25th Dec
Currently Listening to: Tom Waits - The Heart of Saturday Night
Arrived at Bangalore Airport at 7pm, on my way through the baggage collection I noticed a slogan on the wall that stated 'Bangalore Airport, from plane to taxi in 5 minutes'. They weren't kidding. It would easily have to be the most efficient alighting of a plane i've ever had. Walking away with my luggage towards the taxi rank not looking forward to the 700rp fare to drive the 44km to my hotel, a young indian guy sidled up to me and asked about my guitar, 30 seconds later we had established my hotel was on the way to his destination and sharing made sense. He lives in mumbai and is a freelance singer, we exhanged details and hope to meet up in Mumbai.
As it's the busy season and i was arriving after dark, i had booked a room at Ajantha Hotel on Mahatmha Ghandi (MG) Road (the central tourist/shopping/restaurant district) which cost a lot more than i'd like to pay being a double and the only room remaining. But on arrival i was told a single had had opened up and it was only going to be 480 a night. sweet. Everything felt like it was going along swimmingly with me saving money everywhere, i wandered down to grab a bite to eat at a local chilled out eatery (mmmm south indian food) and on the way back my giant smile over 5 minutes faded to a concerned frown as i feel a churning in my guts that i instinctively knew could mean few things.. most of them bad. Within an hour i had fever come on, two hours and multiple trips to the (thankfully western style) toilet all hope had disapeared so I commenced one of the two courses of antibiotics I'd brought with me to combat such violent bacterial infections.. It was a long night but by the next evening I was feeling much much better. Very effective fastworking medication!
(Partially) Out of Ignorance and into Action
India is a place to consistantly expect the unexpected. I knew this before coming and hence planned nothing but a rough itinerary, that being to start in the northeast, head south then back up to northwest to meet Lilith, a friend from Vancouver. Other than this i expected to just go with the flow, meet people here and there, get ideas along the way, join other parties, etc.. To some extent this has happened. But unfortunately the train system in India, although one of the most expansive networks on the planet with a brilliant booking system, is also incredibly popular and mostly booked out weeks in advance. This obviously goes contrary to doing things on a whim..
There is a few saving grace options. One is the tatkal system. This is where a few seats are reserved for each class in each train that may only be booked 2 days in advance, with a premium on top. But unless you're on the internet ready to book at 8am precisely 2 days before your train, and be really quick, these seem to often be booked out very quickly also. At least for the routes i've been looking at, at this time of year. (It IS absolute peak season). Another option is Foriegner Ticketing this is another system that reserves a few seats per class per train for Foriegners that must be booked at train reservation counters where you show your passport and visa. I only discovered that these exist very recently... damn ignorance!
See up til yesterday, I'd been spending countless hours (and rupees) in net cafes searching for trains and trying to book my immediate upcoming trip last minute. Stressing myself out and wasting days away. I was fed up with this and just wanted to plot out a path through to Mumbai, forgoing the freedom of randomness in favor of stress free travelling through a few choice destinations, buying tickets for all of them. As fate would have it, two conversations that morning, one with a melbourne girl staying at my hotel, who informed me that you can cancel tickets and get all but 100rp back (about AU$2.50). So if randomness happens, I can try for tatkal tickets last minute and there are still options. Also an Indian couple from america I met in a teahouse struck up a conversation and I was expressing my issues and they told me to go to this Train Resevation Counter in some generic building on the 8th floor that just happened to be right by my hotel.
So! I now have a return trip to Mysore (which I'm now travelling to) for 3 days, then an overnight to Hampi (really looking forward to that) over new years, then continuing onto Goa, from which i plan to head down to Gokarna for a few days. Then back to Goa ready for an other overnight, reaching Mumbai on the 8th of Jan!
Currently Listening to: Tom Waits - The Heart of Saturday Night
Arrived at Bangalore Airport at 7pm, on my way through the baggage collection I noticed a slogan on the wall that stated 'Bangalore Airport, from plane to taxi in 5 minutes'. They weren't kidding. It would easily have to be the most efficient alighting of a plane i've ever had. Walking away with my luggage towards the taxi rank not looking forward to the 700rp fare to drive the 44km to my hotel, a young indian guy sidled up to me and asked about my guitar, 30 seconds later we had established my hotel was on the way to his destination and sharing made sense. He lives in mumbai and is a freelance singer, we exhanged details and hope to meet up in Mumbai.
As it's the busy season and i was arriving after dark, i had booked a room at Ajantha Hotel on Mahatmha Ghandi (MG) Road (the central tourist/shopping/restaurant district) which cost a lot more than i'd like to pay being a double and the only room remaining. But on arrival i was told a single had had opened up and it was only going to be 480 a night. sweet. Everything felt like it was going along swimmingly with me saving money everywhere, i wandered down to grab a bite to eat at a local chilled out eatery (mmmm south indian food) and on the way back my giant smile over 5 minutes faded to a concerned frown as i feel a churning in my guts that i instinctively knew could mean few things.. most of them bad. Within an hour i had fever come on, two hours and multiple trips to the (thankfully western style) toilet all hope had disapeared so I commenced one of the two courses of antibiotics I'd brought with me to combat such violent bacterial infections.. It was a long night but by the next evening I was feeling much much better. Very effective fastworking medication!
(Partially) Out of Ignorance and into Action
India is a place to consistantly expect the unexpected. I knew this before coming and hence planned nothing but a rough itinerary, that being to start in the northeast, head south then back up to northwest to meet Lilith, a friend from Vancouver. Other than this i expected to just go with the flow, meet people here and there, get ideas along the way, join other parties, etc.. To some extent this has happened. But unfortunately the train system in India, although one of the most expansive networks on the planet with a brilliant booking system, is also incredibly popular and mostly booked out weeks in advance. This obviously goes contrary to doing things on a whim..
There is a few saving grace options. One is the tatkal system. This is where a few seats are reserved for each class in each train that may only be booked 2 days in advance, with a premium on top. But unless you're on the internet ready to book at 8am precisely 2 days before your train, and be really quick, these seem to often be booked out very quickly also. At least for the routes i've been looking at, at this time of year. (It IS absolute peak season). Another option is Foriegner Ticketing this is another system that reserves a few seats per class per train for Foriegners that must be booked at train reservation counters where you show your passport and visa. I only discovered that these exist very recently... damn ignorance!
See up til yesterday, I'd been spending countless hours (and rupees) in net cafes searching for trains and trying to book my immediate upcoming trip last minute. Stressing myself out and wasting days away. I was fed up with this and just wanted to plot out a path through to Mumbai, forgoing the freedom of randomness in favor of stress free travelling through a few choice destinations, buying tickets for all of them. As fate would have it, two conversations that morning, one with a melbourne girl staying at my hotel, who informed me that you can cancel tickets and get all but 100rp back (about AU$2.50). So if randomness happens, I can try for tatkal tickets last minute and there are still options. Also an Indian couple from america I met in a teahouse struck up a conversation and I was expressing my issues and they told me to go to this Train Resevation Counter in some generic building on the 8th floor that just happened to be right by my hotel.
So! I now have a return trip to Mysore (which I'm now travelling to) for 3 days, then an overnight to Hampi (really looking forward to that) over new years, then continuing onto Goa, from which i plan to head down to Gokarna for a few days. Then back to Goa ready for an other overnight, reaching Mumbai on the 8th of Jan!
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