are in wide use here and I see more of these than wheelchairs.


A scooter sidecar rocket :-)


There is even a Honda dealership that specifically sells scooters to women (no motorbikes - yet), I was impressed with the modern retail aspect of this


And whilst on the subject of retail, here is a photo of the Trek Bikes India ad with a list of stores, we saw it in India's Bike magazine. The magazine is dedicated to motorbikes, we have not come across a cycling magazine yet.


Down by the river near the slums there is a lot of activity. There is a laundrette.



We also saw a boy on a home made inflatable made of discarded sacks.


Onto Ahmedabad walk in the old city.....

The walk started in the grounds of the Swaminarayan Temple.


There are chalkboards throughout the old city, we have also seen these in Palitana and Bhavnagar. The reiterate the latest news to people and have been in use for centuries.


One of the bird feeders.


The streets are enclosed very tightly this aids climate control and also makes it hard to get decent photo's :-)

Looking up


The decoration of buildings and accoutrements is very impressive.



Some typical examples of house frontages.




A renovated haveli that has now been turned into a fine school.


The inside of another haveli.


Another city decorated with the remains of lost kites.


Amongst the maze of lanes and courtyards we came across a number of temples, this one is Hindu.


A Jain temple.

and the monastery attached to it.


There are some amazing shops in the old city, this one sold hand made hats for all sorts of occasions especially those of a religous nature.

This store sold hand made clothing for idols that sit either in personal shrines or temples. The clothing was of a size that would fit onto an action man again the attention to detail was amazing.

This guy sold strings of beads, we see many pilgrims and holy men wearing these.


I spotted this small child who had been left on the garbage cart whilst mum swept the lanes.


This woman was winding newspaper around a metal stick to make straws that are used for building floats for religous parades....we were told that this was a lost art and these women were very skilled to be doing this. They were also very speedy!


In the Muslim area near the mosque we were overpowered by the smell of cooking mutton (definitely not lamb!!!!!). There were goats everywhere, these ones were interested in the laundry.


Our destination, the Jama Masjid.


The water tank where worshippers wash before prayer.


Within the grounds there was giant script written on the perimeter wall.


Inside the mosque..



K found more bats.


The ornate screen with the Om (encircled in red).

A new map for you :)

click on it for the bigger version.....it tells you what the plan is for then next month as well :)



Cheers!

Bringing you up to date :)

So, what do I owe you guys news of? Besides Munnar (as I promised long ago :) there's our historical walk through Ahmedabad and a few other details.

Have I mentioned that the battery on my bike is dead? It doesn't hold a charge overnight, but it gets some charge while riding during the day. It's getting worse though and I am losing the horn (not something you want to lose!!! It is a necessary bit of the bike here!). I tried to get a replacement and they do not have one in stock at the Bajaj dealer or at the Exide battery shop - they said it would take a week to get it at the Bajaj dealer and a month through the battery shop! I will call ahead to get it somewhere else we are riding through (we didn't know we were going to be here for a week or I would have ordered it :)

So, back to our walk :) Lonely Planet mentioned an historical walking tour so we called up to book it and went to the appointed place at the appointed time (a big Hindu Temple at 7:45am!) and I was immediately sent home to change :( We were going into some temples and my shorts did not offer enough coverage! I asked if there was a place to buy a piece of fabric and the guy just stared at me and said it was way too early for anything to be open. So I rushed off, hopped an auto rickshaw back to the hotel (we had walked over) and told the guy to wait while I changed into my jeans (not ideal for the hot weather, but it's all I have :). While I was away A was asked if "sir" would be back...now I understand the weird look when I asked for a piece of fabric :) I was back in a flash and when I got back the place was just crawling with people!!!! So much for a nice quiet walk in the narrow backstreets of Ahmedabad, there were 50 students with the group.

I was not a happy camper with this crowd! My hearing is a bit dodgy as it is, and I need to be close to the guide to hear...and students are so chatty....ugh. As it was they were very well behaved and the guide was fabulous - he hurried the slow ones and did a great job of keeping us all on track :) A was one of the slow ones as I listened to the commentary and she waited for the crowd to disperse so she could get the photos :)

It was a very well planned walk, put together by the Corporation of Ahmedabad (this is a great town! we know of no other town that loves itself enough to show itself off - the walk and the museum we already told you about). It covers the old part of town, shows the history and innovativeness of the town planners (all those years ago) and also hits on all three religions that are represented in Ahmedabad - Hindu, Jain and Muslim.

We started at the Hindu temple, but we just got a bit of it's history, we didn't go in. We dropped right into the backstreets and learned about the structure of the city - it is a city made up of Pols and Ols. A Pol is a small sealed off living area containing everything that a group of people need to live (it was usually a group of people in a similar line of work - weavers, potters, merchants, etc.) - a temple, private living areas and common courtyards, water, a bird feeder (more on this later :) all enclosed by a gate. The gates to the city and the gates to the Pols were all opened at dawn and shut at dusk - to the sound of music (and singing). There was a blackboard at the entrance to display the news to the members of the Pol as they passed the gate. The structure of the buildings was such that the air flowed through the streets, all narrow and twisted, and into the houses to keep the place cool in the summer and warm in the winter - wide streets and narrow at the tops, so the building look like they overhang. An Ol was a market street that was open at both ends - no gates. The shop owners lived above their
shops and locked their shops from the inside at night so there were no locks outside.

As we walked through the area we could all see how much of an amazing design it was - secure and very well thought out! In the Pols there was usually a haveli - the biggest house around usually owned by the richest person - and it's structure was a mini version of the Pol inside! The first level in the front was reserved for visitors and the second level in the front for the accommodation of visitors. The back of the house for the family.

The bird feeders and the built in bird houses in the walls. There was a definite awareness that the people were displacing the birds and that the presence of the birds was a benefit so they provided accommodation and food to help keep them alive! How cool is that? I think it's great :)

The Pols are packed in tightly and we passed from one to another on the walk - most of the main gates are long gone, but the Pols are still visible and recognized. There were secret back entrances to other Pols so there wasn't only one entrance/exit in case of emergency. We started at the Hindu temple, went into one Jain temple and passed many others on the walk and ended up at the Jama Masjid (the main mosque). A has some great photos!

One of the cool things we saw at the Jama Masjid was an Om carving in one of the windows. Om is the "sound of the universe" to Hindus so what is it doing in an Islamic mosque? Apparently the artisans that built the mosque were Hindu and they left their mark :)

So, enough about the walk :) One of the things I forgot to mention about the road trip we took through Gujarat is the birds! There are quite a few bird sanctuaries and other animal sanctuaries that also have tons of birds (and one of the things I am disappointed about now that we are giving it a miss). They have lots of flamingos, but we haven't seen any on the side of the road :( and they are supposed to have some nesting cranes this time of year as well. However we have seen loads of egrets and large numbers of blue herons - in flight, on the side of the road, in ponds...they are everywhere. And there are a lot of predator birds as well - we have seen some eagles and ospreys? Not sure. There are also tons of kingfishers and some birds that look like oriels as well as loads of smaller birds, like tits or house martins (not that I can say for sure :)

A is working on photos and I am updating the map so you can see our progress....don't forget you can send your questions and queries to us...see the sidebar for the email address :)

Catch you later!!!!

Namaste!

Firstly - I am back in action and as a result suffering from extreme elation to be back in the land of the living again :-) :-)

Secondly - Simon (You know who you are), yes, I still have the constitution of a new born baby, I thought that India would toughen up my resistance to bugs....

Unfortunately, there is not much more that K and I can do to avoid these illnesses, I have a few ideas...

1 - Eat nothing but packaged and manufactured biscuits (no vitamins)
2 - Eat only in Le Meridian (not enough money!)
3 - Eat nothing (starve??)

