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Welcome to my travel log! You will find here a lot more than in the travel reports, stripped from political correctness. Enjoy! 
Feb 23, 2007 07:00 PM Cape Town - finally arrived!
I have been to South Africa a few times. Mainly in the Johannesburg area. I almost made it to Cape Town. Then, I was in Namibia. In 2002, when I was travelling in Namibia for the total eclipse of sun, I was almost convinced to come down to Cape Town for the New Year's Eve. I wish I had gone. I could not though, as I promised my friend I was going to be a at his 30th birthday party in Poland. Namibia was 52C (in Etosha) and Poland was -18C. That was a thermo shock!
Anyway, I came to Cape Town for a weekend. I had enough of cold and wet weather of London, so I bough a ticket and hopped for some sun. With South Africa, the flights are great. They take about 10-12 hours and always happen at night. There is no jetlag and one could sleep on the airplane, anyway. So, I went on Friday night. Landed on Saturday morning and was leaving on Sunday night, and arriving back in London on Monday morning - in time for the office.
I booked myself to a backpackers place on the top of the Long Street. It was great, but it could be a bit greater. People were not partying that much in the backpackers bar, although it was a great bar. The check-in was expectedly efficient and the young personnel was friendly. As expected.
I took a stroll back to town. It was just a regular town. There was nothing spectacular about it. I was hugely disappointed with the waterfront. Only part of it was cleaned up and converted into a civilised site with restaurants, bars, shops. And from there, the impressive table mountain looked great. A few very reasonable eateries had tables on the balcony from which the view was spectacular.
In the evening, I went out, hopping from one bar/club to another along the Long Street, where all the action took place. It was a great night. I did not expect to meet so many people from across Africa; Angola, Congo, DRC, Cameroon, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Rwanda, Ugada... I wished the night had been longer.
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Jan 19, 2007 07:00 PM Woodbury Common Premium Outlets
In the morning, we set sail to Woodbury Common Premium Outlets, a shopping village recommended by a friend of mine. I thought it was located in New Jersey, so there would be no tax on textiles, but it was actually in the state of New York, so they always slammed the bloody tax on the bill. I was not happy about that.
The village had about 220 shops, many of which were designer shops. However, it was also home to the Fifth Avenue discounted department store, so there was something to browse through. Some of the designers, like Carolina Herera, were slashing their prices from $1500 to $400, which sounded like a good deal. It was the end of January, so the sale was in full swing. This meant that most of the good stuff had already been grabbed, and what was left, was below average. I was hoping to buy some nice shirts and good suits, but I only bought two suits (one from CH) and a couple of shirts from Banana Republic. So, it did not really work that well for me, but at least I was pleased with my purchases. It was not necessarily about quantity...
It was very cold that day, so we did not snooze too long in the village. We got back to New York City to do some browsing for the high-tech stuff.
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Jan 18, 2007 07:00 PM New York, New York - shopping spree
The time has come to go to New York to buy new suits, shirts, etc. I convinced my friends to come with me, although they were more into high-tech shopping for their teenage children.
I was changing airplanes in Washington, one of the airports that requires passengers to re-check their luggage even if they checked it all through to the final destination. This is bad news for those, who decided to acquire some fragrance in bottles exceeding 100ml at the departure airport in London, like me. The Yanks were confiscating them, despite the arguments that you have just got off an airplane, remain on the air-side of the airport and have all receipts to prove that the goods were acquired at Heathrow Airport. I lost over £200 worth of items. I guess I could have sued the airline for not letting me know that this was going to be the case. Chicago airport is not like that, but I konw that there are many others in the US that have that mid check, which exposes passengers to the excessive radiation from the metal detectors, et al.
Well, there I was in New York, again. It was January and temperature dropped below minus 7C. That was cold for me. When I landed in the evening and got to the Marrakech Hotel on Broadway, in the northern end of the central Manhattan, it was nearing midnight. I checked on my friends, who arrived a day before, and they were all merry from the beer and whisky they go on the airplane and after a long day freezing up, they decided to thaw a little... Bless them. I wanted to go out immediately. It was Friday night and Manhattan should be busy with clubs, pubs, etc. This was not the case. It was so cold that no-one was around. I was hungry and I still could not find anything open to eat. Should that be unusual for city that never sleeps?
