Goan masala – Jan 22

The train seemed to be about 90 minutes late, but the superb pantry car made up for it. There was every thing from idli, dosa, samosas to badam milk and ice cream. Yummy. I discovered that the students were not really from India at all, they were from Nepal. They were surprised to know that I had been to Everest Base Camp, judging from my puny frame and growing belly, I suppose. I got down at Karmali (Old Goa) and took a taxi to my hotel in Calangute. My uncle was supposed to join me in Goa that afternoon, but he got delayed by a day due to some unforeseen business. I fixed up with a car rental agency to get a santro for 3 days. Apparently hiring private cars is not allowed, so I wont mention the agency here
I headed to Souza Lobo’s for lunch, and wolfed down prawn papads and prawn curry rice washed down with a few Havana Clubs, of course !  That evening, my uncle called me to say he couldnt make it since he was ill, so here I was in Goa all alone for 3 days ! Anyway, I resolved to not get depressed and made the most of it. That evening, I headed to Britto’s for dinner. It was full of firangs and there was karaoke night on !  It was wonderful, with some elderly firangs really singing some of the songs really well. And yes, Britto’s served Havana Club   Leaving Britto’s in a happy mood, I felt like walking along a beach. Baga seemed rather boring, so I decided to go to Ozran beach, which is also known as Little Vagator. I have some very good memories of that beach. Driving there took a bit of time, and after navigating the bylanes of Anjuna and Vagator, I finally found the spot around midnight. The old restaurant I knew there called Alcove still existed, though it was shutting down for the night. I climbed down the hillside to the beach and all the shacks there were also shut. The sky was looking really beautiful with all stars visible. Just then I saw a shooting star, and promptly made a wish, for the one thing I really wanted. Then I headed back up and drove back, quite happy how the day had gone.

Alcove, Ozran beach

Bombay to Goa – Jan 21

My aunt and cousins had planned to take me out for lunch. We went to a place called Global Fusion in  Bandra. They had mostly Japanese, Chinese and Thai food and the starters and desserts were really good. In the evening, I headed to VT (or CST if you must call it that ) for my 23:05 train to Goa.  I found that there was a large contingent of students who appeared to be from the North East in my 3 tier AC bogie. After a bit of noise, they settled down and all went off to sleep.

Bombay boy – Jan 20

After a quick and super haircut at the neighbourhood saloon, I headed to Colaba by train. After the high security of the Delhi Metro, Bombay locals seemed such an easy terror target. I found myself looking constantly at the luggage racks for possible bombs and for suspicious faces in the first class compartment, normally the target of many attacks. I met up with old friends from my bank days at Cafe Mondegar and then at Cafe Leopold, which incidentally still has one window maintained with bullet holes from that  the 26/11 attacks. The food at Leopold was ordinary, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that both places served Hoegaarden beer, my favourite ! I said adieu to my pals, strolled round to the Taj and then met another friend at a chai place near Churchgate. Then I headed home before the evening office rush started. Dinner was to be with more bank friends who lived in Khar, and we ended up going to Yoko Sizzlers, an old joint near my old house. The rest of the night was spent chatting and I ended up staying at their house.

Hoegaarden @ Cafe Mondegar

The Taj Mahal hotel, Bombay

Mumbai – Jan 19

I didnt do much except relax at home and visit more relatives. The constant travelling of the last 2 weeks (not to mention the strain of playing bridge for hours every day) was taking its toll.

All quiet on the western front – Jan 18

The last day of the GITA trip with the full gang. After a good rest, we woke up for breakfast and then headed off to the airport, not before a few games of bridge on the terrace of Arya Niwas. We found our flight almost empty, so we managed 4 aisle seats opposite each other and promptly continued our bridge championships till the plane reached Mumbai, where I got off

playing bridge on SpiceJet

I took an autorickshaw from the airport and it took me via our old house in Bombay and I was surprised to see the tall building come up in its place. I reached my uncle’s house in Carter Road and went for a walk with my aunt and uncle in Jogger’s Park opposite their house. The Bandra-Worli sea link bridge was visible in the distance, and it seems its completion is delayed by 6 months till  June. They took me to China Garden for dinner, supposed to be Mumbai’s best chinese restaurant.  The food was okay.

Jaipur – Jan 17

We reached Jaipur around 7 am and went off in search of hotels. Since tourist arrivals were so abysmal, we got good deals and offers. We settled on Arya Niwas and it turned out to be a good decision. The hotel was neat, clean and very reasonable. After a bit of rest, we hired a car and visited a few sights – Hawa Mahal (ordinary), Amber Fort (decent) and Jantar Mantar (better than the  Delhi one, which is like a public toilet). In the evening, we went to Chokhi Dhani, an “ethnic village”, which was basically a restaurant with a mela thrown in for good measure. The food was very ordinary and I would recommend it only for firangs or those with chidren.

