India

Mumbai: The City That Will NOT Shock You

March 15, 2012 by Bino 4 Comments

After a really packed trip that took us to four cities in just a week, we now came to (almost) the end of our journey with a final leg in Mumbai. Originally planned to be a transit point only, we ended up spending an entire day there. The city reminds me of many other places, and despite all the Slumdog Millionaire associations, it certainly was not as chaotic as I pictured it to be.

india’s been truly incredible, but i have a grin on my face because i’m finally going home that night!

Mumbai is a humongous city, and perhaps this city has become a poster child for India’s overcrowding problem. Twelve million people are packed into a sprawling metropolis smaller than Metro Manila or Singapore . Despite this, the city can be a lot more pleasant than the other large cities of India, with its wide, tree-lined boulevards, charming Victorian-era colonial buildings, chic bars and restaurants and a long seaside promenade that extends for miles – certainly not a pretext for those expecting something like Slumdog Millionaire, though these places of course do exist. I did not even see a single cow roaming the streets here!
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Following James Bond’s Footsteps in Udaipur

March 11, 2012 by Bino 1 Comment

Having two full days to spend in Jaipur proved to be of no help in shaking off the lingering travel fatigue. Apparently, one is not considered a serious traveler until one has done India and now I realize why people said so. It can sap the energy out of those who don’t fully open their minds to the highs and lows of the Indian experience. And on my sixth day, I was in for another test.

the seemingly floating lake palace on lake pichola

As our next destination was quite far away from Jaipur, we decided to take the train again this time. Because our train departed late that night, we got to witness a different scene at the station, the usual touts and scams aside. Many of the locals practically kept staring at us. Intently. When I said intently, it meant that they stood around 2 feet away as a group and stared with eyes wide open as if I came from outer space! I found it really surprising as this was not at all the case during the previous days. People elsewhere generally seemed impervious to the presence of foreigners as India (or to be more precise, the places we went to) were quite touristy, so this scene at the train station was certainly strange. Then, there were also the rats as big as cats running openly on the train tracks.

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Turning Pink in Jaipur

March 8, 2012 by Bino 7 Comments

If I were to list down the most exotic-sounding city names I have ever heard, Jaipur would be a shoo-in (along with Timbuktu, Ouagadougou, Samarkand and of course, Baghdad). Jaipur – the name alone brings to mind images of maharajas, stately palaces, bearded men with turbans and snake charmers – it’s the quintessential India in the eyes of naive foreigners like me who lack familiarity with the myriad of cultures actually found in this massive country.

more peach than pink… but yeah, i’m in jaipur all right

To be honest, it was not the iconic Taj Mahal in Agra nor the scattered UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Delhi that prodded me to come to India. It is rather the desert state of Rajasthan – a region of colors, festivals and bright architecture – which led me here. And surely, there was no better introduction to this northwestern Indian state than through Jaipur – the pink city, its capital.

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Taj Mahal: A Timeless Monument to Love

March 5, 2012 by Bino 9 Comments

We arrived in Agra at almost 11PM. Coming from my very first train ride on a sleeper car, I just wanted to get to our hotel. But there was one final hurdle.

the taj… a lot more atmospheric early in the day

After leaving the train station, I was immediately accosted by one of the city’s notorious touts. Did I want a taxi? Where was I going to stay? Oh, that hotel is already closed! No, no and no. We just walked on despite his useless inquiries as he tried to impose his choice of accommodation upon us.

We eventually got to our hotel – a relatively simple, if not overrated lodging mere minutes away from the Taj Mahal. This was after all what we came to see. This was why we’re in Agra, to lay our eyes on this gem in the middle of all the mess. A famous Indian poet once called it a “teardrop in the face of eternity” and experts rate it as one of the most beautiful buildings in history. We were about to find out if this white tomb is worth all the hype.

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Delhi: My Absolutely Chaotic Introduction to India

March 3, 2012 by Bino 10 Comments

Even from the very beginning, there was red tape. At the Air Asia X check-in at KLIA, the counter staff asked us for a visa. It seems that not a lot of people use India’s visa-on-arrival facilities so the staff was still thinking twice whether to board us on the flight. But we eventually argued our way through.

chaos!!!

We landed at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Airport after a flight time of approximately 5 hours. Their terminal seriously reminds me of Changi – the carpeting and signage look like they’re copied down to a tee. But I do have to hand it to them – DEL is really pleasing to the eyes. The visa-on-arrival desk is hidden in one of the obscure corners of the terminal and took us a while to find. With only 1 guy manning the booth, it took us nearly an hour to get our visas.

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