The Halftime Report

I’m writing this one from an internet cafe in Mumbai.  We’ve finished up the northern part of our trip to India and have a long layover before we head south to Kerala. 

After Agra we headed to Ranthambore National Park for a few days.  This is one of the best places in Rajasthan to spot tigers, but unfortunately we didn’t see any.  We did see plenty of interesting deer, birds, crocodiles, and the highlight was a leopard.  Our next stop was Jaipur, the pink city.

We didn’t actually get to see too much of Jaipur, since both of us seem to have caught different variations of “Delhi Belly” and spent quite a bit of time at the hotel.  We have actually really been enjoying the food in India, so this was a bummer. The hotel itself was as good a place to be stuck as any.  Called the Alisar Haveli, it was formely a minor prince’s house, turned into a hotel.  It’s beautiful, and on the bright side a nice place to chill out for a few days and get better.

Onward to Kerala!

We spent a few days in Delhi, taking in the sights and really enjoying the food. Quite a few of the sights were closed in preparation for Republic Day, but the Qutb Minar was a highlight. It’s a huge tower that is 900 years old and in perfect condition. Delhi was a bit more manageable than Mumbai, but maybe we are just getting used to India.

Our next stop was Agra to see the one thing everyone comes here to see… the Taj Mahal. It’s just a short 200 km down the road from Delhi. No big deal, right?

Six and half hours later, we arrived just in time to see the Taj and get our snapshots before it closed for the night. Since most of you know about that famous monument, and because it’s impossible to put into words what it’s like to see it, I think we’ll write about something more interesting today.

In theory and on the map, the national highway between Delhi and Agra is a nice four lane road. In reality, it ranges from about 4-5 lanes each way to just 1 for both directions over some bridges that are “under construction“ (or possibly under demolition - hard to tell). Every manner of conveyance is represented, and everyone weaves in and out of lanes, even traversing the median curb to drive on the other side when yours is too congested.

Based on what we saw during our time on the road, here’s the perfect recipe for traffic. Guaranteed to produce gridlock results every time.

On the road, mix together the following vehicles: equal parts private cars, tourist cars with drivers, lorries (big trucks) loaded to overflowing with any possible type of cargo, rusty local buses (a few with flat tires), large tourist coaches, tuk tuks (minimum 9 people), motorcycles, bicycles, rickshaws, tractors pulling carts full of produce, tractors pulling carts of people.

Season with a large helping of these items: Horses, ox carts, and camel carts. Add a dash of random cows, dogs, monkeys, goats, pigs, and pedestrians. Top with one holy man riding an elephant stuck at a toll booth.

Bake at high temperature in small villages with roadside markets featuring hawkers, gypsies, barbers, farmers, and whole families working together to slap mortar by hand on the road itself for “repairs“. Give a short amount of time and you’ll have one of the most fascinating, frustrating, and entertaining traffic jams you’ll ever witness.

What I do say about Mumbai? It’s hard to put into words, but the first that comes to mind is “chaotic.” But that doesn’t really capture the essence of it. We didn’t originally intend to visit Bombay, aka Mumbai, but when we booked our RTW ticket, we found that the OneWorld airlines don’t fly directly to New Delhi. Since we had to stay over, we figured we might as well spend the time and check it out.

The city is huge and crowded. There are people literally everywhere. It’s strange and somewhat overwhelming, but interesting all the same. Among other things, we visited the Elephanta caves, a Jain temple, and a house where Ghandi stayed while doing some of his most important work (incredibly inspiring). Since the events of last fall, security has been stepped up and guards are highly visible outside many of the hotels and restaurants.

I think it will take some time to mentally process everything we’ve seen and experienced, so that’s it for now. Here’s the view that we saw most in Mumbai: traffic, including a lot of ‘72 Fiats. If we had a soundtrack for this, it would be the nearly constant beeping of horns.

A holiday from our vacation?  We’ve been asking oursevles which way it was.  While we’ve traveling for a few months now,  we really haven’t been in “vacation mode” or in other words, staying at our typical high end resorts and just being tourists.

Now, however, we jumped on a ferry and headed for Phi Phi Island (pronounced Pee Pee, which continues to make us giggle after a few beers).  We stayed a few nights at a beautiful resort, chilled poolside, took the snorkel boat cruise, and had a few tropical drinks.  It was a great break from traveling and felt a little strange to be pampered so much.  We did sneak off the resort grounds for some great, cheap local food in the village nearby - got to stay true to our nature (and our budget).

The water was warm and the views beautiful.  Today, though it was back to reality and Bangkok to do some last minute errands before we head off for our next stop:  Mumbai!

We arrived in Ao Nang, one of the beaches nearby Krabi, and spent the last few days eating some good shrimp dishes and wandering through the shops that offer tours/laundry/internet/t-shirts/Thai-Italian food.  Yes, one store can do all that, or at least many around here try.

We headed over to Railay beach today, which can only be accessed by longtail boat.  The cliffs that surround the beach offer some great views.  Here’s one from the ride home: