Richard's Travel Blog

This is the Gateway to India arch. It is the first sight to see in Mumbai.

Here are some cricketers on a big green called the Oval Maidan. I knew I’d forget the name of the building in the background.

Back up a little, pan to the right, and this is Bombay University.

I’ve been doing at least one cool thing a day. Since last writing, I took the Lonely Planet walking tour, which was mostly through Colaba, the area I’m staying where the arch and Angie’s place is, and to the north. Yesterday I walked through a market and the docks. Whew, the fishing boats were long since in and the fish in the market were getting ripe fast. It wasn’t too picturesque down there. Basically it’s developing country docks in the old part without containerization.

No, I didn’t take any pictures of fish doing what they do in 90 humid degrees. One kind, bombil, are dried on purpose, then batter and fried. It’s called Bombay Duck. There were all kinds of fish there. I was surprised to see barracuda and shark, and happy to see they didn’t seem to be selling anything less than 6 inches long. This contrasts with Sooutheast Asia where they fish bomb, rake up everything that floats to the top, and sell it no matter how small, like one inch.

Today I went to Elephanta Island. That’s an island about one hour’s ride west  of the city where there are World Heritage Site 6th and 7th century Hindu cave scultures. It was common, especially at that time and a few centuries before and after, to make statues and reliefs out of the backs of caves. Some caves, like on Elephanta, are not much more than recesses in the rock. Others, like Ajanta, are in deep caves, and require a flashlight to see. I’m going to Aurangabad tomorrow night to look at the caves of Ajanta and Ellora. You’ll be seeing more pictures like this, so I’ll only show a couple at this time.

Actually, if you’ve seen or know about these cave sculptures, you will know that this is really a spectacular example, remarkable well preserved and of artistic merit. This picture does not do the detail merit. In these caves, it’s this particular relief that got Elephanta listed as a World Heritage Site.

Here’s a closer look at one of the other images in the cave.

As I said, I’m shoving off to see other cave sites. I’m sure there will be internet access in Aurangabad. So, I’ll talk to you in a couple of days. Be well.

 

Brad and Angelina are following me. First it was Jaiper, then Udaipur, now here. So far we’ve been unable to connect. Their guards don’t know they are expecting me. I have two extra beds in my place where they can stay, but they are missing out. They are having to stay a couple blocks form me in this dive.

That picture was taken at dawn . I turned around and photographed this. I assume it’s their view from one of the upper stories.

And this must be like their room. Actually, it’s Mahatma Ghandi’s room in the house in Mumbai he used to stay in. He had a practice of spinning yarn. That spikey thing in the back is one of his spinners. The more you see how India is and imagine how India was, and the way Britain was, the more you realise what an amazing man he was, and how amazingly his path worked.

With all the overnight sleeper bus travel, especially with the kids, they had laundry to do. Fortunately, Mumbai has the world’s largest commercial laundry. 5000 people live and work here. This picture only shows half the place.

Mumbai is growing on me. It has everything, almost, in an Indian kind of way. It’s a poor man’s New York. It is the real capital of India, just as New York is the real capital of the US. Everything is here. Dreams are made and broken here. It’s got unbelieveable problems and unbelieveable opportunity. It’s growing and crumbling at the same time. There’s high art and nearly stone age slums. There’s high culture and tribalism, modernity and ancient twisted karma. Like any of the major cities of the world, it would take decades to discover it all, especially for the foreigner. I could easily imagine living the New York lifestyle here. For a few hundred thousand dollars, you can buy a seriously upscale condo, fully appointed with marble floors and the works, in a fashionable neighborhood. Renting such a place would set you back about $700/mo. Servants are about $5/day each. I know because I’ve asked about it and talked with foreign residents. It’s less if you don’t want this view of Chowpatty Beach.

Speaking of Chowpatty, it’s a happening place after dark, especially from about 9 to 12. It’s crowded with people walking on the beach or along the promenade. The young couples are very cute. There are food stalls with great food and snacks, and bars and clubs on the road. There’s a little breeze, so it’s nice to go out there when it’s cooled down a bit. It’s still a little warm here, usually about a muggy 90 degrees during the day.