Anyway, so nothing happened that night, and the very next day, we were going to Woodbury Common to shop the textiles. We could not party hard then.
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Nov 04, 2006 07:00 PM Kowloon - cheap-kitsch and super seafood
After I landed from Macau (about Macau later), I thought the time was right to have stroll around the Central District. I used the elevated walkways of course and ended up at one of the posh shopping centres. I thought that it was definitely not the place for me, so quick decision put me on the path to the Peak Tram. The hour was approaching 16:00, so I thought the light should be just about right for photographing.
The Peak Tram did not work. I was so disappointed! Not only did it take me a few steps too many to find the actual walkway to the Peak Tram station, but the staff there was not very informative. I eventually found that bus number 15 could also take to the top, yet it was the experience of the tram I was looking for.
Anyway, the bus took forever. I sat on the upper deck. One of the Aussie girls behind me was very uncomfortable with the heights, and commented the way up much too much for my liking. She stopped only at the point where a little girl was sick all over the aisle, just by her seat. Fortunately, the puke was made primarily off a vanilla milk shake, the little girl had at McDonald’s twenty minutes previously, so the bus did not stink too much. In fact I could not smell anything at all, but my seat was two rows to the front. I cannot speak for the passengers closer to this white pool of semi-liquid plasm.
The Peak was organised. The shopping centre at the top (of course!) was significantly smaller than any other shoppers’ galleria in Hong Kong. But hey, there is only so much one can fit at the top of a mountain. The view was great. I thought it would be more open, though. The hills did not allow for wider viewing to the west and the Peak Cafe blocked the view to the east. I should have gone to the cafe and taken pictures from there. Albeit, I heard that the tables by the windows must be booked several weeks in advance. Well, I thought it was OK.
The city is famous for its haze. Like London is. I was fortunate that weather was nice, and the sun was shining and shining. All day long. There were no clouds, yet the quality of the air was terrible. The haze, combined with pollution was not a nice view. One would say ‘not a nice picture’. And I can say that the pictures I took, would have been so much better, had the air been just a little clearer (cleaner).
After taking a few shots, I took a taxi down to the Star Ferry terminal. I knew I also wanted to photograph the skyline of Hong Kong at sunset. I just made it. Many people started to congregate at the viewing terrace. Some of them just sat there. I later learned that they were waiting for the light show at 8pm, which I unintentionally totally ignored. Having learnt from the bitter experience of the previous night, when all restaurants closed on my in the evening, I wanted to try some nice seafood.
Uh, I need to say a few words about the Star Ferry. This little, double-decked, boat that runs regularly between Central and Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon is a great, if short, experience. The seats on the boat have a mobile backrest, so when the boat changes direction, passengers that sway the backrest back of forward to seat in the direction of the journey. I do not think, I have seen anything like that before.
The trip takes only a few minutes but the skyline to be seen from the boat is world-famous. It is a great little ride. I originally thought that it would be a little more convenient to travel across by underground (under ocean). I was wrong. The stations were a little away from the shores, and it was way more convenient to take a boat.
I do not know, I might have spent about an hour at the viewpoint taking pictures (I did bring my tripod on this trip, this time) and contemplating the view. It was a great weekend escapade, I thought to myself. And it was not very expensive. It was a little extravagant, I have to say, but relatively inexpensive. Anyway, this was one of the thoughts I had at that time gazing at the super-tall International Trade Centre II.
I spotted a middle aged man struggling with his camera, as he wanted to take a picture of the Victoria Harbour and did not have a tripod. He was trying what I normally do - lower myself horizontally to the ground and place my camera firmly on my camera bag or something solid in order to avoid blurring these long exposure shots.
I approached him and said:
- Here, sir. Perhaps you would like to use my tripod. I am already finished with my photos.
- No, no. Thank you - he replied.
- But sir, please, there is no problem. I do have five minutes spare, so you can take your picture.
- No, no. Thank you - he said again.
I asked him if he was really sure and when he said yes, I simply stopped insisting. ‘Take it or leave it’, I thought. It is a good approach to reactions like that. I was only trying to be nice!
