Bombay-Ahmadabad-Udaipur: 9June07

i think you probably could only see thousands of men washing clothes together in India. We took a train to go to a dhoby ghat and witnesses the incredible scene. Then we went to the mosque in the middle of the sea (or rubbish? the causeway was surrounded by rubbish). You could only access to the mosque during low tide while the causeway link the land to the mosque was submerged during high tide.

We took a sitting day train to Ahmadabad to change to Udaipur. The episode of the day was Matt went down the train to buy newspaper. The train moved and i thought he would be some where in other cabin. After half an hour, when more people boarded the train, i was kind of panicked. He got everything with me and if he missed the train, it would be very very bad. The people sat around me obviously think i am his wife and they started to look at me with a kind of sympathy. Before i started to cry (after days of reliances with Matt and Vivien, i got very much meek now), Matt just appeared again in front of me. i was relieved and it was definitely not easy for me to carry 2 person's backpacks!

Cost: 202 Rs



Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat. According to Lonely Planet, 5000 men are working here. They use rows of open-air troughs to beat the dirt out of the housands of kilograms of soiled clothes brought from all over the city each day. It was indeed an amazing sight.



Haji Ali's Mosque. This whitewashed mosque is in the middle of Arabian Sea. It becomes an island during high tide but is accessible at the other times via the concrete causeway lined with beggars. The legend says the Muslim saint Haji Ali died while on a pilgrimage to Mecca and his casket miraculously floated back to Mumbai and landed at this spot. Then the devotees built this mosque which contains His tomb.



The palace on Jamandir Island of placid lake Pichola. Udairpur is called white city as most of the buildings are in white color. It is Rajasthan's most romantic city and a really good place for honeymoon. We got a room right facing to the lake and palace for off season price at Rs 200. A room like this would cost Rs 500-800 during peak period.

Bombay: 8 June 07

Vivien Leaving

We woke up at 4am so that we could go to the dock at 5am for the fishing trade at the dock. This was some kind of thing that i would only do with friends and not alone.
(Unfortunately, photography is not allowed at the colourful and lively dock.)

Vivien is leaving and Matt would go to the slum with a photographer from Denmark. i would walk around on my own, spend time at museum.

When i hugged said good bye to Vivien, i felt very sad. So people comes and goes. When i walked around the street on my own again, i felt lonely and miserable. i felt it like part of my life. A lot of time, i have to learn to 'enjoy' the loneliness and to enjoy the beauty of things myself. Probably nobody will stay in my life and this would be something that i needed to get used to. May be, i am looking for something in India. May be something spiritual or others. i won't know until the end of the trip.

Cost: 700 Rs



Victoria Terminus (renamed as Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus for patriotism reason) is said to be the most exuberant Gothic building in Mumbai. It looks more like a lavishly decorated palace or cathedral than a railway interchange. It has beautiful carving and stained-glass window.



Bombay University. According to Lonely Planet, it looks like a 15th century Italian masterpiece dropped into the middle of an Indian metropolis. i agree.



Prince of Wales Museum. Again, for patriotism, the name is changed to a very long Indian name later. Unfortunately, the long long name, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, just sounds like a tongue twister to me. The huge white dome building was built to commemorate King George V's first visit to India. He was still Prince of Wales then.

Bombay (Mumbai): 7June07

Welcome to Bollyhood!

This would be the last day for 3 of us to hang out together. It was the end of the trip for Vivien. He needed to go back to Coimbatore (near Chennai). He is doing his finally year University internship in an Institute over there. By this time, we had talked about so much of our life: our family, our job, our love story and our dreams. There was a kind of affection that making the separation sounded bad.

We had no particular plan. We walked from Colaba (where we stayed) to Victoria Terminus Railway and took a rishaw to Chowpatty Beach. There were beggars every where, but they kind of 'work' in a family. i have mixed feelings on whether to give or not. If one ruppee could help them to not to starve for a while, why not? But in the other way, i feel reluctant to be surrounded by other beggars who in the end will push and pull me trying to get the same. i don't want the one rupee to be an encouragement for the children to 'inheritage' the career as a beggar too.

Bombay has the biggest slum in the world. This is a place with absolute rich and poverty gap. i think India is really in need of population controls. Why people wanted to born a dozen of children if they couldn't even feed themselves? Matt said, Hindu believed that you will go to hell if you don't have son and like Muslim, child is a gift of God. So there is simply just no education to many regarding on this issue. This is probably a problem with no solution.

Something interesting for the day was, we were wanted by some 'star search' from Bollyhood. Basically, they need foreigners to walk at the background of the main characters to feature some foreign university scene. They would pay us 500 Rs for one to half day. It would be an interesting Bollyhood experience, but too bad, we did not have enough time for that and we rejected the offer.

Cost: 700 Rs



Around Victoria Terminus, many auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers were waiting for passengers. Golden rule: Always agree with a price before you go to any where.



Chowpatty beach and many birds...