One of the things about Mumbai I think affects my attitude, is there are no autorickshaws allowing until you are out in the burbs. It really helps the air be cleaner, gives the city a modern feel I hadn’t seen yet, makes the streets quieter without the constant tuk-tuk-tuking of those 2-stroke engines, and don’t make the traffic even more chaotic. There are also no bicycle rickshaws, much less people propelled rickshaws or animal carts. It makes Mumbai look like the kind of city we are used to. You almost can think less about the poverty. The places I go are like midtown Manhattan.

Last night I went to an English language play. Tonight I’m going to a chamber music concert. Maybe tomorrow or the next day I’ll take in some Indian classical music, which I’ve only seen once since I got to India. Like New York, you could do something five times a night and never keep up. I think, like New York, about a year of it would be about all I could take. But I’m thinking… thinking. Property values here are skyrocketing and are expected to continue to do so for the next few years, especially in upper middle class and upper class areas, as the country develops. With property values falling in America and the dollar sinking like a stone… I’m thinking. A 390 day CD here yields 8%. It may be the new land of opportunity, if you have money. Ah, if you don’t, you can live under some plastic. It’s like America that way, only worse.

Or maybe I’ll go treat HIV people or something.

Just keep thinking, Butch. It’s what you’re good at.

Sending CD’s of my photo’s was a lesson in dealing with the Indian bureaucracy. It’s an Indian government institution. There is logic to it, but it must have grown like topsy. I got a late start at doing this, only allowing about 3 hours to send four CD’s to America. Silly me. To make a long story short, I got them off, but I had to go through the main post office and the customs office. Fortunately, they are both in adjacent buildings, together covering a square block.

It doesn’t look that hard on paper. But it is so slow, and you have to go from this person to that person. Furthermore, if you are still there after closing, you have to pay baksheesh. The first thing you do is fill out forms in triplicate for each item. Then you go to the customs officer, who questions you about the content of the CD. Apparently they are worried about state secrets and threats against government personnel. I was told they would be viewing each CD to make sure nothing threatening is contained in them. I saw the computer there and said to myself “This is going to be  a while”. Fortunately, the chief questioned me for a while and didn’t decide to view them. He had been institutionalized for a while, so it would have required bringing in assistants to do that. More people, as if all the stamping, money collection and everybody else wasn’t enough. Finally, I got the okay’s I needed. I could then go to the official government package wrapping area, where they were expertly wrapped in this vinyl wrapping material and sewn ( ! ) shut. Then I went back for the stamps of approval, then the initials of the customs officer, then the tar seals. Then I could actually carry all my papers and packages to the window. From there it was easy. They plowed through my information, sewed a copy of my triplicated form to the outside, accepted my postage, and assured me that they would get to America in 10 days. Whew.

Mumbai’s not half bad. I thonk I’m going to stay at least a few days more, if to do nothing but eat. The grub is great here. Tonight I had this thing called Bombay duck. It’s got nothing to do with ducks. It’s dried fish that’s coated with semolina and deep fried. Basically,it’s like Long John Silver’s, only good, with spices in the crust I could only guess at. There is so much of everything here. There’s food, entertainment, arts, high and low cuisine, the usual extrreme poverty and great wealth. It would take a while to do Mumbai meaningfully.

I have only taken a few pictures. The subject matter isn’t as photogenic as Rajastan or Ladakh, but I’ll send something next time. Meanwhile, I’m still getting my sea legs around here. Talk to you later.

Well, that ride blew. There were no seats available on the train from Amjer, near Pushkar, to Mumbai. So I took the night sleeper bus to Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and this morning booked a sleeper to Mumbai for tonight. I took a sleeper bus from Udaipur to Ajmer, and it was nice, thugh the road was a little rough. It was a fine bus, modern, comfortable with sheets and a pillow, a metal door for privacy, air conditioned (quiet inside), room to store my pack and a rack in my berth for my shoes. Last night’s bus and ride were the opposite.

