Welcome to India! - Blogabond

So, we are in India after leaving Thailand 1 week earlier than planned.

India is a violent assault on all the senses, and all at once. There is alot of beauty and colors, but also alot of tragedy, there is smells lovely as incence, flowers, food and spices, and also smells that are less pleasant... There is alot of traffic and noise. All this attacks the mind at the same time. Just by going from the airport in to the center I think both our minds raced in many directions and thoughts at once. I do not think we said more than a few words to each other during that trip, just lost in our own thoughts. What you see is just so much poverty, more than anywhere we have been before, but yet this country has some amazing and kind people, curious and helpful, more also than any other country we have visited.

We arrived late at night in Mumbai so we had booked a hotel from the airport, when we arrived the bed was very small, it was very tight for 2 people in the bed but hey, at least the trip brings us closer together =). So the next day we upgraded to something more comfortable with a fan with a noise, well rather a beat, you will all understand when you see our fan dancing video!

We started our first day with walking...we walk alot but it is cheap and healthy. Mumbai

is BIG, very big... so we walked the path that our guidebook suggested. We started at the Gateway of India, a huge port looking out over the Mumbai harbour, it was built in 1924 and when the british left India in 1948 it was through that gate they ceremonially marched out. It is an impressive gate, even though the view was obscured buy some restoration of it.

As we continue walking there is alot of impressive buildings, alot of them built by the british, the most impressive is the Mumbai University, apparently built by the same guy that built St Pancras station in london. It has a 80 meter tower and the surroundings are very nice, unfortunately we could not visit inside...Except for a lot of

traffic and nice buildings, the streets are filled with vendors selling incense, food, giant unbreakable ballons(why, I dont know) and everything in between. It

is hectic though and we did not have to much time because there was something else we had to do this day.

We had been invited by the hotel to work at a indian wedding, well Agnes was going to work(work...I recognise that word...but what does it mean...) and i was gonna hang around. They wanted western girls to dress in sarees and greet people as they came to the wedding party. The place looked more like a event of some kind more than a wedding party. There was a big stage, cameramen and loads of food stands everywhere. As soon as we arrived they got Agnes to change in to a saree and she was put to work straight away. I thought I could just sit down and do nothing for 4 hours, take some photos and
sample the cuisine...

I was wrong, a few minutes after I had sat down at a table some kids came up and asking questions, which I gladly answered. They asked about my country, my favorite sport, are you married, what are you doing in India etc etc. At first this was ok, just a few kids, later it was alot of kids asking the same things over and over again. Then they started asking for autographs, and when I told them that Agnes was my girlfriend they started swarming around her as well. It was kind of like being treated like rockstars. The kids were lovely though, some of them brought me special sweets from the food stands to try, juices and drinks. All of them spoke very good english. I wouldn't say that it was annoying, but in the end it was a bit exhausting, having kids all around and asking stuff for 4 hours, we all know kids have a lot of energy. It was a very nice experience but we both went to bed that night very tired.

The wedding party itself was a bit strange, the two getting married never walked around, they pretty much just spent time taking pictures on stage and shaking peoples hand when they passed them giving gifts. But I guess it is tradition here, htere were fireworks as well, but I could not pay attention to much to the wedding couple, I had my groupies of indian kids to chat with all the time.

The next day was spent with more walking, pretty much the route we walked the day before, but this time we went a bit further, we saw a market that had alot of fruit and veg and live animals. It is a bit sad to see all; the animals; chickens, dogs, birds and more in small cages like that. There was also a cow meat market, the cow is sacred here in india, but not fore the muslim that live here. We just peeked in there becuse it was not open that day but it was just as good, the smell and blood we saw was enough. Sometimes the foodinspectors in Europe complain about a little bit of dirt in between some doors to a fridge or something like that, I think they would have a heart attack if they came to this place. We also visited a nice spiceshop and bought a overpriced bag of spices, it tasted really nice though so it was ok!

Well that is pretty much all of our 2 first days in India, we are now in a town called Jodhpur in the heart of Rajasthan, 18 hours north of Mumbai. We will write about that very soon. It is very beautiful though...

Sorry that we dont have more pictures, but the internet here is very slow so we will put more when we find quick internet!

Until next time, Bisous, Puss o kram and Kiss kiss!

Ola and Agnes

written by

agnesola on February 24, 2008 from Mumbai, India

from the travel blog: Baby and Baby's around the world travel...

Send a Compliment

décidément, les costumes traditionnels te vont très très bien Agnès !!! j'adore le sari.... c'est amusant cette proposition de travail à l'hôtel. Et puis Ola a été très bien entouré !!!
bisous d'ici

written by maman danielle on February 27, 2008

comment on this...