Problem - all of these would reduce our time spent travelling in one way or another and are therefore not viable :-) I assure you all that we are doing everything possible to guarantee that good food enters our systems. We survey every restaurant, we check to see whether it is busy, whether there are women and children present, whether it is clean, whether the waiters are clean and we wash our hands before we eat. We are also very careful about what we chose on the menu, no salads and nothing that is not hot in temperature. We do not drink the water given to us in glasses and pitchers and only drink bottled water. Really, we are quite clueless as to why these tummy upsets happen, it is part and parcel of travelling.

Anyway, a big THANKS to K for nursing me back to health and ensuring that I do not go cabin crazy in those moments when I was actually awake over the last three days :-) :-)

I have used this opportunity of inactivity to drift from one thought to another and allow my mind to reflect, as a result of this there are some observations that I would like to share with you. So if you are sitting comfortably I shall begin... :-) :-)

On Ahmedabad:

Each day in our hotel room I have listened to the call to prayer from the local mosque, the loudspeakers sound as though they are on our balcony. We are lucky enough to hear this 4-6 times a day, the first one kicking off at approximately six o'clock in the morning and the final one at around 6 in the evening. One orator has a beautiful voice and the words and tones softly roll from one to the other, the other sounds as though his old age has bought him a reversal in his voice breaking. It is very funny that the six o'clock rendition also brings an accompaniment of howling dogs :-) :-)

Helmet laws and the roads - K and I have been confused about the helmet laws here. It would seem that most people wear helmets of one sort or another on their motorbikes. We have come to the conclusion that there is a helmet law (as verfied by the desk clerk at the hotel) due to an article that we read in the paper and we have also concluded that the law probably does not specify the type of helmet required. We see people wearing construction hard hats, polo hats, shorty moto helmets, full face moto helmets (literally in any condition) and finally to head scarves. My favorite of all is the dimpled full face helmet which looks like an oversize golf ball, it reminds me of Nike sphere technology. The funniest/ scariest helmet has to the full face lid that has your nose protruding out further than the chin guard :-) :-)

I have to go and post the photos now so I will finish this dialogue another time, ah, I was having so much fun too :-)

Thanks for reading.

Hello sportsfans :)

Wow, have I been watching a lot of sports on television - Tour of Langkawi (cycling), 6 Nations rugby, England and India cricket....we have had a bit of downtime.

It was a beautiful morning and we were all ready to leave Ahmedabad and head in to deepest darkest Gujarat when A tried to pull her bootlaces tight and triggered a severe muscle spasm in her back. We got her loosened up and moving, but she couln't ride. We were going stir crazy and wanted to get moving so we decided to pack a weekend bag and just take one bike to see a few sights and then come back for the other bike. I have had tons of problems with my back, so A was in good hands, it was just going to take a couple of days for it to settle down.

We headed south for Lothal, about 90kms from Amhedabad. Lothal is a Harrapan site - active 4000-6000 years ago! We somehow navigated our way there...losing the piece of paper with all the Gujarati names written on it by one of the very nice guys at our hotel :) The museum had some amazing stuff in it - I am very thankful to The Archelogical Society of India! This was a bead manufacturing town and it used to be on the ocean - it's well inland now. The beads were traded to Iran and Sumeria. Lots more info to be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lothal There are some ruins, not many, but then it was ages ago!!! There is one kiln they found and a huge dock where the ships came in. Lothal was a highlight of our day. We then hopped on the bike and followed another white Indigo tourist taxi(with his permission), just like Carl and Kate's ride :), all the way to Palitana.

Palitana is a Jain pilgrimage town - the hill in the town has 800+ Jain temples built on the top and 3500+ steps up the hill to go see them :) We arrived in town and tried to find some accomodation...not easy if you aren't a Jain pilgrim (there are tons of options for them! :) There are 2 choices for regular tourists and luckily we found the better of the two :) Dinner was not very exciting and we came back and gave A's back some well deserved attention and then hunkered under the mosi net and tried to get some sleep. The next morning was good...but my allergies (I think I am allergic to Gujurat, or maybe I got something from the sick folks on that early train) and A's back meant that neither of us were up for a climb of 3500 steps without really burning ourselves out...that was ok, we wanted to see Alang :)

So we took a spin through town and found there was much more to it than what we saw when we arrived the night before (which is a good thing :) and I ate my bananas surronded by a mass of interested spectators :) and then made a donation of my banana skins to the local cows - they love them :) Then it was off on the backroads to Alang. Wow, cool backroads! We have seen some pretty scary industry in Gujarat and now we were riding through some highly agricultural parts and it was beautiful. Such rich, black soil. We found Alang (hard not to with all the signage welcoming you :) and made our way to the port...where we were duly stopped... and told to read this piece of paper!:) It said we could only get permission to enter from Ghandinagar and it would cost $25 for each foreigner....we didn't want to see it that bad! The road in was lined with all the castoffs and was quite entertaining in it's own right (a massive crankshaft 3 meters long??? that's cool :) so we turned around and took tons of photos on the way out :) Then it was to Bhavnagar for the night before heading back to Amhedabad.

Hmmm, what to say about Bhavanagar....it's a worn city. The old city was pretty cool. Lots of the listings in Lonely Planet were no longer in business. Our hotel was ok, certainly nothing special and we couldn't find a decent place to eat. We had a nice walk around and finally found a sweet shop, though :) The place we did find for dinner may be the reason that A has been unwell these past few days. It was the only restaurant that we did see that was open, so it wasn't like we made a bad choice :) It was a busy place and it looked decently clean. We were looking for a thali and we ordered a mixed plate and a special mixed plate (me being special and all :) and we got 2 plates....heaped with a "mix"....it was the strangest thing we have ever been served, but everyone else was eating it, so we dove in. It tasted good, too. Basically it was a samosa mushed on the plate covered with some channa masala (not very wet) and some dry crunchy snack stuff. The special plate (20 rupees vs 12 for the regular :) also had yogurt and raisins and grapes and a marischino cherry on top (which we pushed aside). We swapped plates halfway through. We headed back to the hotel and unwisely didn't put the mosi net up...until A woke up in the night covered in bites and we got some sense! The next morning A was not feeling great but we decided to get moving back to Amhedabad anyway.

The ride back was slow...the roads were lumpy, which is not great if you have a dodgy tummy, but beautiful so we took it easy and stopped a few times. It was also quite hot and this part of Gujarat has some nasty black flies - they got into my jacket and ate me, the little beasts! When we rolled back in to our hotel we were as glad to see the guys as they were to see us - A and I both had splitting headaches! We let the guys carry our bags up (which was probably only the second time I have let anyone do that :) and we shut the lights out and collapsed on the bed for a few hours nap. Whew! After the nap I was fine and A's head and tummy were still not happy. I went to our favorite place for dinner and brought in some supplies for A (mostly water and juice :). Then it's been more of the same - TV, supplies and A's napping - until today when she has been a bit more mobile. Her back is fine...it's just the tummy we are waiting for :)

So, moving on...

We decided that we were going to give the rest of Gujarat a miss and head north to Rajasthan and do the detour over to Sanchi (when we are ready! :). It is a combination of running out of time to see everything we want to see....and that it may be that Gujarat is making us ill :) They are not really set up for foreigners - Ahmedabad is surprisingly modern, but the rest of Gujarat isn't...as we both saw in Palitana (which gets lots of tourists!) and Bhavgnagar. Our bodies can not take the abuse and we don't really know what it is that makes us ill - it's tiring to be constantly vigilant about an unknown threat....

The best news is that we have our plane tickets to Hong Kong!!!!! We are so excited, even in A's weakened state she was (metaphorically) bouncing off the walls (good thing she didn't fall off the bike on the way home from the travel agent :) We fly on March 21st...WOOHOOO!!!! We are going to China :)

We are a bit battered, but well on the way to recovery and we should be on our way shortly. Nothing to worry about, I promise :) It was great to have an opportunity to watch some rugby (Go England!!!) and to watch England beat Australia for the Commonwealth Bank Series (Go England! :) and what a bonus to see cycling!!!!