For one, they had so much commercial cargo that the baggage holds and the roof were full. I had to sleep in this narrow, short bunk with my pack. They oversold the tickets, so a few people slept on the floor. One floor guy wanted my bunk and three of us had to drag him out of there. Indians are very verbal but they fight like girls. Anyway, the bus got there late, and took a while to load and finalize where people were going to sit/lie. It was hot and my window didn’t work and there was no air conditioning. No sheet. Just a ripe blanket. What little headroom I had was partially taken up by a broken fan which would have been more in the way anyway. It was billed as an express, but we stopped a bunch of times. Each time, there was more commotion. At least there were no live animals on board. The driver was crazy, and the road rough. The thing rattled. And last but not least, during the night one passenger played his religious music. None of the passengers said anything, so I didn’t. Indians are used to noise and crowding. Then in the morning, the bus speaker played popular music for our entertainment. Hindi-pop can be tormenting. I think it was a single cassette tape, but it had different styles, all of it warbly from the old tape and from the warbly singing style. It’s hard to tell which was intentional and which was an old tape on it’s last legs. One was Hendrix-like on slack guitar/Don Ho vocal. Another was Freddy Mercury with Barney’s voice. Another was a Ventures rip-off (Don’t forget the warbling). And several were accoustic orchestra with juvenile electric guitar and a female vocalist. Omygod, it was worse than usual, and that’s bad.

Anyway, I’m here in Ahmedabad, killing time till my train leaves at 10 tonight. I walked around downtown a little. It’s friendlier than the touristy places. I think one block from the train staion, they haven’t seen much of foreigners. I don’t have an inclination to explore today. I’m going to try not to sleep through my train departure.

The police recovered my wallet and credit cards. For some reason, the thief kept my driver’s license and, of course, the $50. I wonder if the bank will let me use my ATM card, even though I reported it stolen? I’ll call them tonight, when it’s business hours in the US. That’s about it for today. I’ll write from Mumbai.

Imagine, if you will, 100,000 people packed into the few streets of a little town surrounding a lake about 500 meters on a side. Imagine that they came from all over India to ritually bathe away their sins on the same night, and float candles in the water. Imagine the crowds. Imaging all of them chanting and singing, and accompanying themselves with drums, bells, cymbals, pans, flutes, other horns, and every kind of party favor. I’d put a picture up, but photography is prohibited, no doubt out of respect and because so many are stripped down. It’s a sight. I got up at 4:30 to watch. It was amazing. And it was the first time I had experienced the famed crush of moving humanity you’ve seen on TV. It was intense, to say the least. I got my pocket picked too. Now I’m a real Indian. In case you’re wondering, I’ve got that matter almost handled. You can telephone America for 5 minutes for $1.

People are starting to clear out, though I have no idea how they are getting to the nearby main city of Amjer to continue on to wherever. There’s a bus every 15 minutes, but that ain’t going to cut it. I’ll bet many thousands walked the 11 km to there. Yesterday, during the day, I sat in a rooftop terrace restaurant, above the madness, and people watched. They’ve come from all over India, even tribal areas like Nagaland and Manipur. Here’s a shot of what passed one this not main street all day yesterday, and is only slowly dissipating today, the last day of the festival and associated camel fair and trade event.

The camel fair was underwhelming. A lot of nothing went on, unless you were showing cattle, horses or camels. The events were incredibly downscale, untill the last night. They had a cultural program with music and dance from all over India, even remote places like Nagaland and Manipur of the other side of Bangladesh. They did have a few intersting things. There’s a whole subcaste of itinerate entertainers. Those of you who’ve read “A Fine Balance” may remember this from the front cover.

And there was the five legged cow.

A game of musical chairs was even on the printed program. Now THAT drew an excited crowd. I know I was excited. I gave myself peanut belly. Here’s a peanut vendor, as excited as I was.

There were several lanes of vendors in the bazaar outside the “stadium”, selling about anything you’d want, but here’s part of the food court inside.

They were dancin’ in the aisles to a little minstrel group.

And then there were the camels. There were a few hundred there. Mostly they were behind the stadium being traded, but they gusssied up a couple dozen to give people rides on.

So, as I said, it would have been nice to publish pictures of the religious activities at the ghats, but it was prohibited. Here’s kind of a nice piture taken from that terrace restaurant. And with that, I’m out of here. I’m going to Gujarat (where all the Patels of US hotel fame come from) tomorrow night, and on to Mumbai (Bombay). I’ll write from there. Be well, all of you.