In the night, Kowloon transforms itself into a huge shopping centre. The streets are already lined up with posh boutiques, fashion department stores and posh shops. The night comes and countless cheap -kitsch vendor stalls open up and traffic stops. Certain streets actually become traffic free pedestrianised zones, like the Temple Street, or the Ladies Market. I actually had to text someone in Europe to tell me where all those were, as I was circling around amongst the electronics shops and tailors’ studios.
I went there to check it all out but also to acquire something specific for my colleague’s fiance. She wanted a pure silk Japanese table runner. So I got it. For myself, I bought binoculars for those wildlife trips in Africa, and a bunch of watches. A decent Rolex copy, of course, was among them.
In Kowloon, at the tourist places (and in Hong Kong at most places) smoking can only be exercised at the rubbish bins, which are topped with an ashtray. Disposing cigarettes ends on the streets is illegal there. What a great idea! The streets are actually mega clean. I saw many people working on this, sweeping and picking up pieces of rubbish. Not that there is plenty to clean up, anyway.
It was time for dinner, finally. I had plans to eat either at a Japanese restaurant, or at a Vietnamese one, or even at the Mandarin Oriental’s Grill. All of them on the Hong Kong Island. However, the dinner time found me wandering along the busy streets of Kowloon, so I knew that I was better to choose one of the restaurants over there. Or I was again risking of not getting any food due to a late hour!
A seafood restaurant it was to be. I definitely wanted this famous steamed Hong Kong garoupa fish. I was lucky to stumble upon a very popular seafood restaurant, packed with locals, who seriously impressed with the amounts they could eat. I saw a couple, who had: garlic clams, steamed scallops, steamed lobster in sauce, fresh hard shell crabs, broccoli in oyster and garlic sauce, steamed red garoupa, fried noodles with vegetables, litres of tea, fresh fruit platter... and they were already there when I arrived.
I had: three tsingtao beers, two steamed scallops, broccoli in oyster and garlic sauce, and, of course, a small seafood platter with steamed garoupa. I loved everything and the restaurant treated me with green tea and fresh fruit platter.
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Nov 03, 2006 07:00 PM Macau - a great mix of Portuguese and Cantonese
Remarkably with no jet lag at all, I got up early to get a fast ferry to Macau. It departed at 8 am. The check-in procedure was a little bizarre. Almost randomly located simple table standing in the departure hall between the gates was manned by three people. They were chatting about something in Cantonese playing with sheets of paper filled with little labels. Seat numbers were printed on them. Accidentally, I saw a person approaching them, interrupting them with their play. They gave him a sticker on his boarding pass. I follow his suit and got the same. Luckily, enough I escaped the rush and they actually gave a widow seat. Not a perfect one, since there was a wall right in the front me. Still, there was really nothing to see. A weird mist obscured the views.
It took just under an hour to cross over to Macau. The immigration at the terminal was efficient and friendly. They did not ask any questions and stamped a permit for three months in my passport.
I liked that a tourism office was right after you stepped out from immigration. They had free maps and information about walking tours around the UNESCO listed sites. I grabbed a map and one of the leaflets and located the helicopter office. I booked a flight back to Hong Kong at 2:30 in the afternoon.
I was not sure what to do about the money. Would the Hong Kong dollars work in Macau or not, I was wondering. I checked the cash dispensers and all of them gave out Hong Kong dollars only. Then, I saw a little notice on one of them stating that if I wanted some Macau patacas, I had to go downstairs, where the actual arrival hall was.
I did and took 200 without having an idea how much that was, speculating that I would always be able to change it to some other currency. Actually, I used it all.
The taxi touts who hoovered around the arrival hall bothered me a little. They did not know who they were against, though. I listened almost patiently to what they had to say, and then blew them off. I did not even let them tell me how much they wanted for they motorised tours around Macau.
I thought to myself: “you better get your feet moving, it is time to do some exercise, you fat pig.” And I had to do it quickly if I wanted to avoid paying 200 Hong Kong dollars for changing my helicopter ticket.
Yet, I gave in to one of the guys with a taxi outside the terminal. I let him take me to the centre of the old town. Then, I was on my own.