More news as it happens :)

Namaste.

We are in Ahmedabad after a few days of road trip and my having been laid up in a sick bed for three days. I am now on a course of antibiotics and hope to be mobile again within the next day or so, it is nothing serious, just another upset tum.

There are lots of exciting things to tell you about, but I am going to leave that for when I have the energy to write or for my partner in crime to spill.

As part of our road trip from Ahmedabad we went to Alang. This is a small town where ships from all over the world are dismantled. These include warships, cruise ships, passenger ferries, you name it, if it is metal and floats then they take it apart. I adore anything maritime and the visit to Alang was incredibly exciting. The road leading to dismantling yard is lined with a "flea market" of goods that have been stripped from the ships and you can buy anything that you can imagine that would be onboard - barring warheads etc. :-)

I am just about done with this post - sorry, I will write more detail soon. It was so very exciting that I have to at least give it a wee mention :-) I have heaps of photos, I was really trigger happy taking shots from the back of K's bike.

Until next time comrades.....

Namaste!

We arrived in Ahmedabad via a very crazy route that brought us into the least modernised part of town via the slum areas down by the river, this in turn gave us a completely misguided interpretation of what we thought the city may be like :-) A success with accommodation raised our spirits high and we even had the luxury of a hot, powerful shower. It's the small things in life...

We really like it here, it has real pavements and there is very little rubbish in the streets :-) On arrival the air quality improved - neither of us can explain why because we were now in a city and past experiences dictated that it should have gotten worse :-)

We have achieved a lot here. We have gotten our bikes serviced, had some cushy seat covers fitted to them as well as brand new number plates (You will have to wait and see the photos). We have found a restaurant that serves good quality food at a cheap price. In fact the Lucky restaurant requires some further explanation - the single story building that it is situated in has been built over a number of Muslim graves. The memorials are in the form of green painted casket shapes, they are protected with a metal frame that is movable and is seated around their edges. These are dotted around in what appears to be a random order, as you eat you get to sit with the dead. It is not as eerie as it sounds and in my opinion it seems quite respectful although I admit that this may not be everybody's cup of tea, so to speak. There is also a tree that has been left and it's trunk remains intact with the roof accommodating it :-)

Over the last few weeks I have accumulated a number of gifts that I have needed to post home. We have embarked on a postal mission...

First you have to find a stationers to buy the packaging materials. We bought some envelopes and what looked like card, although K insists that it resembles pressed sheets of dried cow dung :-) :-) We protected everything with the few resources that we had. We knew that we had to get the parcels enclosed in some fabric and stitched up - 'tis the regulations of this land. We found someone outside the post office to do this. He produced some white fabric from his pile and went about neatly making a nice little tight fitting cube shaped smock for the packages to wear so that they looked neatly dressed for their journey (I guess) :-) He was very thorough and the work was neat and sturdy as he stitched the edges of the package together. The whole thing was very strange though, as most things in India it felt like an experience from a time now past. So, should you be lucky enough to receive a parcel in the post from either of us then you should not be surprised to have it arrive in some fine white linen.... (hopefully I will get some pictures of this to you)

We went on an historical heritage walk this morning, I shall save that post for another time because I am now beat!!

Thanks for reading, especially my previous rant about the pollution in Gujarat, it is something that I particularly abhor - in case you had not guessed!

So, it is goodnight from me....

The train, the train!!!!

Ok, I'm finally getting to my story about our train trip to the big city. It started the evening before, when we were already tired from a day traipsing about the caves under the hot sun...we hadn't even had dinner yet (sob story, eh? :). We decided that we were going to take the train the next day (instead of riding with all our kit) so we hopped on my moto and rode down to Lonavala (not our favorite place :) to the station. After queueing at the ticket window, and enduring 2 guys jump the queue in front of us, the agent told us reservations were on platform 2! So we crossed the tracks, me thinking of the train accident at Bangalore (I didn't tell you about that, did I? Oh well...later :) and only noticed the bridge once we were on the other side :)

We found reservations. There were lots of people crowded around the window (with signs on either side of the window saying "Please Q" :) and they all had slips of paper. I looked around and I didn't see any stacks of paper slips around, but just a moment later a guy walks up to the window, in front of the crowd, shoves his hand through the window hole and shouts "form!" and the agent gave him a form. Ah, that is what we need to do then :) So I push my way to the front, stick my hand in the window hole and shout "form!" and nothing happened, I am ignored....must be my funny accent :), so I tried again and we got our form (woohoo!!!! step 1 is successful :)

We looked at the form and they want to know exactly which train you want to be on - the train number and the name of the train - and who is travelling, how old they are, the gender of the passengers...the whole 9 yards. And they want this for EVERY seat reservation, it was lucky we were on a direct train! We went off to find out the train numbers we would need and we found a station manager to help us. He was great - he knows all the train numbers and trains and the times and he helped us fill in the form. Suitably equipped we went back to the reservation hall and staked out a place in the "queue". When I got to the window I handed the form over the guy and he tapped a bit on his computer (yes, they are computerized :) and told us that it was too late to get a reservation on the 4:40am, it had already been closed. Did we want the next train? Well it's a 3 hour ride, so we didn't want the 7:15 or we would miss most of the morning, so I said just do the return and we would buy the ticket in the morning for the 4:40...I turned to relate the info to A, just the bit about it being too late to get our reservation, and the guy behind said "well then, you're done, move along" and I shot back that we were still getting the return reservation! Pushy boy!!! That single ticket was 263 rupees for both of us, and us being in cheap mode thought that it was quite expensive :) that's not even 2 Pounds for each! We headed back to Karla to get some dinner and then get to bed for our early departure.

It was early the next morning, but we were awake and excited....and a bit chilly! It's cold in the morning when you are only in shirtsleeves and the wind is going by you on the moto - it definitely made sure we were awake! We arrived at 4:20 am and parked the moto and went in to buy a ticket - no one in the queue and within minutes we had the ticket - only 86 rupees for the pair of us!!! Excellent :) Well...until we tried to find a place on the train. Without a reservation you are in "General" and that is hard seats and the bottom of the barrel - the mega cheap seats. One of the platform managers told us where to stand and what carriage to get on (you could tell he was a bit concerned about 2 western women in that car :).

When the train arrived we climbed on board....yikes! There were people everywhere. Lying on the lower benches, on the floor, on the top sleeper/baggage space. And it was sometimes more than one person having a kip...and with maybe one or two others sitting on the bench with them. Everyone was very nice and there was shuffling about to make room for us (it was very sweet :). We were surround by people that didn't have a lot of money, many were ill (one guy right across from us had a terrible cough and an even worse problem with his skin, poor guy), but they were all friendly. A and I took turns napping and saying how foul the air smelled (the pollution was really disturbing).

We had been told that the train went to Dada and we would have to change to a local train. No problem. We arrived at Dadar (close enough to what it sounded like :) and...we had no idea where to go. There were no signs, so we sought out the station manager again :) As I was patiently waiting for him to finish with his current problem he asked me what I wanted and I told him we were looking for the local train to Mumbai CST and he checked my ticket and said platform 3...I was dismissed and we were on our way :)

We got to platform 3 just as the train was arriving and it was chocka with people!!!! We saw the Ladies only carriage (we knew about them) and we went for that. All of the sudden, in a massive rush of humanity, the train was empty of all but a few people - we had the train car to ourselves! It was a very pleasant and quick journey to the end of the line. Victoria Terminus was just like the big London train stations, apparently modeled after St Pancras (or was it King's Cross? I don't remember :). We got a couple of small coffees and headed into town.

