TravelStream™ news feed for member mr_grumpy on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/mr_grumpy en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 20 Jun 2009 02:49:08 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mr_grumpy/1/1225893480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mr_grumpy/1/1225893480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mr_grumpy/1/1225893480/tpod.html Sat, 20 Jun 2009 02:49:08 -0400 Turning left at Albuquerque.

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Mumbai (Bombay), Maharashtra, India

And then there was the taxi that tried to scam us.



Ayaka and I were taking the train from Pune back to Mumbai CST (was called Victoria Station) on our last day when we got off the train (and I can't remember where but it was the main stop nearest the airport.) I knew from the airport to down-town Mumbai should cost about INR 350. When we got to the street a taxi driver saw us and asked where we were going, and when he found out I asked him how much. He said INR 400. I knew we were a lot closer to the airport than down-town, so we said no thank you, left him and continued on to the bank (we needed the last day's money.) He followed us to the bank, and then sat outside the restaurant while we ate. When we left the restaurant he was still there.

So I thought, we'll take the taxi, but we'll do it my way. First I asked to see the taxi tariff card they all have to carry, and I checked it was the new one issued in April 2007 and insisted to the driver that the meter was reset to 0.01 (as it wasn't when we got in.) The driver spun it around, but it didn't reset properly, and he said don't worry about it. I insisted again, and he reluctantly reset the manual tariff thingy to 0.01. And off we went. Ayaka sat in the back, and to make sure the driver didn't try and take us a long way, she kept looking at her watch and giving the driver a worried look in the mirror.

When we arrived the driver pulled out the tariff card to show us how much it would cost. But he pulled out the old one which had higher fares on it. I insisted again that the right one be used. He did, and we started to pay. He put the tariff card away, and as we paid he told us that the bags would be INR 20 each. I, again, asked for the tariff card and showed him that it was INR 12 each for the bags. Which we paid.

In all, it cost about INR 180, plus INR 24 for the bags. Much less than the INR 400 he wanted at the start.

And as for being late, we had about 6 hours to kill at the airport.


So, if you ever go to Mumbai, you can take your own rate card from the Mumbai Traffic Police.


]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mr_grumpy/1/1225980000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mr_grumpy/1/1225980000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mr_grumpy/1/1225980000/tpod.html Wed, 26 Nov 2008 05:01:52 -0500 Turning left at Albuquerque.

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Bangkok, Thailand

After India, Bangkok is such a change. Although there are taxi drivers and touts wanting your business, it's no where as agressive as it was in India. A polite, "no thanks" and that's that. The food is good, the prices are good and the people are much better.

It's nice to relax and not worry about things, at a least for a day or two. Sit down, relax, have some yummy food and coffee.
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Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India

Well, the night train was interesting. Not really a Darjeeling Express, but not too bad.

When we went to get the ticket from the station, a man comes up to us and asks if we're looking for the ticket office. We say yes, and he asks us to follow him. Somehow we end up at a travel agency across from the station. We tell them what we want, and they check on the computer and say the train is full. But they have R800 night busses we can catch, leaving at night and getting there in the morning. Well, we say thank you and go and find the proper ticket office. There are tickets available (because they keep some aside for foreign tourists) and they are a lot cheaper than R800.

We took a rickshaw to the hotel we wanted to stay at, and the guy comes in with us, wakes up the night manager sand says something (not in English). The driver then tells us it's full. We go out, and the driver then shows us some cards of hotels he's thinks should be okay. We say, no thank you and pay him, and walk on. After the rickshaw has left, we go back to the hotel that we wanted and wake the guy up again. He immediately gets up and we start talking.

The hotel was full, but a room became available at 7am, if we would like to wait. (We arrived at about 5am. Not fun, but not hot, either.) I think the rickshaw driver might have asked it the hotel paid commissions for bringing guests, and the answer was no. So, we got a good room, cheaper than rack rates (which is interesting since it was actually full.)

So, I'm learning to be stronger with touts. I'll need that skill for the Bangkok to Saim Reap trip, which sounds like tout hell.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mr_grumpy/1/1225202400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mr_grumpy/1/1225202400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mr_grumpy/1/1225202400/tpod.html Wed, 26 Nov 2008 04:57:30 -0500 Turning left at Albuquerque.

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Mumbai (Bombay), Maharashtra, India

Hey, our bags arrived okay. Going from Spain to India was such a shock the our system. Going from the airport to the hotel (we had an overpriced pick-up organised by the hotel) made us feel like we were in a movie set.

Mumbai is like an explosion of noise and smells. There are people everywhere. The hotel has more people working for it than a western hotel would have of the same size. Are labour costs that cheap?

Well, food is. And postage wasn't too bad. You expect to get ripped off quite a lot at the shops and so on. Is it worth arguing over 10 yen? Usually no, sometimes yes. Mumbai is a huge city, and dirty and run down. Every now and then a new building can be seen but on the whole, I don't have much hope for the system.

