I made it home, but it was an exhausting flight with over four hours delay. It took its toll. Today I finally worked on my last message about Bombay to correct all the mistakes I made.-
I did see, riding in a car, a lot of North and South Bombay, the former is a hillybilly country with forests, but the latter is the hub of town. Here the biggest slum of Bombay, now under development, is situated, it's a small town with narrow lanes, incredible poverty, where I never could have walked around. It has water and a sewage system. But I walked through the area around the Stock Exchange and through the bazaars which reminded me of Dickens and his description of ninetheenth century London, the houses still British, the shops, one beside another, very small, full of merchandise. And the people! It was evening and they were going home from work, the women doing their shopping, the men, carrying goods on their head or pulling heavy loaded carts. Police was around, watching. People were friendly, smiling at me, although a white woman in a red dress was thoroughly scrutinsed. But I felt safe.
It will take some time until I have worked out what I have seen.
Nov 12, 2007 12:00 AMBombay and me
Having made it safely from Delhi to Bombay, named Mumbai nowadays, I entered another world. My host family was glad to see me and we had a lot to share, after we hadn't seen each other for seven years. Then the heat (30`C) and the humidity (84%) took care of me. That's one of the differences. Nevertheless my host is very strict. Every morning we drive to nearby Juhu Beach and do Tai Chi, or he goes to his laughing club and I go for a walk. Juhu Beach is nothing what we would call a clean beach, you can't go for a swim, the water isn't good enough for it. But nevertheless all the world is out doing excersises of all kind. This morning the craws were out, helping to rid the sand of the garbage.
The other difference : Where Delhi is dusty and loud being a major building site in the moment, because of the upcoming Commomwealth games. Road work is done and new commercial centers and a lot of highrises are being built. Bombay in a way is oldfashioned: Trees, old ones, line the streets, which are mostly clean, the town has a garbage disposal. So people, living on the street, don't sleep in heaps of refusal. But don't think the garbage disposal is meant to be social. It is in a building boom too, what will change the skyline of the town profoundly. Business is good, I hear, but people are working hard too.
Nov 05, 2007 12:00 AMStill in Delhi
It's good to live family life again, to enjoy the birtday parties, to go for lunch in different houses, to do some sightseeing, i.e. the Qutab Minar, the column of victory, from times gone by, situated in the midst of a park, nice, specially on a sunday when all the families go there for an outing, and nto walk around Old Delhi to do some shopping, what is an experience of life, I hardly can describe. Friday I will fly to Mumbai.
Nov 02, 2007 12:00 AMDelhi and the rest of it.
Dehli is the kettle of the hex. This time I went with a bicycle rikscha, because my guide thought there would be to many hawkers who would molest me, but I think he didn't want to walk. Old Delhi must have been a dream of a town in the 19th century when the last moghul still was in the Red Fort and the town a culturell center, that was the time before the British took over and destroyed brutally the beauty of it. But you can still see relicts of the old glory, the havelis of the rich are now divided into small shops and livingquarters, the gardens disappeared, because so many people came here to try to make a living, sometimes out of nothing. But on the other hand it is, as I was told, famous for its spice market, for the silver, gold and precious stones business, and when you get married be sure to go here to buy the nicest saris. But as every coin it has to sides. I went into an alley on foot, and what I saw was incredible, a small boy was sitting in a hole on street level selling tea, small shops side by side, sometimes only 1 m broad and 2 m long, stuffed with merchandise, men sitting around in the dirt of the street, waiting for a job, i.e. to carry sacks and packages on their head or their back to another place, or to paint a house. And in between a shopkeeper was fighting with a cow, which was eager to eat up all his nicely decorated fresh vegetables and all around him laughed. Traffik as usual.
Oct 30, 2007 12:00 AMI walked the streets of Dehli.
I did it: I walked from my hotel to Connaught Place! Everyone could recognize me as a tourist - I can't help it I need my hat ...