Wow, it was LOVELY! And it was very clean and not busy (we were there at 7:45, people weren't even awake yet :) Then we had our day in Mumbai (more later) and then it was time to head back. We wanted to get a quick snack to take on the train and we wanted to try the McDonald's Indian specials (no beef burgers to be found!!!!) like the McAloo Masala :) We had extra time, so we ate at McDs and....we did not enjoy the food :( but the music was good :)

We had asked on arrival which platform the train back to Lonavala might depart from so when we got back to the station we knew right where to go and our train was waiting for us :) We saw our names on the list on the side of the car we had been assigned to and we went in to find our seats. Wow, posh! This was a sleeper car and the hard wooden seats of the morning were now padded! There was no one around, we had the place to ourselves and we even had switches for the light and fans in our area...posh! :) It definitely explained the disparity in the ticket prices. Several people came and sat in our area and they all departed at one of the major junctions. They were replaced by a very nice gentleman that worked for the railway. His English was decent enough for us to converse quite a bit of the journey back to Lonavala (also his destination)..and he also gave us his mobile number and told us to call if we had any problems :) It was a very pleasant journey back broken frequently by the tea men running up and down the aisles shouting Chai! Chai! In the cattle class cars (like the one we had taken in the morning) the tea men and other sellers were outside the windows and handing things through the bars like it was a prison car - it was definitely way more packed than the morning train!

So, here ends our train adventure in India :)

Namaste!

I am back, I am thinking of all the people in the world who ride bicycles or walk everywhere and I know that there is hope for the environment yet :-)

We continued our journey into Gujarat. Our concentration was maxed out trying to weave in and out of the trucks and avoid the impatient cars and their threatening driving habits. The usual hazards were thrown in for good measure, stray dogs, cows, auto rickshaws, pedestrians, you know the kind of things that we are continually mentioning. K and I both perceived the automobile drivers to be particularly aggressive and selfish, they did not seem to be respectful of any living thing or even care for their own existence. We rode through the smog accompanied by the displeasing roadside vistas and pressed on to Vadadora, our chosen destination. We had overestimated our ability to reach the city in one day, the road was sapping our strength and with regards to distance covered our progress was impeded by the volume of traffic.

We agreed after a brief stop for refreshments that we should terminate our journeying for the day when we reached Surat. We tiredly arrived in Surat and both decided that we had too much respect for our health to put our bodies through a night there :-) We continued along the highway a little longer to try and get away from the densely populated sprawl that had replaced the Industrial Zone. A little beyond Surat we pulled into a few different hotels to establish whether they were bearable or not. Our books did not list any accommodation between Surat and Vadodara, it is good that we have now developed our own judgement. The hotels spanning the highway looked as though they were budget options mainly catering for the truck drivers or others on long trips but not for two women travelling alone. We gave them a miss.

Luckily we came across a hotel that looked reasonable, now we were exhausted and really just needed somewhere that we could get some r & r and get moving as soon as possible the next morning.

We chose the Food Inn :-)

It was appeared to be a shining white building amidst a dreary landscape :-) It was a good start.

The proprietor was a very friendly Muslim man. He had a wonderful smile and was incredibly pleasant. He was quite excited to have us stay there, this became more evident when he gave us mementos of our stay in the form of a fake leather keyring just before we departed the next day. He told us about a European traveller who had stayed there just a few days earlier who was touring India on a BMW motorbike. I walked up the stairs to view the room and after smiling at a woman cleaning the stairs I received back a look from her that did not welcome our stay there. Too tired to care, I looked at the room and it passed inspection and was also at a good price. K made a mistake when she carried both of our heavy bags up to the first floor and refused help from any of the men there. Again the woman who had been on the stairs looked displeased at our independence. There were a couple of rooms on the floor that had piles of shoes outside of them, when we passed by later on, one of the doors was ajar and we could see many mattresses on the floor and lots of men in Muslim dress sleeping on them. On closer inspection of the room we realised that there was no sink in the bathroom just a tap that poured onto the floor and that the toilet had not recently been cleaned. It was OK though, the beds were safe enough to sleep in as long as we used the mozzie nets :-)

We went downstairs to get some food after having briefed one another on what we could and could not eat due to our hygiene concerns. How wrong we were. The restaurant in contrast to the hotel bathroom was immaculate and the food that we ordered was fantastic. We had opted for a bread, dahl and vege curry, thinking that these had the least amount of chance of making us ill. We sat in the family room and ate. Not being familiar with the social interactions in a Muslim run restaurant and whether it even mattered we decided to stay away from the many pairs of prying eyes that stared at our arrival into the main dining hall.

Back in our room we settled down for the night. Soon our relaxation was interrupted by a very helpful youth knocking at the door who had bought us a towel, soap and pitcher of water. He was very happy to see us and did not seem to want to leave. I thought that maybe he wanted a tip so I gave him a small token although I was not sure if he wanted the ruppees or not.

The next morning we ate in the main dining hall with everybody else. As soon as K and I sat down anyone who arrived thereafter broke the trend of facing outwards at their table looking towards the highway, to facing into the hall and looking at us. Have I said that there were only men at this establishment barring the displeased woman that we met on the stairs the day before. We had a great conversation with the proprietor and told him of our adventures, he was very happy to have met us and gave us his mobile number citing that should we get into any trouble, absolutely anywhere in India then we should contact him for help. We are now getting quite a collection of contacts :-) :-)

We said goodbye after receiving our little gift and got onto our bikes at the watch of many intrigued faces.

It was Ahmedabad next, we had decided to skip Vadodara as we wanted to get away from this part of Gujarat.......

Namaste!

My initial impression of Gujarat State was of concern for the health of our lungs, not just K and I, but theirs and yours too - as will be explained.

Here is my diatribe.

As we left Maharastra and crossed the border there was an immediate change of setting. Gone were the tail end of the hills and instead was the start of the pillars of chimneys, a very unnatural phenomenon. We were now entering the INDUSTRIAL ZONE. Never before, have I ever seen anything like this in my life and I had hoped that something like this did not exist, I was horrified. The structures that I saw raised more questions than answers. There were miles upon miles upon miles of a concentrated collection of producers. These were not at all like the factory units in the UK, these looked like factory shacks in many instances, huge monstrosities with misplaced corrugated sheeting for walls and roofing. There were tall or short, fat or thin metal chimneys jutting out here and there and dominating the horizon. Each chimney in turn spewed out a constant thick black or brown smoke as though they all had something to demonstrate, I imagined them piping tunes in a strange Disney fantasy twist. There is a game that was popular when I was a child, it was called Mouse Trap, it was a board game that had various domed cages, ramps and stairs and mechanical contraptions of sorts placed upon the game board, many of these industrial units reminded me of this because of their awkwardness, crudity and clumsiness in design. I do not neccesarily expect industry to be pretty but I do expect it to at least look reasonably safe in it's construction and not like a badly maintained rollercoaster come magnified tin shed come inhumane or environmental deathtrap. Even though I wore earplugs I could imagine the decibels of hissing, grinding, clunking and churning within - and no I was not getting confused with having a bad tummy. The volume of units in turn brought heavy traffic, mainly trucks and tankers with their liquid cargoes. They also brought migrant workers who live in slums or blue tarpaulin towns huddled together in small strips of land. This in turn brings more rivers and ponds of rubbish as these people have no facilities for waste disposal. The smog created was insane, the blue sky had turned into a hazy brown and my nostrils were periodically filled with the smell of sulphur, vinegar or yeast.

Well its a dirty job and someones gotta do it.

Gujarat is one of the fastest growing states in India with a GDP 2.47 times India's average. It's major industrial products include Textiles, Engineering, Chemicals,Petrochemicals. Drugs & Pharmaceuticals. Dairy, Cement & Ceramics. Gems & Jewellery. In Vadodara is one of the best petroleum refineries in India. There are advantages in all this, a demand is being met, a demand that has been created, the rewards are cash flow and improved infrastructure, everybody is a winner. Jobs are created and people are fed and lives are improved. Well one would hope.

Not in our backyard.

Well, another positive is that this is NOT in our backyard because most of the industry has set sail to other lands. Well that is until you start realising that your neighbours smoke blows over the fence.

I wonder what protective environmetal laws there are here, I also wonder whether there is the infrastructure to audit the industry. How accountable are buisnesses? How polluted is the air quality and water supply? Are people aware of the occupational hazards and is there any risk assessment?

Perhaps I should spend some time and look this up on the web..... I am sure that there are answers out there.

I need a break for a moment.

We have been collecting numbers over the last couple of days -

We got the bikes serviced yesterday (since it's been 5000 kms since they last had an oil change, that was in Panaji). We have ridden nearly 8000kms already!

We put some stats tracking onto the blog (not to check up on you to make sure you are reading, honest :) and it looks like you guys don't read on the weekends as much - are you all reading from work???? :) We are getting hits from all over the world, including some recent hits from China. The last half of Jan (when we started the tracking) yielded nearly 300 hits! and we have 90 since the first of Feb, so you guys better get clicking to maintain the pace! :)

I checked photobucket and we have about 400 images in there and only about a dozen are not photos we have posted....that is a lot! We hope you enjoy them!

I have not been counting the number of bananas I have eaten, but it's a lot, too :)

It takes 3 (weak, milky and sweet...but still delicious) Nescafe coffees to get A going in the morning...or one Cafe Coffee Day cappuccino with Red Eye (an extra shot) :):):)

In the last three days we are averaging under 100 rupees a meal (for both of us :) and we are eating extremely well!!! The food is delicious and nutritious. The meals are breakfast, A's daily coffee meal :) and dinner.

I know, I owe you the train ride post...its coming! And A will tell you about posting packages the Indian way :)

Later!

Crocs for Christina...Kites for Mark :)

We chased up the City Museum of Ahmedabad (which is excellent!!! in a Le Corbusier building, no less :) and the ground floor has this great kite museum. We had to turn the lights on ourselves and we turned them off when we left :)

K and A go to Mumbai...a photo essay :)

We got the early train - we were at the station at 4:20 am!!!! (A says: It was cold too and I hadn't had a coffee)



Train number 1 - Lonavala to Dadar



The fine engine that hauled us.


Does the design of this station sign remind you of anything?


Train number 2 - the Dadar to Mumbai local

(A says: I cannot take responsibility for K all the time, so I suggested that she held on tight and just for once did not swing around like a monkey)


(A says: Don't worry K's parents, there were no oncoming trains)


The wooden seating arrangement inside the carriage.


Arriving at Mumbai CST, Victoria Terminus.



Victoria Terminus (which now has some heinously long name abbr CST)



Train number 3 - the Mumbai CST to Lonavala in cushy sleeper class :)




....and now for some views of urban sprawl.




While we were in Mumbai A got a posh haircut :)



Mumbai definitely shows the British influence....






The Oval Maidan.


The Gateway of India, built in commemoration of the arrival of King George V.



Can you believe it, there were even double decker buses, too.

The caves...

Karla...






and Bhaja...




One of the typical monk's cells with a built in sleeping platform.


In one section there were as many as 14 stupas carved from the rock.


Looking out from the cave at the landscape below.


(A says: There she goes again, she will go anywhere for a banana...)

Scenes from the road...

First some carnage :)




The truck was hauling the tank before it all went pear-shaped :)




No 2-wheelers!!!! We have ridden about 15 kms on Expressways - once because of a nice toll booth guy letting us through just before the end and once when they sent us back, but we had 5kms of ripping road to the toll and back again :)



Cough, cough, choking smog....



Lots of animals in the street - they have camels here, too but we have already posted pics of camel carts :)

Some burros crossing the road in Amhedabad:


A cow that wanted to share my ice cream in Hampi:


and a cow crossing against the lights in Mumbai:


oh...and my bike :)

Bijapur photos...

Some great Muslim architecture in this town!!!

The Ibrahim Rauza






Close ups of the ornate detailing




The mazes interconnect - try it :-)


Our young guides - The Boyz from the Hood :-)



...and now for the great Gol Gumbaz


We watched the sunrise from the rooftop.



They also have some amazing canon!


One of the ruins in Bijapur town centre.


Check out this cool cow! :)


Some of the things we saw on our ride through town....

The front of these buildings had collapsed, the inside was now the outside.



Making wagon wheels.



...and a cart on which they are fitted.


Imagine our surprise when the lights went out....this was on the ceiling of the hotel room and glowed brightly! One more nice surprise in Bijapur :)

Some photos :)

First, way back from Bangalore...and our only Bangalore photo...the incredible Adrian!!!! with a smiling A, of course :)


and now the Hampi photos:

A ton of bird's eye views

We were surrounded by ruins and boulders.



The Noblemen's Quarters.



One of the many bazaars and temples.


Two views of Hampi Bazaar.



...and some birds :)


a couple of my scenic views :)




The stone chariot at the Vittala Temple....




Detailing of the Vittala temple, the original paint still remains on some of the surfaces.


One of the gates to the city....


This was an amazing tank - each piece has a mark on it to say where it belongs in the structure - very well thought out!


This was a spout feeding into another tank....


They carved some amazing things into the walls...just a few samples :)





There were a ton of these Hanumans everywhere....and some accomodating monkeys :)




and another monkey :)


This one is marked for Shiva (the three white lines with the red dot) we don't know why, but it looks cool :)


These are Shiva lingas and Nandis carved into a rock...there were a couple of dozen of them all lined up.



Loads of pilgrims/tourists in town...


Praying at the temple must work...someone left these outside:


We watched these wall builders for awhile....they are restoring the place for 150 rupees a day (for the men, no idea what they are paying the women)




This is how they get a motorbike across the river, not quite as cool as Alleppey :)

Namaste!

I am back with more stories from Two Wheels Whirled :-)

After Hampi K and I took a ride to Bijapur :-)

After having such a result with our accommodation in Bijapur we set out to view the sights. We headed first to the Ibrahim Rauza, this being the tomb of Ibrahim Adil Shah 2nd (Circa 1580) who was renowned for his religious tolerance. Bijapur was part of the Bahmani Sultanate of which Ibrahim Adil Shah was one of it's kings. The dynasty saw it's end when Aurangzeb (known for his religious intolerance) conquered the city in 1686. The Ibrahim Rauza inspired the famous Taj Mahal (one of the great Wonders of the World in Agra), which was built for Shah Jahan's wife Mumtaz Mahal. In an interesting twist, Shah Jahan was the father of Aurangazeb.

We encountered some young boys who wanted to be our tour guides, who made up for their lack of English with much enthusiasm :-) They took us to the dark underground chambers and passages below the mausoleum where we were met with more bats - as is the custom of the great historical buildings of India. We walked the protective walls surrounding the tomb and enjoyed the beautiful gardens which were neatly pruned and which amplified the angularity of the structure and it's symmetry. We had to remove our shoes before entering the grounds (as is another custom in India) and the delicate and non-hardened soles of our baby soft feet didn't know what had hit them as we walked over sharp stones and brick. We saw the ornate workmanship to be found on the walls, including mazes, beautiful arabic script and delicate screens. It was an enjoyable experience and we were two of three foreigners there. We did get much attention and in the end we decided to move on to find the great Jami Masjid.

We were unlucky in finding the Jami Masjid this was due to a festival that was being celebrated within the surrounding streets. There was much dancing and clapping, people were covered in oil and paint, stall holders were selling sweets as well as cheap plastic toys and in general there was much merriment. We tried to weave our way through the streets and tight lanes but found ourselves coming to many dead ends due to the shear volume of people. We never did make it to the Jami Masjid but we did delight ourselves in riding two up through streets that we otherwise would not have seen :-) What intrigued me were the number of half collapsed dwellings that faced the streets, the rubble had been cleared away and people continued to live in the remains making do with what they had left. I wondered what had caused them to collapse, we concluded that it may have been flooding which could have made the foundations to become unstable and thus cause the walls to collapse. We saw painted cows, in Bijapur pink was the new black for cattle and horses :-) We saw cows completed covered in pink or those that just had their horns painted, horses would also have the lower part of their legs painted pink too. We also saw small squares which housed hand operated water pumps and were a gathering point for the small communities that surrounded them. Amazingly we were also lucky enough to witness a cart wheel being made. Wooden carts drawn by oxen, water buffalo or cows are quite commonplace. Their wheels have wooden spokes and rims, the rims are supported by a metal band that runs around their circumference and gives them added strength and longevity.

The next day we awoke early to go and see the Gol Gumbaz, this was the great tomb built for Mohammed Adil Shah the son of the former Ibrahim Adil Shah. We had read that it was best to get there early in order to beat the crowds. We had unfortunately been a little too keen and were up way before dawn, as a result we had to have a coffee and wait for the sun to awaken. We were not disappointed. K made me walk fast as we approached the tomb in order to beat a group of young school children that were looking to get there before us, as usual I was being appreciative but responded and quickened my pace :-) We had to remove our shoes, this was no hindrance as the group of children had to carry out the same procedure, there being many more of them this took some time. The curator also delayed them and told us to make our way very quickly up the winding stairs of the minarets to the whispering gallery in the dome. I think that I have already mentioned the enormity of the dome (approx 38 metres in diameter) it is the second largest unsupported dome as well as being the fifth largest dome in the world. K and I stood opposite one another on the circular balcony of the dome which is above the central chamber and whispered to one another. Despite being 38 metres away, the effect is that the sound travels around the perimeter and gives the impression that the person is standing right next to you. If you clap your hands the sound is echoed ten times, even the swishing of your jeans when you walk is repeated back to you. The acoustics were most amazing, truly stupendous. It is said that Mohammed Adil Shah and his wife would converse with one another by whispering in the dome. Respectfully I do not have any photos from within the mausoleum but do have some from the outside.

:-) :-)

We left the dome as the school party approached. We engaged in a brief conversation with a teacher who made us wait for the sister of the christian school to climb the stairs. On her arrival we said hello, exchanged the usual comments about where we came from and our names and then politley left them to make their noise in the whispering gallery. From outside the echoing sounds of forty chattering school children was quite loud and made us appreciate our hastiness to get there first. We looked out across Bijapur from the top of the building and watched the final part of the sunrise as the colours changed from the warm pink to orange. The streets were already beginning to fill with traffic and the call to morning prayer had long past. We could see the other dotted remnants of the Bahmani dynasty shining in the morning light and towering above the bustling city. We could also see the monstrosity of storage tanks for the Indian Oil company.

We did not see all the sights in Bijapur and could have stayed there for longer but we pressed on. Bijapur has been one of the most memorable experiences of the trip so far and I have been touched by the fine monuments that we had the pleasure to behold.

Until next time when I shall share stories of our experience of staying in a muslim hotel, our polluted ride into Gujarat state and the latest from Ahmedabad.......

Well rested in Ahmedabad...

My brain is working again today, it sort of went offline last night when A posted and we sorted through photos (I am uploading them now in the background :). Lots to say, though, so I will get on with it :)

Beggars....I have found something that I am (we are) comfortable with. We have talked to a lot of people and have been asked for just about everything from loads of different people. The resolution started in Mamallapuram - a woman was pestering me to buy some necklaces, I really didn't want a necklace, but I am not going to just handover cash either. She was carrying a small child and I am sure they were in need. Then she just said "rice". That was brilliant, I was more than happy to buy her some rice - that is the sort of direct action that I like. I asked her where I could get some rice and she led me to a shop. I only had 10 rupees on me, so I handed it over to the proprietor and asked for rice - he said rice is a kilo for 20 rupees so she got 500 grams, which is a decent amount! 10 rupees is about 12 pence or 25 cents (deal, eh?) The other thing I started in Mamallapuram is handing over bananas - I love them :) and they are nutritious for the kids (the usual recipients and it always brings a smile, which is well worth it to me :) better than biscuits/cookies or any other snack food. In Mamallapuram I bought 10 bananas on our way back to the hotel after dinner, a kid came up and I was feeling generous so I handed over 2 bananas (they were the small ones :) and that kid went and got his brother and brought him over (both we grinning) so I handed over 2 bananas to that kid (I want to be equal) and then there was an older woman begging and she saw me hand out bananas to the kids so she asked for a banana...I didn't have any left when I got back to the hotel! One last story to relate...A has been appeasing little urchins with her Ginger Altoids, so when we were walking to the beach through the scrub (we were on the scenic route - no tourists :) we were approached by a group of kids. We did the name exchange, where are you from, etc. and then they asked for rupees. A got her tin out and handed round one sweet each and they were very happy and went back to what they were doing. Then not a minute later they came running up and asked for another - for their father that was sitting at the base of a tree tending his goats - we were touched by their thoughtfulness.

Bicycles....I have been missing my bicycles and I know A is missing hers, too. All we see regularly here are the heavy city bikes which look very much like Dutch bikes from Amsterdam! But we have seen a few out of the ordinary...when I was on that ride with Koshy in Mamallapuram I saw some roadies out on a training ride (I was so surprized!) Koshy said there is a road club in Chennai and they ride on Sunday mornings - these were lycra-clad proper cyclists, at least one woman, and one of them was riding a recent Trek roadbike (I will be a geek and tell you that it was a 1500 - I recognized the paintjob :). We later saw a Trek ad (albeit a mountain bike ad) in the motorcycle magazine we picked up, so the market is there. When we were in Bijapur we saw another guy riding a road bike (with drop bars and most importantly gears :) with his "coach" riding next to him on a motorcycle as the rider powered into a headwind down on the drops....coach shouting in his ear something akin to "pedal harder!" :) I have seen a few other bikes with drop bars, but they are singlespeeds..and I did see one guy that was riding his singlespeed like it was a fixed gear (just like the couriers do, weaving in and out of traffic with a rapid cadence :) It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside :) One other thing happened that makes you think that there is fate :) We arrived in Amhedabad very tired and frustrated with the traffic and the map and finding a decent hotel. But we ended up down this alley and A said "how about this one?" and pointed at a decent enough looking place. She proceeded to negotiate us a brilliant deal on a fabulous room (she is a star, that A :) and in the lobby as we were coming in we met 2 Belgian cyclists that had been riding for the last 7 months and they were checking out and on their way to the train back to Delhi to catch their flight out. We got chatting with them and they had ridden from Uzbekistan through China and Tibet and ON THE FRIENDSHIP HIGHWAY! How cool is that. They told us that about 600 of the 1000 kms are paved now and that Everest Basecamp is awesome (they also said it's not their favorite of the Tibetan roads). That was great to connect like that and it's a shame we didn't have more time to chat. Oh well, something is better than nothing, they gave us some very good information about food and water and the dogs we might encounter.

Some things we have seen make this place look post-apocolyptic!!!! Mumbai is a scary place when you think about the numbers - 20 million people in the greater Mumbai area and 60 percent live in the slums. That 60% more than likely don't have acess to water or sewer (the world is their toilet and they are not shy) and most don't have electricity, either. We saw a lot of slums on the train ride into town. We saw that one cement skeleton of a 4 or 5 story building had been taken over by people and they hung blue tarps where the walls would have been - people are very resourceful! Also on the post-apocolyptic theme - we also have seen some franken-bike chopper threewheelers that look right out of Mad Max!!! :)

Food...ah, glorious food :) Not that I want to give you all a bad impression of Hampi, but it was not a wonderful experience outside of the ruins and historical side of it. The tourist side of things is pretty terrible, in fact, and it's all our (as western tourists) own fault :( I think the Lonely Planet listings have had a negative effect - the places live on the notoriety but they have let the place go downhill. The rooms were way overpriced for what you get (the bathroom in Vikky's Guesthouse was pretty foul and the food upstairs - praised heavily by LP was equally foul) - the room in Bijapur the next night was like staying at the Savoy (comparitively) and it was only 100 rupees more (that is 1.25GBPs or about $2) and the food was excellent! The food in Hampi was all menu and no execution! We had one or two items that were decent (some steamed Tibetan bread comes to mind, and teh croissants at the German bakery were decent, if not really croissants :) and it wasn't until our last night there that we found a place that wasn't targeting westerners and we had a fabulous thali at the "Tourist Home" that was targeted to Indian tourists and pilgrims - we paid something like 25 rupees for an unlimited thali and fabulous (and very friendly) service! Last night we went to a local place here and had the most fabulous Gujarati thali...we liked it so much we went back for dinner tonight :) We also had breakfast there 2 days in a row - their masala dosas are also FAB! - so they are getting to know us quite well :) A thali, for those that don't know, is lots of little pots of things and some carbs. They vary depending on where they are from - Punjabi, Gujarati, South Indian, etc. They are different here to the ones we have eaten in London (and better here, IMHO :) and they come with rice and usually a popadum (or a papam, as they call it here) and chipatis. For Gujarati and South Indian it comes with a pot of Sambar (YUM!) some dal and some other veg - we have had some great cabbage. We put the rice in the middle and pour everything on top and eat it by scooping it up with the papam or the chapati (or a spoon :) The food we have had at the local places is - by far - much beter than any tourist place. We did eat some fab food at a couple of places in Mamalapuram, one was an Indian tourist hotel and the food was superb (but not cheap).

Road carnage....we were spoiled but the roads once we got out of Bangalore - all the loonies were on other roads and it was nice and easy riding all the way to Pune (that's Bangalore to Hampi to Bijapur to Pune) and then we found lots of idiots in our path and it has not abated. The ride from Karla to Ahmedabad was really hard work! The expressways do not allow 2-wheelers so we were confined to secondary roads...with all the traffic (car and truck) that do not want to pay the tolls. When we got to the northern suburbs of Mumbai it was just terrible! The roads are under construction and there is no signage - not even as you approach the major highways!!! We had to ask 6 or 7 people for directions and we were never really sure that we were on the right road until we finally found the NH-8...where we promptly stopped for a cold drink and a bite to eat as we recovered from the effort - we still had over 200kms to go and we were already beat. All along the roadways we saw trucks off the side, it looked mostly like falling asleep at the wheel and not the head on collisions that we saw in Madaya Pradesh. We saw one truck that was wrapped around a tree and another that had driven over the median, which was a deep gap just wide enough for the pair of truck tires of the back wheel - OUCH, it broke the front axel for the truck. We stopped at a roadside hotel and continued our journey to Amhedabad, leaving very early, but the traffic was quite heavy - we have been accustomed to having the road to ourselves before about 9am.

Tata buys Corus, by the numbers. We have been reading the papers here about the merger and the enormous cost. Tata spent a lot of cash to become a world leader, but how does it compare to what the Indian government spends? What Tata spent could more than cover the amount that India spends on education and health COMBINED! It would more than cover the salaries and travel expenses of all government employees for a year. It would cover about half of what India spends on defense.... this from a country that has a huge percentage of the population without proper drinking water and sanitation and a huge percentage that are illerate. The British government just gave India a huge amount for education....seems very strange to me.

The train journey on my next post!

Namaste!

Life is good :-) :-) We have made it to Ahmedabad. We like this city. It really took some hard work to get here - horrendous air quality and road conditions but we have made it. More stories of this journey will follow in due course.

Before I rewind to Hampi I must mention very quickly an amusing little story of the second pickpocket attempt that I fell victim to, this time in Mamallapuram, way back.

Standing atop the old lighthouse, I watched the amazing dexterity of a monkey who was sitting next to the railings near to me. Drinking water can be bought in plastic bottles but even more popular for the locals are small bags of water (this is also evident by the amount of litter that they create too). It was incredibly interesting to watch the monkey try to squeeze the packet with his small hands in order to get the last of the water out, he was trying to figure it out and was moving his hand along the packet trying to move the water to a point where he could drink it. I was so very impressed to be this close to him and watch his incredibly effective hand movements. K did point out that if he was really smart then he would hold the packet up to his mouth and use gravity to assist the flow of water :-) The monkey soon looked up and saw me watching him and now turned his attention towards me, I was still transfixed by his behaviour and did not expect him to jump up the railing and try to make a grab for my mosquito repellent. Having been a kung fu trainee in the past I still possess some skill to react quickly and I managed to prevent him from snatching away one of my most prized possessions by clutching it first. He then darted off to the other side of the lighthouse and I could see him watching me for any other opportunities to make a snatch. I got away safely and so did the mosquito repellent. I am remembering this now because I spoke to my nephews on the phone last night and they are very much like monkeys themselves, although I have not known them to try and snatch mosquito repellent from strangers (well at least I hope not) :-) :-)

Now to glorious Hampi....

Going back a couple of weeks to Hampi... Hampi, such an amazing place it would not be fair for me to not share the delights of the seat of the Vijayanagara empire with you. To give you some background information (to enhance the photos that you will see) this empire was the largest post-moghul empire, stretching over at least three states (present day Karnataka, Andra Pradesh and Maharastra). It's seat was established by Saint Vidyaranya (1336) and was renowned for renovating many temples throughout India, it also held literature, music and the arts in high acclaim and re-established Indian culture. It also had a focus on caring for it's citizens and their welfare. The end of Hampi came when later day Mogul invaders sacked the city and reduced it to ruins.

Once there we found ourselves amongst a landscape stretching for twenty six square kilometres that was strewn with boulders, vegetation and 15th century ruins. Everywhere that we looked we saw splendid remains that showed the vast wealth and grandeur of the culture of it's previous inhabitants. We saw gateways, fortifications and secular buildings amidst the boulders that these great monuments were themselves constructed from. The stone cutters marks still adorn the edges of rock where natural fissures were taken advantage of in order to remove vast quantities of stone for building a spectacular city. Hampi is a World Heritage Site, a status well deserved due to it's beauty and glory that can still be seen amongst the remains. Everywhere that you look you are spoilt with either the beautiful landscape of this area or with imaginative creation via manmade structures. There is also a wonderful river that flows amongst the boulder covered hillocks and ruins. In a nearby town (approximately seven kilometres away) a huge water tank worthy a reservoir status supplied water all year round distributing via a vast network of aqueducts and channels. The amazing thing is that this very same tank is invaluable even today and is still in use.

K and I love to go exploring and we certainly found the perfect place for it, our motorbikes gave us great freedom to go to places that were less frequented by tourists due to their pressing tour itineraries or not having the luxury of such ease of mobility. We climbed boulders and enjoyed beige coloured lunar landscape vistas, we stepped up to the top of a hillock and looked across Hampi Bazaar and also we gave ourselves an early morning start and practically had the Vittala temple to ourselves. Here we were delighted to see the stone chariot with lotus designed carved stone wheels that once turned on their axles. As we explored the kilometres of ruins we saw stepped water tanks, audience chamber halls and platforms, secret underground meeting chambers, palaces and some of the remains of the seven layers of walls that protected the royal enclosure. We saw towers, guards quarters, merchant housing, more bazaars, underground and overground temples, the royal mint, the queens bath and paved avenues lined with long stretches of pillared corridors. There were elephant mounting platforms, elephant stables, storage halls and many staggered gateways. You are safe to assume from this list that there was an amazing infrastructure in place here.