Following the map, I strolled about the pedestrianised streets. Actually, I did not need the map, as the town was full of elegant signs directing tourists to the main attractions. Some of them were twisted and led to rather unattractive side streets or school yards. I kept it cool, went back to the main road and checked with the map. I also used it to check what I was actually passing by, if there was an attractive building or picturesque square.
I walked and walked. It was a good hike. The town had a nice European feel mixed with tropical ambience in the air. I was so glad that I decided to go there. Macau was so different from Hong Kong. It was way more relaxed and the actual pedestrianised zones and pavements at the street level felt so much more natural Hong Kong compared to Macau appeared rushed, extremely commercialised and unnatural with the hectic traffic and elevated walkway. Do not get me wrong. I thought the elevated walkways were a good idea and a clever solution to avoid the collision of pedestrians with vehicles. Well, at other hand, it was necessary. it leaves this unnatural feel though.
One single monument that makes Macau famous is the surviving facade of the Saint Paul’s Cathedral, pictured opposite. It was built in the sixteenth century and burnt down to the ground in 1835. It is the most photographed and visited place in Macau. Frankly, I am not sure what the whole deal about it is, actually. The facade looks rather ridiculous, and in my opinion, a much better idea would be to rebuilt the entire church. But, hey I this is just my humble opinion.
When I showed this picture to one of my Malay colleagues, he was shocked that there were hardly any people/ tourists visiting the site. I had to tell him that it was still rather early. You can tell from the long shadows.
There was nothing interesting beyond the ruin. I followed signs to another church. I think it was San Antonio’s. I did not like it, so I turned back.
I found the Na Tcha Temple. A minute worship place built in 1888, dedicated to Na Tcha. No idea what Na Tcha was/is. I took a few pictures of this little temple from different angles.
I walked down, back to the Senado Square, and I saw this place with ice-cream. They had some unusual flavours. Some of them I heard before. Some of them I did not. I knew about the green tea flavour, for example, but not about the Chinese wine flavour, or even a regular re wine flavour. Actually I could have asked what grape it was. If it was shiraz, I might have insisted to have one.
My problem was that the chick, who manned the shop did not pay any attention to me. I must have stared at the ice-cream cabinet for about 5 minutes, and she still did not turn towards me. She lost a lot of business, because I had no breakfast, and I would have taken huge portion, much too large than I ever should.
Anyway, I continued my journey as the map suggested. I passed through a few interesting churches, like St Lawrence’s; St Joseph’s; St Augustine’s; the Cathedral; and some other significant buildings, including the Bishops palace; Dom Pedro V Theatre; Military Club; the heavily guarded Macau Governor Residence; the Moorish Barracks. All nice and well kept. Very well maintained.
Macau also boast a few little pleasant squares, like the Lilau Square or the St Augustine’s Square. They are shady, complete with benches to sit down and relax. Nice. Very, very nice.
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Nov 02, 2006 07:00 PM Hong Kong - messed up hotel reservation
As it turned our, the airline failed to receive the authorisation for using the Russian airspace. this meant that the flight paths had to be altered. this resulted in an additional hour to the flight, making it unfortunately over 12 hours in total. Also, the airline had to change the departure times from Hong Kong so they had enough time in London to turn around the aircraft. I hated that because it shortened my stay in Hong Kong by over two hours!
The flight path was really strange. After London, it took over Paris, Zurich, Istanbul, Tbilisi, Baku, Tashkent, Karamay, Urumqi, just south of the Gobi Desert and then directly to Hong Kong. Highly unusual.
So, I the captain was already planning to arrive more than one hour late, and since we had to dodge storms on the way and bypass the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau, I was terribly late.
The hotel messed my reservation and claimed that I was supposed to come on the 11 November, Saturday. That was impossible, because there were no Friday flights arriving on Saturday. I nearly flipped there. I just spent 14 hours travelling, 13 hours of which on the aircraft. I did not sleep for over 26 hours and she tells me that they do not care that much and that I should contact Accor Hotels. She said that they were fully booked and could not give a room. Fortunately, as she might have notices my veins popping up on my forehead, she decided to call Novotel, a sister hotel, and check if they had rooms. Of course they had. The Novotel was located at the West Point on the Hong Kong island, with no useful public transport connections. I actually had to take an underground train to the last westerly station and then a taxi! Great! This is what I needed after 13 hours flight!
