after a palacial flight from Bombay we arrived 2 hours later in jaipur. we flew with kingfisher airlines, a fairly new offshoot of the makers of kingfisher beer, a staple throughout india. on a par with british airways for pleasantness.

jaipur was a seething cesspool of noise and corruption. coming from the south where a taxi minion would take a refusal of his services on the chinand move on, i was taken aback by the insane tenacity of the jaipurian taxi-wallahs and bicycle rikshaws, some going as far as following you around for hours continually bleating about about their “indian helecopter”.

not much to see in jaipur apart from a much fabled pink city. the attraction being ofcoase, that its all painted pink. after a disasterous attempt to find it on the first day, which i blame entirely on the crappy maps in our respective guide books which sent us miles in the wrong direction, we went back to the hotel to rest, vowing to tackle it the next day. on the morrow we finally made it though it took miles of walking. i had become so affended by the constant barrage of transport goons, that i had decided to walk everywhere.

the pink city was if possible more dirty and smelly than the main town. its pinkness was infact non-existant, most of the buildings having turned a rancid shade of brown. there were countless shops and mini bazzars all selling pretty much the same thing. lucy bought some cheap bracelets. i sat on the sidelines soaking up the ambiance. it was what you might describe as livley, if by lively you meant to describe the roads like a river of cars and choking smoke,the screech of a thousand horns going off in your ear and every person who spots your pale skin leaping in front of you with the glittering eyes of a fanatic and gesturing wildly at their identakit shops. there were some palaces/temples or some such but finding them in the tumultious city was nigh on impossible. we eventually found a palace but it was pricey to get in and was apparently crud inside, on the plus side though, i found chap taking people’s photos with a 150 year old camera outside. i had mine done for a small fee. looks rather classy if i say so myself.

the place we were staying was next door to a really nice hotel which was unfortunatly fully booked. our place was a bit crap and filled with wierd surly staff. we made a point of going across and eating at the other place though. one nice thing about our place was the open roof which i would wonder of a night. all the roofs in jaipur are flat and the aquitecture is very nice, hints of arabian nights about it. gave flo a call with my super cheap new indian mobile.missing flo a lot since her departure. doesn’t seem the same without her.

the next day we went back to the pink city so that lucy (who liked jaipur for some reason) could get a bag and there was a possibilty of elephants being around in some location of the city. in the end both of us got a bit tired of it all and headed back to the hotel. tomorrow ho for agra!

as we left the pink city for the last time, on the way out we passed a man sitting on the side of the road screaming violently and hitting himself in the head. i sympathised. a couple of days more i would be hunked down next to him a broken man.

the train to Agra was at 2.00am. yay! to add to the excitment we didn’t know exactly when our train was set to arrive, so we could easily snooze right through our stop. intence! sleep was tricky and we arrived shattered. the cold at night up north is crazy! huddling on my bench a thin sheet keeping the morning frost of me, i considered the purchase of a couple of blankets might be wise.

agra, home of the taj mahal, is assentually a village with a touristy center. it is surprising that it isn’t more industrialised considering it is such a tourist mecca. on the first day we went for a bit of a ramble in a park, the first bit of greenery i have strolled around in india. quite nice if a bit run down, we met some small street urchins who followed us around a bit, demanding i take photos of them. we came to a rise and getting to the top we had an impressive view of the Taj. it is a majestic building, sadly tarnished by the smog of the nearby town, but still very nice. it costs rp750 to get in though, so we decided to give it a miss. content with exterior views.

the trouble with travel is one can end up going too quickly. days are are filled with booking onward travel, finding a sutable room, and the neverending quest of finding somewhere to eat that won’t give you dysintry. most of the days filled like this and it becomes less like traveling and a series of hoops you have to jump through. bit of a pain, and not much room for actual enjoyment of ones suroundings.

