Tuesday was a waiting day, I have packed my suitcase and checked out of the room. I went on internet, read my book, walked, met a Swiss woman from Switzerland, Bernadette, we had lunch together (it was 3pm) and we talked a lot. Around 9.30 pm I took a taxi to Juhu again, Gurav picked me up there and we went for a coffee, we chatted as he was very curious about couple's relationships in Europe, then he dropped me at the airport; that was just a calm day. The airport was hecitic at midnight, imagine the biggest crowd... They asked me to open my big suitcase at the first security check before check-in, they were asking almost every woman, the security people were not very nice and asked a lot of questions, anyway it was all for my security. Even though I had confirmed the flight was already full and they were upgrading a few people to business class, cool :)

 

We landed safely in Bangalore at 6 this morning and I took a pre-paid taxi to go to Chandrabati's home. She has invited me for 2 nights and then I will have to find a hotel for 2 nights. After that I will be able to stay with my host family here. Chandra was really nice with me and proposed that I get some rest since I did not sleep at all during the night. Her two boys went to school and she went to work, I slept a little.

This afternoon I went out and passed by a school, the children were out playing and called me to come in. It was a very small school but there were about 400 pupils there according to one of the teachers. I stayed one hour, they were very curious about me and some could speak good English. They wanted me to talk to them in French and I had to write my name on their classbooks. Before I left, they had done drawings for me too. Picture at school added.

I am happy to announce that I have found a host family in Bangalore thanks to the Lion's Club. It feels good to know where I will be staying since I was worried about this last week.

Sunday morning I finally decided to ask the hotel reception where Bollywood is exactly as it's out of my guidebook map. It seems it's further than the airport. The reception guy asks me what I want to do as the place is closed for tourists; do I want to go to a shooting or visit? I say I'd love to go to do any or both. He calls someone, there is no shooting today or in the next day, but... there is a big wedding party tonight and they need European looking girls to serve drinks to the guests. I say OK. A few hours later, I have to meet someone at the hotel, he will tell me if I look OK for the job. Great, he is taking me. He just says I need to have to put on make up and he will provide the dresses, we will be 18 girls alltogether. It seems it is common here that they look for extras among the tourists. At 5, he picks me up we meet other girls in front of another hostel and then we all meet in front of the McDonald's. Taxi to Church Gate Train station and then we take the train, all those girls and only 2 guys accompanying us is a big show for everyone in the train, they look at us like a "fresh flesh" attraction. Anyway, the train was the best option since the traffic is soooo busy here. After the train we all get in rickshaws (also knows as tuktuk) and we are taken to an outdoor studio. It is a very big place and they are preparing the decoration, flowers and fountains, and fake trees and others, bars, nice bench and chairs, carpet everywhere (even on the road). We meet a British Circus girl, they asked her to come just for that, she arrived the night before and is leaving back to London the next morning. We are given ugly blue streching dresses and will need to wear them only. I got a picture but cannot show you now, might add it later. Around 9.30 the guest start to arrive and we serve the drinks, tequila shots, vodka, whisky, cocktails, beers, the men are drunk very fast and the wedded couple arrives, they only stay for about 2 hours and then leave, they do not look too good. There is a camera filming everything and that is shown on big screens because the place is so big that all guest would not be able to see the bride and groom otherwise. Meanwhile we run out of beer and the men become rude to us, we are not treated so well but I got 2 tips. Around 12:30 am the guests begin to leave, we get changed, we all hated the ugly dress, it felt like a plastic bag. Anyway I feel so lucky to have been able to experience all this, it was a great night. Though I can tell, it was also a huge waste of money for a party that lasted no longer than 4 hours. It was 3:30 am when I returned to the hotel. What an experience, what a night!

 

Today, Monday, I had decided to do nothing, but I received an sms from the British couple that I had met in the train from Agra to Delhi. They had told me they knew someone in Mumbai and that they would tell him about me, but I wasn't sure they would remember... They did. So I got an sms from them and they gave me the phone number of Gurav. I called him, he proposed to meet, he said he knew I'd like to see Bollywood, he is in the industry, but there is currently no shooting going on and so there is nothing to see. I took the bus, then the train, then the rickshaw to go meet him in Juhu, it is the only real beach of Mumbai, it took me over 2 hours to get there. He picked me up with a nice car, offered me a cappucchino and took me shopping (he shopped and I watched :). Then he had to go back to work and I took a taxi back to Colada.

 

Got good news today, I think I might get a host family for real in Bangalore. Will let you know when this is for sure.

Ceux qui ne comprennent pas tout peuvent essayer de faire comme suit:

Allez sur Babelfish, entrez l'adresse http://webfairyjo.spaces.live.com dans le champs "Translate a Webpage", dans la liste deroulable en dessous selectionnez "English to French" puis cliquez sur "Translate". La traduction n'est pas parfaite mais ca peut aider.