Sitting alongside Hampi Bazaar in a cafe supping fruit juice, it was fantastic to people watch and see the hoards of excited pilgrims and Indian tourists going to the main temple. Cows made their way up and down the street sniffing about for fodder and chewing/licking everything in sight - including plastic chairs. Monkeys swung down from the outer perimeter walls of the temple and snatched bananas from the costermongers. The small town was relaxed despite it's main trade being that which caters to the tourist. The small lanes lined with houses added to the atmosphere as families interacted with one another in public spaces as well as feeding their cattle, goats and chickens. Grandma sat on the floor in the street and watched her young grandchildren play with steel bars with no sign in preventing them from whacking each other. Dogs stood on walls and watched the world go by, bats flew through the air at night and cockerels cock a doodled at dawn and dusk.

Hampi was amazing but we had to get moving in the end having trebled our scheduled time there. Onwards we travelled onto new and exciting exotica... but that is another story for tomorrow.

I must sleep, the internet cafe is closing and tomorrow we shall get the photos to you having spent many hours this evening sifting through them.

So for now, sweet dreams and goodnight from Ahmedabad.

Namaste!

Finally an Internet facility so that I can post, unfortunately we have been in towns where there has been no access or unusable computers/ bandwidth.

There is not much time to post because we are waiting for a train that we must catch to get back from Mumbai to our current abode in Lonavala. We have been on a day trip and it is amazing here.

Here are things that I want to mention to tantalise you.....

Bangalore - Adrian was the highlight, he cannot be found on any map and is not listed in any of the 'books'...... Catching up with an old friend was the reason that we went to Bangalore and it was more than worth it. I also caved in to the desire to have music about my person and bought a small 1GB MP3 player as well as a few Cd's - Beethoven's Symphonies 6 and 8 (Bernstein), Mozart's Requiem, Carnatic music, Ravi Shankar live and Hendrix at the Isle of White, quite a mix to keep me sated for a while (I am so happy). Otherwise I was highly disappointed with Bangalore. Downtown was everything that you would expect of a modern consumer shopping area, there were neon lights, air conditioned stores, Nokia, Sony, Kentucky Fried Chicken, it felt very civilised, there were even rules that were followed regarding road use. Leaving the city however made me feel ill. Open sewers, slums, heavily polluting traffic and smog all made me feel like I could not take another breath, I felt as though I was suffocating - it was the worst yet. For a few days after I had a very sore throat.

Hampi - The ruins of the Vijayanagar were amazing to see, I constantly felt like I had been cast back in time. Such a place does wonders for your imagination, I was picturing the bustling bazaars, the festivities and the parades etc. The early morning sun on the ruins at Hampi was beautiful. The aqueduct that supplied the city with water still stands. When I am able I shall post some photos and will explain a more. Ah, waking up at 2 am with the town's stray dogs and those on the surrounding hillsides howling wildly. Perpetuating into a frenzy of barking and echoing howls followed by the horrible squeals of dog fights. It is a dog eat dog world here. Also, me being a Mozzie Mcfeast.

Bijapur - I discovered that I adore Indo-Islamic architecture. What it lacks in detail it makes up for in grandeur. So different to the elaborately decorated buildings that are common place in much of India. The Gol Gumbaz, the great tomb of Mohammed Adil Shah, it touched my soul. It has the second largest unsupported dome in the world (second to St Peters in Rome) and the whispering gallery was an experience that I shall never forget. Riding through the back streets with K on a bike was incredible, something that we do not normally so but shall make a point of in the future.

There is so much to write and not enough time - we need to go pronto.

Until next time...... (we shall try to get to a town with decent computers and access). I have missed the contact.

Hey all...we are in BOMBAY!!!!

You might not be able to read this when I post it - I can't get to the blog right now - but I wanted to say hello and tell you that we are good :)

We left Hampi in a cloud of dust taking some fantastic(ly straight :) roads and landed in Bijapur. What a GREAT town!!! Not at all touristy and it was SO refreshing!!! It was tough to get A out of the cushy bed and cushy hotel (a business hotel that was about the same price that we paid for the Hampi place but about 10 times cleaner and 20 times nicer :) Bijapur is a Muslim town - home of Adil Shah's empire right after the sacking of the Vijaynagar Hindu empire (that's Hampi :) and it's just 180kms up the road :) Adil Shah built 2 huge monuments, one at either end of town. (more on this later)

We left Bijapur early the next morning after getting up while it was still dark, checking out the second big monument and hitting the long road to Lonavala...a 440 km day!!! We had some very interesting roads for the first half, small but fun and scenic, and the second half was the same big road we ripped it down when we left Pune for Belguam 6 weeks ago. We even stopped at the same restaurant (I can't believe I remembered it :) and then hit the 4 lane north. Finding the big road to Mumbai was easier (a lot easier!!!) than I thought and then we were dicing it up with some drivers that were suffering a serious case of phallus minutia and we all the sudden arrived in Lonavala. We couldn't be less impressed...and we couldn't get a room in any of the hotels that we wanted and the others were so outrageously priced and so obviously not worth it we headed back towards Karla (where the caves are that we wanted to see) and checked out the MTDC tourist home - Maharastra Tourist Development Corporation. These can be pretty decent - we stayed in a similar place in Mandu. It was reasonably priced and it was really nice (for that price :) so we booked in for 2 nights.

We had gotten up so early the day before that we had a bit of a lie in and then went in search of the caves. The first one is Karla cave and it's the largest, oldest Buddhist cave in India (there must be older ones, but not this big?). It is similar, but we think MUCH better, than some of the ones we have seen at Ajanta and Ellora. It does have it's drawbacks - it's just the one decent cave by itself (there are a few smaller ones, too) and they have parked a massive Hindu temple right in the entryway! The walk up was very busy, but everyone was going to the temple - there were maybe 5 of us for the cave only :) Interestingly, the temple is for one of the lesser Hindu godesses (she only has 2 temples in all of India) and people go to her to pray for children...and when your wish is granted you bring up your chicken or your goat to be sacrificed in thanks. There is a chopping block at a small temple at the bottom of the hill and an abbatoir a little further down the road where the goats were queued up...

The second set of caves is Bhaja and they are across the valley from Karla...and not very easy to find as there is no Hindu temple there :) We drove where we thought it should be and just about the time we were going to give up and try another road A spotted a small blue sign (all the archiological sites have blue signs) and lo and behold it was what we were looking for. The tourist information place said you drove up to the caves but this was a bit of a climb (with signs telling you you had to pay just up ahead :) and when we got up to the booth A had to wake the guy to pay the entry fee - we were the only ones there. Wow, though, talk about spectacular!!! Nineteen caves and a smaller site than Ajanta or Ellora, also much earlier (2nd-1st century B.C.) when they did not use the image of Buddha as they did later, but they had stupas and wheels to represent the Buddha. There was one cave that had 14 massive carved stupas all grouped together. The caves here were also amazing, and except for a group of 4 Indian young men (3 of whom requested to have their photos taken with us :) we had the place to ourselves - that was really nice!!! There were also some large under rock storage tanks with water in them - this part of Maharastra gets 5-7 meters of rain during the monsoon!!!!

After the caves we went for a ride to an area where there was a third cave and a dam, but we enjoyed the ride and never found either :) We got back and almost immediately went out to the Lonavala train station to book our train tickets for the next morning's trip to Bombay. We wanted to have a full day (not ride in the dark) and not have to carry the moto kit around all day (Bombay is 110km from Lonavala) so we opted for the train. It was an experience just to get the tickets (I can't believe Paul an Jenny did this regularly!!! We were at a small station and it's a bit of a process, at a larger station it must be a nightmare!) and the train journey in this morning was...eye-opening :) We couldn't get a reservation on the train we wanted as it was leaving too soon and the list had been posted, so we bought the return and rocked up at 4:20 this morning to buy our tickets and catch the train.

More on Bombay later...we like it here, though - it's very clean!!!

Must go catch the train back!!!!