In the unlikely event that you’d like to see lots of Udaipur, you might want to watch “Octopussy”. I wasn’t doing anything last night, so I watched it at my hotel. You can watch it anywhere here. There weren’t just a few scenes of Udaipur. Muchof the movie was made here. there are lots of scenes around the water, in the Monsoon Palace, in the City Palace, in the City Palace Hotel, and in the countryside. It’s a terrible movie, with cliche Indian behavior and fat chance even the western women are dressed so scantily, but the street scene hasn’t changed much. The buildings, dress of the people, the street activity, the autorickshaws, lots of things look as they look now.

About the first thing you find out when you get to Udaipur is that that the James Bond movie “Octopussy” was filmed on location here. I haven’t seen any old Bond movies in a while, and I don’t remember one from the other, but if you remember it or want to see some sites, maybe rent it. This isn’t really a four day town for me, and I’m in day three with nothing much else to do, so maybe I’ll watch “Octopussy”, which is showing in almost all the hotels and guesthouses.

About Udaipur. It’s called the White City for a couple of reasons. One is that when the king from Chittor moved his Mewar kingdom to Udaipur, they worshipped the Sun God, and whaite symbolized that deity. Another reason I heard was it’s called that beccause the Moghuls never took it, so it remained pure, that is, white. Anyway, it’s billed as the most romantic city in Rajastan. That doesn’t mean it’s the most romantic city in the world, at least as far as i’m concerned, but it would be a nice place to walk around with your sweetheart. There are lakes with views in many directions, cozy restaurants, sunsets over the mountains, lit up buildings at night, and little lanes like Naples to wander through.

This is the view at sunset from the rooftop restaurant at my hotel.

The next one is from almost directly across the way, toward the City palace, which is to the left from the above picture, so the south from the rooftop.

Here’s the view from the rooftop.

I’m getting kind of burnt on palaces, but there are some nice things in this one. they did a lot with tiles, mirrors, glass, and jewels.

And here’s a shot of a courtyard facade, which my photography did not do justice.

As I’ve said, the women dress in spectacular colors here. The best was at a program I went to with dance, music and puppetry.

It was a nice show. Below, the guy in the alcove playing his horn. The guy on the left on the floor is playing some kind of drum, and the woman is playing a squeeze box. The woman obviously is dancing with a pot of fire on her head. They actually do this in various areas of Rajastan. I have loads of pictures of different exotic dances. Soon I’ll burn a couple of CD’s and send them home.

There are three or four nice gardens in town. Here’s a shot of a courtyard in one of them. One lone lotus is blooming in the left foreground.

Hmm. I guess you can’t see the flower.

As I said, Udaipur is supposed to be romantic. I guess I can go there. There’s a little sitting area in my room, like a window loveseat. Here is the sunrise from there, with a big HIndu temple. If you can’t nuzzle your sweetie to this, well….

I ‘m off to the Pushkar camel fair tomorrow on the night bus. Talk to you from there if there’s a connection.

Chittorgarh (Chittor) was the site of a Rajput kingdom until, after three defeats by the Moghuls, it was moved to Udaipur. It’s a stop on the tourist route through Rajastan because of the size of the fort there and for the historical significance. One interesting bit of history is that each time it was defeated, the last of the army rode out in orange robes to be killed by the enemy and, in traditional Hindu fashion, the women committed suicide with deaths of their men. On the last occasion, 13,000 women and children jumped into the firepit as their men were cut up to the last man.

Below is a model of Chittor in a museum in Udaipur. The fort itself is probably a couple of km long, so it’s not that photogenic from a distance. Within the fort are several large temple, more smaller temples, and official royal buildings. Much of it is now a park.

I presumed the zigzag course up to the front gate was switchbacks to get up the hill, but I was told it was so elephants couldn’t get up speed to ram the gate.

Below is the tower of victory. It’s about 100m high, with intricate carvings.

Other than that, there’s nothing in Chittor.

It’s been about a week since I was in a place with high speed connection, but here in Udaipur it’s all over town. I’ve been in Rantembore National Wildlife Park and the cities of Bundi and Chittorgarh. Ranthembore is reputed to be the best place in India to see a tiger, so I went on three three hour safaris in an open bus. We saw one tigress and her three cubs on one of the safaris. Here is proof, even though I couldn’t get the shot off in the moment she was in the sun.

