In Bhuj (mijn 4de keer) en zoals altijd weer een aanvaring met de hygiëne! Landing dit keer was uitermate zacht! Anders dan ik gewend ben in deze winderige streek.

Nadat ik diezelfde dag nog errug trots was op wat ik in de WC kon aanschouwen, moest ik het die dag erna toch laten afweten. Hier bleek ik alweer s met een soort van buikloop te maken te hebben (of zoiets).  Deze keer bleek het zelfs erger dan voorgaande keren (nu ook een beetje koortsig). Ik blijk een echte liefde-haat verhouding met dit gebied te hebben (het gebeurt mij hier elke keer maar weer).

Na ons werk weer s goed gedaan te hebben (ahum) en nadat wij een kort bezoekje aan een Indiaase leverancier in de buurt gepleegt hadden, zijn wij onze terugreis begonnen.

T zijn zoals ik al veel vaker roep: toch lieverds!

Hadden wij onze vlucht staan op de volgende dag, na wat navragen waar onze ticket toch bleef. Deze zouden wij toch echt moeten hebben. Dit bleek verkeerd geboekt te zijn en wij moesten wachten op een verlossend telefoontje, waarbij wij genoodzaakt waren in de startblokken te blijven staan voor als het op het allerlaatst toch zou lukken.

Nu bleek ik, als India-veteraan, echt geen gevoel te hebben dat het ze zou lukken (dus dat werd de hele dag maar een beetje waailappen, dacht ik). Dit in tegenstelling tot mijn collega Frank omdat "je het nooit weet"... ;-)... En ja hoor, tot mijn verbazing gebeurde toch een wonder en konden wij op een redelijk tijdstip vertrekken richting domestic airport.

Daar nog een lekker bakkie koffie, en gaan met die banaan. Ach ja... india...

I really wish I could have spent a little more time here, but as the train was late in and I was up early in the morning for Mumbai, I went straight to the hotel and crashed out, forgot it's humid and hot there day and night in contrast to Mount Abu which has cool night and a dry climate.

Well to sum up the last three days would be impossible but im on a time limit with the computer. So here goes After waking up in Delhi we literally had to run to car awaytch our train and go through about 20 cars to get to our seat. When we got to Agra we got our tickets for our 12 hour train ride to Vadodara, then hired a rickshaw to take us to a hotel. Ended up staying in the Hilton which was like paradise in the middle of the desert. Then headed off to the Taj Mahal during sunset to catch some breath taking views. Next morning was spent relaxing and waiting for the trains which were late. Which ment we stowed away on another train to catch our main train at another station. This little capade if we would have goten caught would have lead to 6 months in jail. Slept in our sleeper car on the train which was different and kind of adventerous. When we got off we met our host and had breakfast at his friends house. We then went to a holy Mountain about an hour away where we met his other friend and had some lunch. Got pulled over by the police and then bribed them to let us go (standard practice here). Went to the top of the mountain was blessed and said a prayer. Then went down had some chai and visited another holy temple, which was wicked cool. We stood on a stone after saying a prayer and held a thought of what we really wanted, if the stone moved you would get your wich if it did nothing then sorry it aint happenen. Well this is the wierd part 2 of the other people that showed us around it didnt move for, but when I stepped on the stone it moved! Not only did it move but I cylcled 3 strong feelings of wishes that I had and every time I would lose a thought the stone would stop! It was erie! The stone is the size of a football and theres no one around you except an interpreter who sits away from you. I was freaked out! Then we came back to the city, and at a chinese stall along side the road. Now im just waiting to get sick, but Im trying trust our host, after asking him repeatidly if we would get sick. Ohh well thats a pretty quick sum up, but I will have the full story next time you see me.   Cheers 

We took an overnight train, 13 hours, from Agra to Biroda, India.  I have an Indian business associate from Chambersburg that is in India now and had invited me to visit him and his home town while I'm in India.  I made contact with him and he got us at the train station in Biroda and we had a full day of touring. 

By 17:30 I was in (sort of!) Ahmedabad... well some remote outskirt of it anyway. This place, somehow, was dirtier and dustier and maybe hotter than Rajasthan! Urggh... just wanted to get to my friend's place. I went to Ajay and Vijay's office by rickshaw, took long enough for the 20+ km ride.

Ajay was obviously thrilled that I got him the booze... poor dude hadn't had any in months, after all Ahmedabad city doesn't allow purchase/consumption of alcohol really. But that would have to wait. First on agenda was a sumptuous yummy Gujarati "thaali" dinner. Great stuff after quite a few days for me!

Also this was the second last of the nine days of the Navratri festival. Basically its an excuse for all the locals to go out every night in group, with family or friends and dance the night away, and especially an excuse for people to dress up in (sometimes garish gaudy) traditional dresses. So the guys arranged for some passes to get into one of the organized dance places. And thankfully they had one traditional kurta that I could borrow, coz you see people are quite anal sometimes about traditional dresses when you go to these Navratra "Garbha dance" nights. It was definitely interesting though, to see all the people decked up in their best and brightest attires, and some of them were great dancers too, while most of the others were just havin a good time dancing or socializing. After about an hour or so, of not really dancing much, we decided to head home for the night.

Ajay ofcourse wanted to sample the booze right away. So it was to be. After a couple of drinks on the terrace, and some good old movie off to snooze.

20th October 2007

The next day wasn't much special. I took my time - waking up late. We had a heavy lunch and left for my friends' office. Went and got us tickets for a movie show that evening. Later in the afternoon, we went off to look/shop around in one of the biggest malls there. But the guys had to run back due to some issue at work. So after they tackled it, we ran straight to the movie, which already started just a few minutes before. Anyway didn't miss anything important from the start, and enjoyed the rest of "Bourne Ultimatum". Great action film!

So my train back home was about midnight, and there was time enough to grab a quick light lunch, before I bid adieu to Ajay, Vijay and their colleague. Took a rickshaw to station and reached well in time to comfortably park my rear in the right berth.

-- Ashish Bhambhani

Hello everyone. If you are visiting India during 12th Oct to 22nd Oct. please do visit Vadodara, Gujarat. It will have a 9 night long festival. It goes on whole night. It is full of colors, dance, music, entertaining, traditional events. So please visit here. I assure you, that you will have a great time. shahrachit@comic.com

I can hear this dude outside yelling about some kind of fruit...but anyways its been about a day since I landed in Gujarat. Man...going to India is a journey in itself.  After we leanded in Korea I thought I was a badass.  "A 12 hour flight? That ain't shit...I could do another 12" Yea, too bad I didn't realize I had more like 20 to go.  So over all including layovers the trip took something like 30+ hours from LAX to Gujarat.  Its weird leaving on Sunday from LAX and then landing in India and realizing its Tuesday in Cali.  I met so many college kids on the plane, it was pretty much all students with almost no parents.  I made friends with this one group of girls and even got invited to one of the girl's wedding.  I thought flying alone would be boring but it turned out to be the most fun I've had on a flight to India.  So I've been in Gujarat for a day, and havn't really done much.  Been at my uncle's houses mostly and just slept and ate.  Today I'll be taking a 4 hour bus ride to Bhavnager to visit one of my aunts.  I'm glad I brought my laptop with 50+ gigs of movies, I knew they'd come in handy.  After Bhavnager I'll go to our gaam for a few days.  Sometime after that we're gonna go to Mumbai for a wedding and to paaaaartaaaay for New Years.  Then its off to Baroda and some other cities in between.  I've only been in India for 24 hours but I'm thinkin the next 24 days are going to be fun yaar.