Thursday, 24 March 2016
Tierra Del Fuego
Wednesday, 23 March 2016
Good Wind? Again?
And so another adventure starts in the City of Fresh Air, the so-called Paris of the South. Last time I came here I spent my first day trying to find a water park, and as fun as that was I couldn't help but feel that I didn't see he most of Buenos Aires.
This time I spent the day smashing the sights: La Boca, Rosa Casada, Recoleta cemetry, Belgrano: I saw more in one afternoon than I did in the whole time, last time.
In other news:
"That's the biggest steak I've ever seen."
It got devoured: nice to know that I haven't completely lost my edge.
Tuesday, 15 March 2016
A Sleepy Hilltown
2. The trees. They entirely dominate the city. And I don't mean saplings in planters at the side of the road, I mean big, gnarled, haunted-house beasties growing through everything. It creates an atmosphere completely unlike anywhere I've ever been, and I don't say that very often.
Sunday, 13 March 2016
Sacred Cows
Saturday, 12 March 2016
Delhi
Thursday, 10 March 2016
Big B's Bungalow
When I said I was in Mumbai in the last post I was telling a little tiny lie. I was actually in Navi Mumbai. And even that's a bit of an overstatement. I was on a business park in the outskirts of Navi Mumbai. Kind of like saying that you are in London when you are staying at the Boreham Interchange services.
That meant that a lot of my travels were complemented with a side of Mumbai traffic. Now I stand by my previous statement. The traffic isn't as bad as I was expecting - that said I did have high (low?) expectations. However what the traffic lacks in anarchy it makes up for in volume. If you're in the traffic, you're there for two hours. You have to commit to the traffic.
And commit I did. Bandra, Juhu beach, Haji Ali, an unnecessarily western shopping mall: a veritable smorgasbord of Mumbai. And to top it all off, I didn't see The Big B. I'm kind of pleased to have not seen The Big B, it's almost better than if I had seen him. As it stood until yesterday, Gary Neville was in the top three most famous people I'd not seen and he just didn't seem famous enough.
Monday, 7 March 2016
Gateway to India
I'm in Mumbai and I can't help but think that it's been exaggerated somewhat. From what everyone had told me I was expecting full on crazy and it's only delivered common or garden crazy. Like an old man with a big moustache driving a herd of buffalo down the freeway.
I'd been told too expect traffic like nowhere else and so far it's been very busy but not anarchic. Everyone seems to follow some kind of system (even if I don't understand it) and there's not the same sense of peril when crossing roads that I've had elsewhere. Or maybe that's because I'm basing this whole paragraph on a Sunday afternoon.
I'd been expecting it to be Hot. That's capital H Hot. And it's pretty far from cold but doesn't feel sweltering. In fact it feels pretty amazing, bot least because I know it's 37 degrees colder back home.
There are people. Lots of people. But the crowd seems less oppressive because there aren't that many tall people about and in just about every crowd there's someone selling enormous balloons. It's hard to find anything intimidating if it's punctuated by enormous balloons.
The one thing that I had been told which was proved bang right is that I would be a hit down at the Gateway to India. I reckon that more selfies have been taken of me by randoms in the initial ten minute period than I've taken ever. Although admittedly I have set the bar rather low.
I had a bit of a wonder round downtown, the whole area is chock full of massive Indian-tinged Victorian buildings and looks really rather impressive. I aimed at Leopold's, but it turns out it's a trendy coffee shop full of fat westerners eating red velvet cake - that's not where I'm going to become a Mumbai gangster. Surely Shantaram wouldn't lie to me...