She just walked with her cubs along the side of the road, and we backed up as she went.

There are also loads of deer, boar and birds. I got a quick glimpse of a black leopard and a long distance look at a crocodile. There are also bears and antelope, but I didn’t see any. It’s not exactly the Serengeti. I was hanging out with a French gal who had just been to Kenya. I guess it’s great for wildlife there.

Besides that, it’s pretty there.

Then I went to a really nice city of about 80,000, Bundi. It is the most tourist friendly place I’ve been yet in India. Well, maybe Leh was more so. Anyway, they’ve had town meetings to teach everybody how to behave. there are no hotel touts, beggars, or hard sell. The shop keepers ask once if you want to come in. Everybody greets you. The kids are great. The rooms are what we usually expect. There are lots of sites to see. It’s nice, I’m telling you.

This is the view of Bundi Palace from my balcony. I’m definitely living large compared to other travels.

View of Bundi from the palace. The buildings in this part of Rajastan are painted blue. Udaipur is called the Blue City. OH, I had a good time here. Even the hotel was loads of fun. We were all one big gregarious group. AND, there were five other Americans there. that was a shock. One couple was on a 5 1/2 year motorcycle tour of Asia. What stories you hear. Another gal was a 70+ year old retired teacher from Tucson. Tough cookie, that one.

At first this looks like there is a window on the right, but it’s a 300 year old mirror. This palace is famous for it’s murals.

I went on a couple of tours while I was there. One was a Jeep tour with an Australian couple. Mostly that was educatiopnal. We went to the guides home village and some other villages. He talked for hours about the intricacies of the caste system, which about 80% of the Hindu population still ascribes to, which means 60% of the population of India. I’ve been needing some prolonged time with someone to get the basics, and this was my first opportunity. We even went to a village of people who had been been booted out of their home villages because they married outside their caste, for love bless their hearts, “like donkeys” to the conservative Hindu.

Typical looking village lane.

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Blacksmiths.

Many cows are made up for Diwali. At least the horns are painted, usually blue or green.

Water buffalo doing what they do best.

Waterfall about 30 km from Bundi. I didn’t go out there with the Aussies. I went on the back of the guide’s motorbike. Siva is the most worshipped deity around here. There is a temple below this fall. In there is a very old linga, or stone penis of Siva’s. That’s nothing new, as there are linga’s everywhere. but the sadhu (holy man) in there asked us to feel up in this arm-sized canal in the stone and see what we can feel. Well, they have yoni here too, which are vaginas. I figured right next to the linga must be this yoni, so I thought I felt a cervix and said so. Wrong. The guide and the sadhu, especially the guide, blushed and said they are cow udders. Ever seen a dark Indian blush? I’m sticking with cervix though. I think they cleaned it up.

I had to throw in one more of Bundi’s ancient attractions. This is inside what’s called the Queen’s stepwell. This one was completed in 1699. There are several in bundi. They are deep baths, fed by wells. You take staircases down into them. They are something to see. You can’t see down in there, but it goes two stories more down, and used to be filled to different levels, according to the season and the queen’s desires.

And last but not least…

…Need I say more?

Tomorrow I’m leaving Jaipur and heading for Rathambore Wildlife Preserve to look at tigers, then looping around south through Bundi, Chittorgarh, Udaipur and Ajmer before going to the camel fair in Pushkar Nov. 2-4. There’s sure to be internet connection in Bundi, Udaipur and Pushkar, so I’ll be in touch.

Today I final took in the sites of the old city, called here the pink city, after the color of the old buildings and the subsequent color of choice for buildings here. there’s the usual palace, museums, a couple of Hindu temples, other old buildings, and an 18th century observatory. It was interesting, but tiring. Here are some pictures.

Note the basic short distance taxi in the foreground. At least they don’t pull it by foot, like in Laos.

As you can see, the women dress very colorfully here.

With these instruments, they could chart movement of the stars, predict celestial occurances and tell time.

With this huge sundial, they could tell time to within 20 seconds.

And finally, I’ll throw in some elephants in make-up at Amber fort.