As I approached a taxi and showed him the name of the hotel I wanted to go to (in Chinese), he said that he was not going in that direction. Hello?! He was at the taxi rank. He was not going anywhere. Well, most definitely not with me, as it turned out!
I could fee l very clearly that I wanted a shower desperately. I am very sure that the receptionists at the hotel felt the same way, too.
So, I did. I relaxed a little with two full glasses of Baileys, The Original Irish Cream, which I brought with me from the London airport. I was actually preparing for a dinner with one of my colleagues’ acquaintances. Yet my phone did not ring and I decided that the time flew. I quickly checked what I could do that evening. And more precisely, what pictures I could take.
The first sight of Hong Kong did not impress me at all. What I saw were just clusters of stupidly tall block of flats housing at least two thousand families each. The architecture of those concrete monsters was not very elaborate or ambitious. I began to wonder whether I saw something similar already.
I have. It was in Vietnam. Particularly in the southern part, where people’s density is the largest. I immediately developed serious doubts whether I was going to enjoy myself in this large concrete city.
I began real visiting at the hours of darkness. By the time the airport express and the underground, called MTR, placed me on the Hong Kong island, the sun was firmly replaced by a nice, almost full, moon. Hong Kong, therefore had an advantage to hind its imperfections from me, but at the other hand, it could not show off with the glistering shopping centres, etc.
There are not many pedestrianised streets in Hong Kong and traffic is all what one sees. I stumbled across a few elevated walkways, which were simply pavements above the street level. All complete with signs explaining directions, etc. Some of them pass through elaborate shopping centres located on a few levels of fifty floor tall skyscrapers. I originally thought that these were just above-street passes. But when I learnt to use them more, I quite enjoyed to be above the traffic. And the views were slightly better, too. Although effort was spent to put signs indicating directions along the walkways, some of them were misleading. For example, a part of one walkway leading to the Peak Tram suggested that the pedestrians go through a concrete wall!
At the airport, when I arrived, I bought myself a three day pass called Octopus Card, which was valid for a return trip on the Airport Express, and all road public transport. And so, when I explored, I knew I wanted to use the public transport only as an addition to my feet. I had my eye on this double-decker tram running along the Hong Kong island. Stupid Octopus card, did not work on buses or trams. I was livid! I could not believe I fell for this stupid scheme. For the first night, when I mainly travelled on the MTR metro trains, I carried the accompanying leaflet explaining what the 3 Day Pass was for. For the second day, however, I decided not to carry it. The thing was that it was also the day, when I decided to try the buses and trams. Right! Anyway, the taxis (although not easily found) were cheap and efficient. So, eventually this was my choice of transport. In addition to walking, of course.
The architecture of Hong Kong are the towering concrete, steel and glass skyscrapers and apartment blocks. There are few traditional buildings, and they are simply temples. Just a handful of them Literally.
Some of the residential towers, which have often more than 50 floors are built on tops of 600 - 700 meters steep peaks. The view from the top of such block my be breathtaking, and not for the faint hearted, I guess. I was impressed that in the area of cyclones structures this high for people to live in are being built. They are usually sole towers, exposed to the full strength of the winds. No building this high is stiff solid, so people at the top floors may experience the joy of the tower swaying to the cyclones.
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Nov 01, 2006 07:00 PM Hong Kong - on Oasis budget airline
The trip from London to Hong Kong landed in my calendar, as soon as I found that a new budget airline came to life, which offered cheap long-haul flights between Europe and Asia for the first time.
I was teaching on a training course, when one of the co-lecturers mentioned to me that there was this new airline, which offered £75 flights to Hong Kong, one way. I could not believe, because my understanding was that cheap flights could only exist for short haul. Yet, when I went home, completely drained of energy (this is what teaching does to me), I looked it up. I did not know the name of the airline, so I had to perform a quick search. Well, as this was news of the day, I found it instantly.
I could not find the relevant website from where I could see the timetable as quickly as I would like, but when I did, it took me about twenty seconds to decide that I was definitely going.