the origial plan was to go to delhi for christmas and then ninja it down to goa and have new year there. feeling a bit phaged by all the moving around i footed the idea of skipping delhi and heading strait to goa and there take a leasurely route around the south. things were looking a bit dicey though with trains to goa being booked by every christian in india. thanks to lucy’s perseverance and a helpfull guy behind the train counter we managed to scrounge a couple of tickets to goa on some speed train taking a mere 25 hours. nothing to a 40hour man like myself!

we are currently in a nifty hotel next door to the taj, in a very quiet area of the town. its nice to have a relaxing atmosphere. though nights are still broken by the bitter cold and the early morning yodeling from the muslim prayer towers.

the night before we went to pizza hut to eat. it took us a while to get there becouse once again the glaring inaccuracies of the lonely planet/rough guide maps came into play. the reason we went was becouse we were craving something substantual and familier. it was pretty run of the mill, substandard fast food. however after we had finished out meal and were waiting to pay the manager got up and announced something to general applause. we clapped, not clear what was going on. then five of the serving staff lined up and started to dance frantically to bollywood music. it was hilarious, and actually not bad. on a par with some of the bollywood dancers i have seen. this went on for quite some time with indian girls leaping up from tables and joining in to the dance fest. i felt my foot twitching but avoided ambarrasing my self. all in all a much more interesting place to eat than it’s english counterpart.

our train tomorrow is at six. must get an early night.

love julio

hail!

ahh yes the indian head wiggle. i was going to mention it before but it slipped my mind. it does seem to mean any number of things, and i have imployed it regulaly in my comunications with the natives.

not got to hampi yet, but no doubt we will in the near future. i swam out to geoffs rock but the tide must have been higher when you were here as there was a thick layer of barnicles which sliced my hands and feet to ribbons in my attempts to clamber up. we went all the way to the right of the beach though and swam across to the fantastically named “monkey island” (it looked like the one in the game aswell!) and leapt from boulder to boulder for ages. great fun!

just heading back to mumbai today. the mumbai-goa train journey has now become as familiar as the barnham- chichester route and just as tedious.

julio

so, we are on the way back to goa. a mere ten hours seems like a walk in the park in comparison to our last journey. twenty six hours from kochi to mumbai, not to bad i think to myself, reasoning that i would be asleep most of the time nestled in the complimentary blanket and pillow that came with our seats on the previous train journey. but no. leaping onto the train we discover no blankets, just the bare seat to huddle on. as it was around afternoon, i assumed that they would supply the blankets later. food was plentifull and meals supplied on order. these proved to be fairly turgid watery slurry with rice. the somosas and bajis sold by the shrieking train minions were much nicer. in a pinch im sure one could survive on chai alone what with it being mainly comprised of suger. night arrived and the blankets didn’t. a blasted cold gripped us and we lay shivering most of the night. i managed to work work how to switch of the fans that were coursing the wind chill factor, but some cretins on a nearby bunk couldn’t work out the simple mechanism of closing the windows so we pretty much froze huddling under out thin sheets. in the many hours we had to kill, flo read an intire book and i drained the battery on my gameboy playing for 8 hours strait. after a scinterlating 26 hours or so, i asked a train minion when we would be arriving. “five!” he gestured wildly and cackled at some private joke. as it was around 4.00pm i was pleaseantly surprised, only an hour late was good time on an indian train. come six i asked a different person. “five o’clock” he said. “umm?” i said, looking at my watch. “in the morning” he added as an afterthought. and so the long day wore on. after forty hours on the train it felt like our limbs had atrophied to the point that we had trouble walking. pretty grim all in all.

after that, me finding a hotel that was assentually a collectioin of airless little boxes was a poor tactical decision, and led to flo and i contracting cabin fever.

 we collected lucy and are heading down to goa as i type. it isn’t the first time and i doubt it will be our last. as we have vague plans of comiing here for christmas.

