Chanders

Trip Start Feb 27, 2006
1
6
85
Trip End ??? ??, 2009


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Wednesday, March 8, 2006

Now, the trip up to Chandigarh from Nagpur for the 2nd Test of the series, was my first experience of Indian Railways, the journey being broken up by a few hours layover in Delhi. Underprepared, with my recently acquired Gulf Air blanket, the night was cold; the year round tan of Hussey, I suspect shielding him from the cold felt by myself. We arrived nice and early into Delhi after the overnight train North, with time to kill until our mid-afternoon train up to Chandigarh. Confronted by hordes of Indians at Old Delhi railway station - touts, rickshaw wallahs, beggars, liggers and the rest - we had a quick chai then took the a train across town to New Delhi Railway Station. Over chai we met Matt, a Kopite from Portsmouth with a trade on betting exchanges, providing excellent opportunity for Merseyside banter (the subject of him never having been to Anfield being a constant topic raised by myself). After chai we headed over to Parganj for a roof top fry-up for breakfast, then myself and Hussey spent a productive few hours on the net booking flights for the Ashes leg of the trip, then it was up to Chanders on the very plush AC express train, exorbitantly priced 01 - Cricket ground in Mohali
01 - Cricket ground in Mohali
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After arriving in Chanders, and spending around 3 hours traipsing round the place trying to find a hotel, we ended up in Sector 19 in an overpriced 850 roops a night hotel....quickly upgraded overnight to a place nearby at 550 a night...spacious, TV but in close proximity to the roof, from which it seemed major construction work was occurring every morning and during the night. Luckily the cricket starts early...well for me anyway, sometimes for Matt, and never for Hussey - who was to spend a large portion of the test in bed!
Paul and SJ had already sorted tickets out at 2000 roops for 5 day-passes at the ground in Mohali, overpriced really, but decent enough seats, although not much better than the views enjoyed by Hussey and the rest of cheapskates on the concrete steps in the opposite stand, for a fraction of the cost (Cheap Steve being notably absent).
Well, after the first 2 days were rain-interrupted, England contrived to lose the match heavily, aided by Kumbles excellent late evening spell on the 4th evening ripped out Englands top order (earlier in the match he'd snared his 500th test wicket after trapping Hoggy LBW)
The 2nd Day of the match was mostly spent on Kingfisher in the nearby bar of a plush hotel, before retiring back to town for some jars in the City Heart 2 amongst other places 02
02
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Chandigarh is a rather unique Indian city, designed by the Frenchman Le Corbusier, and planned much like Islamabad, along right angles with rubbish bins and clean, wide boulevards, shopping mall, and regular buses to the cricket....but with the same rabid dogs evident India-wide! Anyway, defeat aside, a nice time was spent here, generally eating, drinking and being merry, particularly in the company of Paul, SJ, Debs, Hussey, Bristol Ross and Matt...there was even beer on sale inside the ground.
A quirk that was developing with the food and drink vendors inside the cricket grounds was increasing attempts to over charge England fans for refreshments...so much so that the chai vendor who regularly plied his trade in our stand, refused to serve us chai at the 'RRP', asking for double the price...after pouring us 3 cups of tea, he refused to accept the right price, instead preferring to pour the tea back into his pot and traipse off...madness...absolutely pagal!
After post match beers on the roof top of the nearby hotel/bar with the usually crowd plus Anders, involving a deep insight to how Flintoff thought 'England were coming together as a side, and had tried their best', which raised a chuckle or two...we went on the piss for one final time with Paul, SJ and Debs who were off to Delhi and a flight home.
The day after the test was spent by myself, Matt and Hussey in the rain-sodden but very impressive rock garden in Chandigarh - built of industrial waste and thrown-away items - with some wonderful, murals, rock figures and water displays.
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