 

To start with, I thought I found a nice and comfortable hotel, but that was a mistake, it is not any better than in Delhi, I am sleeping on a sofa bed that has 2 different mattresses, one hard and one harder, that was difficult to get some sleep again, I feel sore. I woke up early again but stayed in bed until 11 to rest. Then I decided to go visit some places I had read about, I take the bus to get out of Colaba, I do not know if this is luck or what but the bus is not as crowded as they said it would be in the guidebook and the ticket-seller is nice and tells me when to step out. I go to Gandhi's house, it is very well done and interesting with figurines showing the life of Gandhi and lots of pictures as well as his correspondance with a lot of important political people. It is also very moving and I like his phrases everywhere in the house, like: "I want the cultures of all the land to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be lown off my feet by any". Then I want to go to the Hanging Gardens, I wanted to walk but the cashier at Gandhi's house tells me it's too far and I take the bus again. People here are nicer that what the guidebook says. The Hanging Gardens are beautiful, I stay there 2 hours, first I make a tour and then I sit on a bench and read. A young who was waiting on another bench comes and sit with me. Her name is Richa and she is on a trip with her brother. She lives in the center of India, she shows me on the map. We talk a while and she invites me to her home and she says that we are friends so she offers me her bracelet. Then I want to see the towers of silence, but after walking for a while I learn that it is not possible to see them, they are now hidden and nobody can approach them. The towers of silence are a kind of tomb where the Parsees leave their corpses to be eaten by the vultures. So I decide to go back by foot to the beach to take a bus to Colaba, easy right? not so much this time, the bus takes me in the right direction but I do not recognize the way so I get down when I think I am on the right track, then I don't recognize the street so I walk about 20 minutes further and had to come all the way back.

 

Oh and for those who were wondering, I do receive SMS and I am in India 4.5 hours ahead of Switzerland.

After another short and cold night, I am ready to take my flight to Mumbai (Bombay). I leave the Delhi hotel at 6:30 in the morning and wait for hours at the airport, I land in Mumbai at noon. The pre-paid taxi wants more money when he leaves me in Colaba, near the Gate of India, but I refuse, he gets already too much according to the Guide du Routard. I was told in Delhi that looking for a hotel in Mumbai is easy and that I would find a cheap one. Big error, I enter and leave about 12 hotels with no luck, no room, too expensive, no bathroom, room only available for 1 night, dormitories, and so on. It's a nightmare and it's so hot in the middle of the afternoon here that it makes me feel depressed somehow. Finally I decided to spend more money and take a "better" hotel. It is categorized as "chic" in the guidebook but really it is not, about the same price as my Delhi hotel which was cold, noisy and had a hard mattress, the bathroom was better in Delhi though. Anyway... I have been eating at the Leopold's cafe and will now get some rest, I haven't been sleeping much lately.

 

My advice, don't ever go to Mumbai (Bombay) without a hotel booking and note that the 3-star hotels (mine is supposedly one) are not worth the money, you better pay a bit more and stay in a 4 star. I will know for next time. I could have booked via AsiaRooms, where I booked the very nice hotel in Agra, I guess they have standards that you can trust.

After a flight of about 7 hours, my plane landed early in Delhi. On the train to Geneva airport I met a couple from France, they were doing the same journey as me so we travelled together, it was nice.

It's now 8:30 local time and I'm really tired.

My guide took me to many places in New and Old Delhi, not really following the instructions I had given but it seems that many monuments are closed because the 26th is a republic holiday and they fear terrorism so most places would be closed 5 to 10 days before and after the holiday.

I am trying to add pictures in the India Album. Enjoy.

Wow, what a night... Dancing and having fun, that was a great party. The theme was Bal Masqué and everyone was wearing a mask when entering the place. Some colleagues were difficult to recognize.

To match the theme I went to my hairdresser and she made a great hairdo for me, with lots of curls, they looked really nice, it was worth the 1.5 hours sitting.

On the right, a picture taken at the party.

 

It seems I finally found how this blog works, now I can make this a place where I tell about my travels and my life.

 

I still got some customization to do, just to make sure this looks OK for my visitors, not that I am awaiting a lot of them but I never know.

 

The weather module works... great ! I will be able to show you how the weather's like where I am, well here in Switzerland it's not very interesting right now but while I will be in India I'll change the city(ies) and you'll see...

 

Added the profile module on the left, is this stuff about me interesting? maybe I shouldn't give so many details, maybe I should change the picture, maybe... Well about pictures, there's the picture module below, I just added 2 pictures from my weekend in Paris in Nov. 2006, want more?

 

There are many modules that I need to check out and see if they can be of any use for me... More to explore, I've just spent a few hours trying to make this thingy work... I spend too much time on my computer playing around when I should be planning my trip to India, better get back to that... Maybe later ;)