Well I have been a very slack journaller lately! So what have I been upto?? Well most recently I have been 'Waving the Flag' at the first Australia v India cricket test in Bangalore, but between my last entry and then I have..
- Had the most amazing (and strange) yogic massage and cleansing treatments in Pushkar
- Decided to skip the train and spend 4 days on a camel from Pushkar to Jodhpur instead
- Spent a few days exploring the blue city of Jodhpur and it's amazing fort
- Spent an day as an extra on a Bollywood movie in Mumbau - yes! I am a star ; )
- Met up with some friends from home in Mumbai which was great to see some familiar faces after 4 months away!
And now for my Bangalore experience, well the whole thing started with a train trip and because this is India and I am me it didn't go as smoothly as it could have.. it went something like this:
7:00 pm - Take a taxi from Colaba to Dadar station, leaving myself an hour and a half to get to the station
8:25 pm - Get to Dadar station and have compulsory disagreemet with taxi driver over the fare
8:27 pm - Wander all over the station madly trying to find the platform for my 8:30pm train.
8:35 pm - Noone can tell me which platform, so eventually I go to the staion masters office. My train has just left - the only train in the history of India Rail to do so on time. BUT he tells me I can possibly catch it. He gives me instructions on how I might do this, but I can't understand what he is saying. He is then yelling at me to go with a porter as the train is about to leave/
8:40 pm - Run after a porter with a bag and jump on a train. The porter yells at me for a tip and I yell at him to tell me where I'm going. There is no time for all this however and he jumps off the train as it pulls out of the station with me on it and no idea where I am going. The commotion however has bought many people out of there seats to try and help me. It is determined that I have to get off at the next station in half an hour where I may or may not catch up with my train.
9:20 pm - Arrive at the station, my train is not there. BUT if I get on a train to Pune, my train will almost definitely be there..
1:45 am - Arrive Pune, my train is not there. BUT there is a train in 15 minutes that is going to Bangalore.
2:00 am - Board a train that is at least finally going to Bangalore, it isn't my train, but hey, at least it's going to the right place.
So once in Bangalore I joined up with the www.wavingtheflag.com touring group. This group was awesome, the people where great, the organisation was great and I even got to stay in a real hotel!
Bangalore is a very modern Indian city, so the whole experience of being in a more western style place and all ws so different from Rajasthan and Himachal. The atmosphere at the cricket was amazing, the Indian crowd is alot louder than an Australian crowd, lots of drums and shouting. The crowds in general where well behaved, there where a couple of 'Monkey' calls from a few Indian fans but there friends around them told them to pull there heads in, so nothing got too nasty.
I really enjoyed waving the Aussie flag, Ponting and Husseys centuries in the first innings where highlights. The evenings where also alot of fun, with trivia nights and drinking and dancing - despite a strange 'No Dancing' rule that exists in Bangalore at the moment.
From Bangalore I went with my friend Chris from Australia to Hyderbad for a night and then an arduous 3 day journey back to Kahtmandu, where I am now!
There is a distinct lack of photos as the computer just decided to delete everything from my USB - but will sort it out and upload some shortly!