View from Amber Fort

Chittorgarh – Jan 16

The plan was to go to Chittorgarh fort today, which was 100 km away. The fort was first built in around 700 AD and then subsequently improved on upto 1540 or so, when Rana Udai Singh moved his capital from Chittor to Udaipur. In the 13th century, Rani Padmini committed suicide here, rather than submit to Alauddin Khilji. The fort was in ruins, but it looked very impressive and the history recounted by the guide kept us interested.

Rani Padmini Mahal, Chittorgarh

City Palace by night

After a short stop for razai shopping, we had a quick lunch and went back to Udaipur. That evening we had to catch our train to Jaipur, so we had an early dinner at Ambrai, which had a good view of both the Lake and City palaces from the opposite bank of Lake Pichola. For this train journey, we had 2 tier AC berths and promptly began our bridge game

Udaipur – Jan 15

We woke up leisurely and set off for the City Palace, a short walk away. It is the home of the house of Mewar, the world’s longest running dynasty. One third of the palace is closed to the public since the current Maharana lives there. Of course, he isnt known as a Maharana now. The palace was quite interesting to see and we took a lot of photos. We then had lunch, played the Udaipur Test of the bridge championships, then took a boat ride round the Lake Palace (a Taj hotel and not open for non-hotel guests) and to Jag Mandir, another hotel with a restaurant open to the public. Both the Lake Palace and Jag Mandir are built on islands in Lake Pichola. Next we hired a car and driver and went to the Monsoon Palace, which is on top of a hill overlooking Udaipur. It was really disappointing and not worth the trip, so we made up for it by having a quick game of bridge at the coffee shop there

City Palace

Lake Palace

Jag Mandir

That evening, we decided to try some bhang, having being denied it in Jaisalmer. We were told that near the Jagdish temple, there was a shop that sold it. It was very close to our hotel, and we went there to find there was a police station near the temple and walking distance from it, there was the bhang shop !  It was served with thandai, so it was pretty refreshing. One friend and I had a strong helping and the other two just had a bit. Then we went off shopping. It was an hour before it hit us. That whole evening was spent in uncontrollable laughter, it was so funny, I smile every time I think of it.

Jodhpur – Jan 14

We had asked for an early pick up to go back to Jaisalmer since we intended to take a vehicle and drive all the way to Udaipur that day. By 9 we were back in a hotel and washing up. By 11 we were on the road, which would take us 278 km to Jodhpur, where we would stop and see the fort and have lunch before heading off to Udaipur. The driver turned out to be a stern looking old man, who when I asked him how long the trip would take, said “When you get into a car, you shouldnt ask when we will reach”. But the roads were so awesome, We made the trip in just over 3 hours, averaging around 90 kmph !  After a pathetic lunch at a “good reataurant” recommended by the driver, we headed to Mehrangarh Fort, which turned out to be magnificent. It was well maintained and had guides, audio tours and even a nice gift shop. After roaming in the fort for 2 hours, we set off for Udaipur at 5:30 pm. This road wasnt that good and had a lot of traffic, so we ended up reaching our hotel, at Lal Ghat on the banks of Lake Pichola at 11:30 pm.

Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur

The non-touristy desert safari – Jan 13

The desert safari started at around 11 am with us each getting onto a camel. Ah yes, we first drove some 40km due west to meet the camel caravan. Roads in Rajasthan are very good and the ones near the border even better. We had elected to take the “non-touristy” safari and stay overnight in the desert, as against the “touristy” one which involves only a one hour camel ride, visits to villages for “folk dances” and then a stay in a fancy camp with “swiss tent” accomodation. Our non-touristy safari began with an hour’s ride, then a stop for lunch (made by the camel drivers) and bridge, then another hour’s ride, stop for water for the camels, then a final hour into the dunes.

We stopped to camp and while the camel drivers got the evening meal ready, we walked among the dunes and took a lot of snaps.

on the dunes

After sunset, it became dark and cold and we had dinner by 7 pm. A campfire was started soon after and by 9 we decided to go to sleep. We were given a thick razai to sleep on and one more to cover. However, they proved rather short and inadequate as we would learn later. I managed to drift off to sleep after a long while and suddenly awoke thinking it musts be atleast 4 am…. but my friends (who were all wide awake) said it was only 12 !! The next 6 hours passed VERY slowly.. and we all the while cursed our decision to take the “non-touristy” safari.