But ... at the first crossing a boy wanted to sell me books, next a man throw the stump of his arm into my face, tuctucs stopped and wanted to drive me, a man talked to me and offered to show me an Emporium with a governmental certificate, but when I thought I got rid of him I met again and again. whenever I turned around a corner, he was there to show me into the right direction, a security guy asked me whether I was lost, I had to show him my map to be left alone, a woman with a baby wanted a rupie: Madame, madame, ... A Sikh ----
I have to stop now, next more. ... turned up telling me that all these people were directing me to the wrong place, but he knew a market where the offer was good and the prices low. When I got rid of him another one appeared and I gave him one of my looks, but one of the sharpest so he disappeared, but in the next moment another one told me that around the next corner was the best Emporium I would find in the country. At that point I yelled. I thought I got rid of him, no way, the next moment a friendly young man was beside me, saying that the other one was following me and that the area wasn't good for me, although I could have find my way alone he saw to it that I went into the right direction and then he went his own way. And I finally was back in the safety of my hotel. BUT ... I was still alive, I crossed the streets without being overrun by a bus, - a bus in Delhi overran six people in one row! -, BUT I survived! That's me!
Oct 28, 2007 12:00 AMWe made it to Delhi.
Thanks to Tarik, my driver, I arrived safely in Dehli. As the saying is in India: You need a good driver, good brakes and good luck to survive these roads. We started at 10.00 a.m. and with two stops we arrived at my hotel at 6 p.m. Then I was done.
Oct 26, 2007 12:00 AMBarathpur - Fatepur Sikri - Agra
I promise I don't talk about traffic anymore, although I forgt to tell that donkeys also are on the road. The Indian government is building highways in the area and I got enough of it today. Driving through is kind of adventerous ... Besides that the heat and the humidity hit me, the dust, the noise, the drivers blow their horns, to tell what direction they want to go, a real concert. In the midst of it a somewhat suffocating policemen is trying to get the traffic going. On the way I stopped at Fatepur Sikri, where Akbar - in honour of a Mulsim saint, who foretold him a son -, built his capital on a ridge of which he sliced of the top to find room for his city. It is an incredible peaceful, gracious place. Driving into Agra was an experience of life. I hardly can describe how people work and do business in this small shops along the street, one beside another. There is no industry in town anymore because the pollution got at the Taj Mahal, so most of the people, if they have work, are weavers, do the famous stone work, stitching, make carpets, it's handicraft work mostly. I finally got to see the Agra Fort properly and Sikandra, where Akbar built his tomb, a heavy, red sandstone structure, which was "enriched" with white marble towers by his son Jahangir, thinking as he was the better educted one, but I think he made a mess of it. Agra has a problem with the monkeys, so you don't get near them because they bite you. I saw the Taj Mahal in the morning as son was rising. I don't need to tell you that it is one of these special places of the world.
Oct 25, 2007 12:00 AMSamode - Barathpur
This was a hard day. The highways are under construction. Six hours drive through a wide dusty landscape, 35 degrees, were simply too much for me. I went for a guided walk in a National Park, thank heaven, a rikscha was near by, because I nearly didn't make it back. To be honest sometimes I came to the limit, but sleep did me good and dinner was just what I needed.
Oct 24, 2007 12:00 AMJaipur - Samode
Yesterday we left Jaipur and come after a drive over highways and country lanes to Samode. It was astonishing to learn that trucks and cars and the like mostly obey traffic rules, made my nerves relax. When you go by car in India you need a good driver, good brakes, and good luck. But I am save with my driver. The first you see of Samode is a slighty dirty village, but nearer to the palace it is clean, it has waterpipes nearly at every house, the women don't need to carry the water from afar. Children go to school. In the morning father and his small daughter were reading a newspaper. As I entered the palace I finally realised that it was my hotel, where I was treated like a princess. I can't tell all the niceties. My room was wonderful, not to talk about my bathroom. Swimming in the evening, the full moon above me, surrounded by dark mountains was a treat.Going to dinner I made an effort, even I wasn't feeling well and took my nice, greene dress and was a success. Dinner was good, the music pleasant, the service perfect.
Oct 23, 2007 12:00 AMJaipur and Amber Fort
Montezumas Revenge hit me, but the chicken curry tasted so good. So I had to pay and couldn't get to the computer. I simply slept at the pool and had lots of banana lassie. But I went out to Amber Fort, which in my memory was such a dream, quiet and beautiful. One never should visit a place like such again. 7 years made a lot of difference. The tourist business hit it and it was a buildingsite. A hundred elefants were transporting the people up to the fort, so I skipped the elefant and was driven up by car. In the fort peple were shoved through. I saw more of it than last time but the most interesting things like the king's bedchamber and the gardens behind it are now closed to the puplic. Pillfering was done and a lot of the gold decoration of the walls and the old sandelwood doors are gone. But the place is still beautiful and the view on to the defense work is marvellous.