I sometimes wonder if the British should have left. Like the scene from Life of Brian, "What did the Romans ever do for us?" Well, the British built the railways, introduced a public service, built large buildings, and so on. Now it just seems to be all crumbling away.

A few things seemed a bit weird, like going through a metal detector and security check to go into new shopping centres and cinemas.

Out hotel is absolute bottom the barrel budget. The share toilet is a hole in the floor, the shower has only cold. (The deluxe rooms, twice the cost are much, much better.

And then next, it's a night train to Arungabad.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mr_grumpy/1/1225594500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mr_grumpy/1/1225594500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mr_grumpy/1/1225594500/tpod.html Wed, 26 Nov 2008 04:45:50 -0500 Turning left at Albuquerque.

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Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India

Okay, so the town is a dust bowl. One thing we've noticed, besides the smell, is that people spit a lot. It seems there's some sweet/candy thing you buy in a single packet, it makes your mouth really red and makes you spit a lot. The empty plastic wrappers are left on the ground. I think it helps to stop dust building up in you mouth.

Foul really. Good for one night, not for two. The only reason to come here is to visit the Ellora caves, and then move on. There are some other caves further away, which I think we should have made an effort to get to, but energy levels and timing just aren't there.

India seems to have a recurrent theme running though it. First rip-offs. When ever you get into a taxi or rickshaw you have to insist to see the taxi meter fare sheet, and request the meter to be used.

Also, Indians seem to have no sense of civil respect. Trying to get onto buses, trains, etc is like one big fight through the morass of humanity. There's no queueing, no waiting, just push in and crush everyone else in the way.
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Pune, Maharashtra, India

Well, sorry about all the blank entries, I'm trying to make sure I at least have where and when I've been and then hope to fill in the details later. Usually when I get on the net it's so I can look for hotels and plan ahead, something we're not too good at.

We're in Pune. It's the home of what was called the Orange People, who now seem to wear maroon colour instead. Now it's called Osho Meditation. I keep seeing these middle aged Californian types wandering around in their robes, on their phones. Just doesn't seem to match up so well for me.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mr_grumpy/1/1225713600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mr_grumpy/1/1225713600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mr_grumpy/1/1225713600/tpod.html Wed, 05 Nov 2008 05:05:23 -0500 Turning left at Albuquerque.

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Mumbai (Bombay), Maharashtra, India

Another night train, more hours walking around Mumbai. At least we found the luggage storage place in the main station, and could get tickets easily for the next place. There was a hellishly long queue at the foreign ticket counter. Luckily it was behind me. We got in a Mumbai at about 7am, and went up to the ticket counter at 8am.

Buying tickets on the Indian trains requires a lot of knowledge. You have to know which long distance train you want to catch. There's a large board with all the names of the trains, and their destinations, but not the route. To buy a ticket you fill in a form, hand it over, decipher what they guy is saying, check the ticket and pay. There was a woman in front of me buying 5 tickets. So, that's 5 forms, 5 checks and 5 payments.

Oh, and the power is about to go off here. Time to go.
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Ellora, Maharashtra, India

So, today we went to this place out in the country side called Ellora. Imagine a rocky hillside, about 200 years of work and several thousand people, three competiting religions and what you have are the massive cave carvings of Ellora. We're talking human made caves. Huge ones. Some of the them are pretty basic, but the main Hundi one was like walking through an Indiana Jones insipred set.

The bus trip was on basic Indian public bus, with everyone fighting to get on. Life here is rough. Buying the tickets involves pushing though a crowd of people all trying to buy tickets. No queue, no waiting, no civility.
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Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain and Canary Islands

One of the things we've been about to have a few times here is churros with chocolate. They're like long doughnuts dipped in a cup of chocolate. And in Valencia, we had pretty good (and cheap) ones across from the main cathedral. (Oh, and I didn't get to see the Holy Grail though. It was Sunday, so there was a service on, and the Grail section was closed.)

And then back in Barcelona. We went for a paella at this swanky restaurant. Here we were, with our big bags, me stressing about getting to the airport on time, with guide book in hand trying to find this place on a little-ish back street. Oh, and we were tired and smelly because we had an early morning bus trip from Valencia to Barcelona, it was hot and our bags were heavy. (Well, I was smelly, and unshaved.) So, there we were in a flash, restaurant eating our last Spain meal. And off again.
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Valencia, Valencian Country, Spain and Canary Islands

So, one thing that caught us out this morning was daylight savings finished. So, when the first buses in Alicante didn't arrive it was like, er, what happened. But the station was okay. It has the only open coffee shop in the town so quite a few police were there having coffee. We think the drunk guy on the bench next to us got robbed however.

And now I'm in Valencia. Apparently the true Holy Grail is here somewhere. I thought about popping in for a drink, but I'm tired of traveling.

I've not got somewhere in India booked for the fist two nights. After that it's hit and miss. I hope I can buy a guide book.
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