I realised that the airline was in fact just commencing its business using a B747 Jumbo aircraft and that the flights operated only on certain dates. Only later, was the route becoming a daily offering, as the carrier was to acquire more air planes.
After selecting my dates, I grabbed the very first hot deals, £75 each way plus taxes and charges. In total, it cost me just £260, £70 of which was a stupid fuel surcharge. Anyway, I was pleased. I could not quite believe that I was gong to Hong Kong for a weekend. Normally, I would find it hard to justify expensive tickets for a short break.
It also means that should this airline become successful (they offered business seats for £470 one way), it would most certainly create a cheap gateway to South East Asia and China, which I could explore later on. The carrier’s name is Oasis Hong Kong Airlines.
Yet, the first flight of the airline from London to Hong Kong did not depart, because the Oasis did not obtain an approval from the Russian authorities to fly over their territory. My flight was to leave a few days later, which made a little nervous obviously. I was only going for a weekend and any delay would mess all my plans!
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Oct 10, 2006 02:00 PM Goodbye India
To my greatest disappointment my bmi flight to London was cancelled. Apparently the aircraft, which developed a fault as I was to leave London ten days previously, was out for repairs for at least two weeks. The flight to and from Mumbai were cancelled until 16 October.
I was so looking forward to this bmi long haul flight and again I had to travel on Bloody Awful, otherwise known as British Airways. I would have gone on Virgin Atlantic, but by a strange twist of fate, Virgin also had to cancel their flight. Had I not held a gold Star Alliance card, I would have likely stayed an extra night or two in Mumbai. My booking class was economy with bmi (then I upgrade to business with my diamond club hold card for free) and Bloody Awful was heavily overbooked that night.
Luckily, bmi recognised me as a loyal, long standing gold passenger, and without me having to throw any weight into the discussion, they stroke a deal with BA to take me in an upgraded cabin. bmi had to pay extra for this and rightly so. They let their main competitor carry me on the same route twice, instead of them! I obviously intended to write a professional letter of disappointment to bmi in this matter.
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Oct 09, 2006 02:00 PM Mumbai (Maharashtra)
India’s largest city by population, with its 13 million inhabitants (more in the entire agglomeration), is also home to world’s largest cinematographic industry.
Unfortunately there is not much to do in Mumbai. The legendary Bombay, as the was used to be known under the British rule, still sounds exotic and fascinating, almost. In reality, it is a gigantic, overcrowded metropolis, which is rather difficult to be liked. It does not even have any great monuments, apart from the famous Gateway of India and the Victoria Rail Terminus. The latter was recently included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Honestly, there are many places in India, which deserve to be inscribed and yet the Organisation overlooks them systematically.
It was seriously hectic. The domestic terminal at which I arrived did not have a taxi booth or stand. The guidebook I had said that there should be a taxi company, which charged 400 rupees to the centre in in air conditioned car. I could not find them. Instead, many freelance taxi drivers found me. One of them quoted me 750 rupees to the Victoria Terminus. I laughed and said that he just happened to meet a wrong fool.
Then another one, having overheard that, said that he was going to take me for 400 rupees. I went with him. I missed the sunset as traffic was just stupid, but eventually I got a picture of the famous station.
Then, I decided to take a walk in the direction of the Taj President Hotel, where I wanted to have my Thai dinner.
I walked and walked. The night fell. I had no idea whether I was going in the right direction or just strolling where I should not go. Let me explain what I mean.
As I approached the centre I saw how extremely poor people lived. Literally a few hundred yards from the grand buildings neighbouring the rail station. Somehow I thought I would not like to find myself entering such area. The people lived in a two level shacks, each level having just one room. The room would probably be 1.5 - 2 metres wide by 2 - 3 metres deep, and 1.5 metres high. Cooking, washing up, washing, bathing, relieving oneself were all happening at the front of the shack, right in the street. And the shacks stood adjacent one to another. And there were hundreds of them.
Anyway, I think I was heading in the right direction but did not realise how far the hotel was. It would probably have taken me about 45 minutes to get there. So after having sweated like some fur animal, carrying all my luggage with me, I decided to catch a cab. This task was not easy. It seemed that almost everyone in the town wanted a taxi. And the cabbies were choosy. They would not go anywhere. This really annoyed me.