——————————–

in palolam again. just as nice as last time but a bit cooler. really like it here. nothing quite like waking up and leaping into the cooling waters.

liv can you send me a card exporter for the palm? the trail i have has nearly run out and i think i need it to put a new one one the palm as nothing has bluetooth here.

well thats a much better time!

 the reason i got it wrong was when i checked the email you sent me when you bought your ticket lu, it had 00.40 enscribed in it.

anyhoo, no worries ill see you at the airport. after you have picked up your baggage just walk strait out. ill meet you where the taxi’s are.

 my mobile is working now that i am in mumbai, so text any queries.

see you anon.

ahoy there. at present i am sitting and typing in the rather pretenscious art cafe in kochi. classical music plays in the background and travellers simper in their saris.not that this is a bad cafe, having just sampled the food, i am forced to admit that i like it here. its a little slice of home, more accuratly according to flo, like totness. this bit of kochi called fort coshin is really relaxed and pleasent, the bit we are staying in is about 20 minutes away and is noisy and a bit crap. too late to move though, we are heading back to mumbai on the morrow to pick up lucy on the 5th.

im looking forward to this train journey especially as it stands at 26hours non-stop it will rival the tan-goeff kashmer experiance as the most hellish journey of the year. the trains have been a fun experiance, and a really good way of speaking to lots of cool idian chaps who are not after your money. the last train trip, from mangalore to kochi (a mere 10 hours) was a bit grim becouse straped for time we had to stump for second class. this means one has to huddle on a seat made of wooden slats with the great unwashed. you can’t move of course as soome fiend will leap into your seat in a blink. it turned out not to be too bad as we made friends with our section of the coach. this included two it students traveling back from taking an exam. a young kid coming back from school, a wierd lecherous man who i had to physically distance from flo, and and intire football team including coach, who were to a man, deaf and dum. so, on paper our compartment could seat 8. on our seat comfortable for 3, sat 6. same for oposite us. above our heads perched in the luggage racks, limbs dangling like some perculiour plant, were another 6 or so people also crowded the aisles, fill the compartment with a humid fug composed mainly of sweat. it was an alright journey though. chattering away as most spoke very good english. we only struggled when it came to my inept attempts at sign language.

my phone apparently ambarassed at it’s inability to get a signal, committed sepeku the other day, its screen dimming in a most tragic manner. somehow i managed to resurrect it today but i am considering getting a new phone when i get a sim. right im off to head around the town.

see you later.

julio

some picsin no perticular order:

the kerelan back waters complete with bathing elephants

small beady eyes!

a nausiating couple

flo on mumbai station with our light luggage

believe it or not this is a sea slug

gokarn in all its melevolent glory

kerelan kathakali dance

so, in gokarn killing time till four o’clock when we can catch a train out of this pesthole.

not that we have had a perticulaly bad time here, but there is a strange atmosphere of depresion gripping the town and we cant wait to move on. the people are in turn really friendly and really bleak. the other travelers are a strange lot, they try and avoid meeting your eye, prefering to pretend that they are the sole westerner who thought of coming to gokarn. they look as though they are trying desperatly to fit in. decking themselves in various foux indian raiment as if this in itself will distill them with some sort of spiritual significance. this wierd behaviour looks like it cant be much fun as we have noticed a distinct lack of smiling or any kind of lightheartedness. after walking around the town for a bit we returned to the hotel depressed only to find in our own company our spirits rising. it felt really good to laugh after seeing so many grim faces. bit odd. i think most of them are just annoyed becouse after buying what apeared to be trousers, it turned out on closer inspection to be some sort of sack with two feet holes in them. must be agravating.

 

 forgot to mention the train journeys. i shall scribe them into my palm later and blog em. this place doesn’t have a usb. all in all travel by train is pretty good fun.

 

i also forgot to mention my epic travel pants. they have proven themselves invaluable, practicaly drying as soon as they are exposed to air and aiding the drying process of other clothing within a mile radius. also i wear my rohan trousers at all times, seemingly they require no cleaning. 🙂

 heading to mangalore, then verkala i think. we don’t have much time to go to far south. any places you would recomend in the north of india tom? when in newzealand i would avoid the big cities like aukland and wellington as they were soul draining. nelson was pretty cool, and be sure to do the abel tazman trail.

 might buy a indian sim card at some point. is it worth my trying to ring home from a payphone or something?

 see you!

julio