Eventually someone in the street caught a taxi for me and asked the driver to take me to the hotel.
When I got to the main entrance, I was impressed. It was a full blown five star hotel, complete with servicemen who did not let you do anything yourself. When I went to the washroom, almost my hands were washed for me. They were at least dried for me with paper towels. How embarrassing!
My Thai dinner was all worth coming especially from the airport. Particularly, I have say, it was the pinot noir wine that made my day. The dark bitter chocolate ice-cream did it for me, too. The rest was as I expected it to be - high quality Thai curry. This was a real treat, which made me happy.
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Oct 08, 2006 02:00 PM Jodhpur (Rajasthan) - the second day
My young autorickshaw driver was waiting for me as agreed at 8 a.m. I had the 10 rupees for him and I almost had to force in on him. He must have been the only genuinely friendly and honest chap I met during my trip in India. He introduced himself as a 20 year-old Muslim, called Mashid.
First, I wanted to see Jaswand Thada so I could take the picture combining the shrine and the fort. As it turned out I had to do a little bit of trekking to get to the right spot with the angle I wanted. I actually had to climb the outer city wall for that.
The way to the wall was risky. It involved negotiating between long grass covering loose rock, a perfect habitat for snakes like cobra. I wore my trainers not designed to withstand a cobra attack, so I had to pay a close attention where I was putting my feet. My driver accompanied me and carried my small rucksack. It took me about an hour to do what I wanted to do and then to go back.
I did not realise that when I decided to visit the small Maha Mandir temple, supported by a hundred pillars, I would actually be visiting a school.
It was impossible to take a picture of the temple without brats in the foreground or the background or both. I created more enthusiasm there and more interest than the wonder of acquiring knowledge in classes. The lads, as it must have been boys school, were on a break so they could follow me around and get into my view finder.
The temple looked really great. I was happy I went there. I gave one of the boys my mini combination padlock. I told him what the combination was and unfortunately almost all others could hear that. I failed to show him how to change the combination, but anyway I guess he is not going to use it at school.
My young driver was not keen at the beginning to take me there as the temple is hidden amongst narrow alleys somewhere in the northern suburbs of Jodhpur. But he eventually changed his mind himself and said he was happy to take me there.
Then, he took me to the Mandare Garden, a home to a few maharaja tombs, which was a good choice as the next destination. Many monkeys jumped around those tombs and the rest of the park actually. Many of them had offsprings and the mothers kept showing their teeth when one approached too closely.
The garden was green and although it lacked water, I can imagine how this place can get crowded in the weekends.
The last stop before the airport was the Umaid Bhawan Palace, otherwise known as Chittar Palace for the stone that was used to build it. Until recently, it was just a palace and a museum.
It has been occupied by the Maharaja Gaj Singh II, and he still lives there, using the vast majority of the complex.
In the early 1990s, part of the palace was converted into a luxury hotel with prices starting from 450 US dollars a night. The hotel has 65 rooms and when I visited it was full. Upon arrival at the airport the palace organises a pickup in eight meter long vintage 1950s soft top cars. Very impressive! I saw them when I arrived. They looked really cool.
Mashid put me down at the entrance of the museum, which charged 50 rupees to see a small fragment of the palace and rooms filled with nothing interesting to see. He obviously did not realise that I just wanted to see the hotel, have a drink there and take a few pictures. At the museum, the guards told me that it was not allowed to take pictures of the front of the palace, which I thought was complete rubbish.
I crossed over to the hotel, and asked the manager to show me around claiming that I was considering a wedding reception there. She was very happy to oblige of course and I could take all the pictures I wanted: front, back, and inside.
The hotel was awesome! The main sitting area under the dome was superb, and from their garden that could accommodate three thousand people, the grand Meherangarh fort could be seen and part of the old blue town.
I sat down in one of the bars, the Trophy Bar, and had a glass of Pepsi, which cost me ten times more than from a street vendor. Yet, drunk from a tall glass full with ice, it did taste at least ten times better. Plus I got a complimentary snack, which made me feel that I should probably leave a tip. So I did
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